This direction came from a short, lucid dream I had recently.
I was hired to paint a large Eye of Horus symbol on the wall of the tomb of an Egyptian Pharaoh. I had beautiful gold leaf, adhesive and high quality paints and brushes at my disposal-the perfect tools for the job. Two Egyptians who were supervising the work came up to me to talk. “We’re glad you traveled here from your own time. When you’re done, you can just go back there. We won’t have to kill you. The local artisans have to be eliminated when their work is complete” The other nodded in agreement and said “That’s right, we’d rather not do that, so we’re glad you’re from another time.” I enthusiastically assured them that I was happy to do the work, and I’d do a good job.
“What are you painting now, in your own time, if you don’t mind telling us?” Somehow I had a recent painting with me and I handed it over.
“I’m painting mandalas. I’ve been doing that for a while.” Both looked at the brightly colored symmetrical painting and nodded.
One handed back the painting to me. “This is good, but it’s not a mandala.”
I said no, actually it was. Tired and mildly impatient, one of them replied “No, no you’re not painting mandalas. You’re painting the Large Hadron Collider.”
“What?”
“The particle accelerator in Geneva. You’ve painted its image– from the inside.”
After waking up, I wondered. I got out my laptop and did an image search of the particle accelerator. I noticed that the inside of the accelerator, the tunnel in which the collisions take place, does in fact look like a mandala. I didn’t know that. I thought it would be a good starting point for a painting series, and this is the first painting.
I’m less interested in symmetry. The next painting will be based on the point where the tunnel turns, creating a kind of asymmetrical half moon at the picture’s center. The destination, hidden from view, seems to symbolize future realizations hidden beneath the event horizon of rational apprehension—the place where inspiration resides.