Thursday, August 28, 2014

Elizabeth Busey prints of Spirals In Nature

Images posted with the permission of the artist. More about Busey's work can be found on her website and blog.
The whole universe is based on rhythms. Everything happens in circles, in spirals. 
-John Hartford 
I'm interested in spirals lately, inspired by the amazing wood engravings by Beth Krommes that I discovered in the picture book Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature. This summer, spirals were the theme for the collographs made by my students.

Below are Busey's brief statements associated with these three images (in quotes) followed by my responses.


Ship of Pearl


"Growing in the cool, deep waters of the Pacific, a chambered nautilus expands its shell home in a perfect logarithmic spiral."


I stand at the top of a staircase. There is nothing particularly interesting about this floor itself. The fiery steps, luscious like slices of sashimi, are where it's at. If I dare to step, I've no doubt I will shrink like Alice, and enter a whole new world of wonder in the infinite below.


Great Unknown

"A swirl of larger and smaller light particles form our conception of the Milky Way Galaxy. Scientists theorize that the galaxy is a spiral shape, with a bar of brilliant light at the core."


Caught: a single, still moment in the galaxy's restless dance. Purple streaks drag across the blackness of space like strokes of paint in Van Gogh's Starry Night. Dots of yellow confetti swarm in the center, while others of a greater variety of hue float on the edges around a swirl that reminds me of the skirt of a Flamenco dancing woman. I feel the burning sensation in her breast. 


Captured

"A spider web captures perfect orbs of water. The web is the universal spiral seen in everything from galaxies to seashells." 


The dew at dawn makes visible this trap. Beads glisten and seem as hard and permanent as stone, each it's own contained world. The faint lines of the web appear deceptively delicate. So lovely is this harbinger of doom.





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