We live in a NeuroMorphic Universe.
Before the time of my MFA in studio art master thesis, I created a world which I called ‘The NeuroMorphic Universe’. In 2004 a family experience that was extremely painful and was disturbing to my reality occurred. It propelled me to think about existence and what it all meant. It inspired me to create the NeuroMorphic Universe/Saxa Loquuntur series as a conceptual platform. As a biologist and physician I am aware that we are all connected physically by our environment/ecological system, and also by social networks/interactions that are a product of the times we live in. All my work over the years has been influenced by the philosophy of a NeuroMorphic Universe. In essence NeuroMorphic is a part of many of my projects in one form or another. Of note is that in some of this work I use crochet as a metaphor for connection, networks, or simply my ‘the hand is the mind’ statements in my work. Most of the time this appears in solo exhibitions that allow me to do this, but crochet/knitting is also part of individual works.
As a physician I was aware of how Sigmund Freud developed his theory of the unconscious mind. Freud was fascinated by archaeological digs and how these unearthed hidden objects that were previously unknown. Thus, for me these NeuroMorphic trees with their visible roots were immersed in ‘stones’. These stones could be dug up and unearthed. This symbolized making the invisible visible, or the unknown going from the unconscious to the conscious by excavation of our minds; the knowing of ‘self’. Thus saxa loquuntuur (the stones speak) became a part of my NeuroMorphic.
I also created the very small eye-I figurines as avatars for my unconscious as well as infectious agents in a society where ‘words are seeds’, and a world filled with ‘germs’ that are part of our natural survival. As a physician I worked on emergency preparedness for pandemics as well as bio-terrorism preparedness ( I wrote the first draft of the CRI – SNS for the state NH – the City Readiness Initiative -Strategic National Stockpile).
The eye figurines that I made during this time evolved into very large figurative paintings which were presented as a solo exhibition in 2021 at a small independent museum in Salisbury NC (Eye am Witness – Paintings for Children are in a separate page because though they are a part of the NeuroMorphic Universe, they also evolved beyond it).
My MFA in studio art thesis exhibition was titled: “In a NeuroMorphic Universe Saxa Loquuntur by Hand and by Machine” For a link to that exhibition click here.
A solitary project in 2010 which used the Neuromorphic Universe imagery can be seen here.
For more information refer to ABOUT and Ideas on Art
More NeuroMorphic drawings
