© Tatyana Bessmertnaya, 2009
To my parents, the best teachers in my life.
Sometimes, the slightest sympathy
Will send the soul soaring into the sky,
Surpassing slopes and summits.
…Like the slender sunflower which sights,
And then seeks,
To snare the sun’s scintillating* shine.
Sadly, poetry is not considered the universal method of communication. Words need understanding. Words need translation. Words tend to lose meaning in translation. On the contrary, visual art, though it may be of an unfamiliar language, nevertheless allows the viewer to connect, if not to completely understand, then at least to get a glimpse into the ways of another culture. Dance and music possess this same attribute.
There is yet another universal language that is the same for everyone under the sun. It lies outside the art. It is the language of pure science.
About my art making process
I used fresh sunflowers to represent sunlight, and sunlight to light the flowers. The formulas in the background represent equations of photon energy and optic physics. I shot the pictures on medium format film, scanned and assembled them in Photoshop, and printed them on velvet paper, nice to the touch and pleasant to the eye.
* To sparkle or shine