Finding slippage.

Wrestling with philosophical concepts, and trying to figure out how to bring these into my new work is making me feel a bit like I am lost in a maze...
A few posts ago, I said that I would be sharing images and artists that may be influencing the next phase of my work. What is the next phase?
Foolishly, perhaps, I am endeavoring to explore ideas surrounding religion and science.
What?
Yeah.
This is such a wide subject, and as I mentioned in my last post, it's super easy to get distracted!

Science is so fascinating and so diverse, that each area I investigate seems to take me down a new rabbit hole.

This image, of a part of the Milky Way really needs to be viewed large scale to full get a sense of what you are looking at. The Hubble site is full of utterly amazing images of space that serve to illustrate how unbelievably tiny we are.
Talk about macro / micro ideas.... (phwoah!)

The ideas of religion and faith are controversial, beautiful and nostalgic, and while I personally am of a secular, scientific bent, I am also influenced by my love of magic, fairy tales and cultural traditions. And I love the visual material generated by religious festivals and icons...

This crucifix, loaded with crudely set gems, is labled: Ardennenkreuz (croce processionale), francia del nord o germania occ.le, 825-850 ca.  This is also typical of the style of work that I always imagined making as a child, and indeed, today I still cherish the thought that I might be able to create some form of talisman as weighty as this!

The things that I am trying to maintain a focus on are the personal, internal tensions created by a religious upbringing, and a scientific understanding (or at least, acceptance) of the universe.
The slippage between faith or a belief in something "other" and in the secular, scientific nature of the universe.

Timothy Horn is a sculptor who works with the idea of slippage. His work looks at "the meeting point between the natural and constructed worlds" (to quote from his Bio).

Gorgonia (detail) 2010, mirrored blown glass, nickel-plated bronze, 84 x 60 x 6 1/2 inches.
Private collection, La Jolla, CA