June 29, 2014

The Windings To and Fro

“I know that I am mortal by nature, and ephemeral; but when I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies I no longer touch the earth with my feet.” -Ptolemy, Ptolemy’s Almagest While I am a also a fan of work more scientifically accurate in nature, the imaginative leap [...]

By Glendon Mellow

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"I know that I am mortal by nature, and ephemeral; but when I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies I no longer touch the earth with my feet."
-Ptolemy, Ptolemy's Almagest

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While I am a also a fan of work more scientifically accurate in nature, the imaginative leap of the universe swirling around the viewer's fixed position in Lucy Jain's newest painting immediately caught my eye when she posted it on Facebook recently.

Is this a vantage point on Earth, or closer to the center of the Milky Way? Are the branches getting pulled in, or is that an artifact of the viewer's position? Are we in any real way the center of our own universes? Or we simply caught up in the "windings to and fro" of the universe's unfolding trajectory?

Soon, students will be able to ponder these and other questions while enjoying this painting: it's eventual destination is a science classroom at a school for boys where Jain will be working as a science teaching assistant. Bringing the mysteries of the dancing night into the classroom.

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