Stars
Under the breath of pure white stars
Pupils stretch till black expanse
Mirrors true dark, true shadow:
The black beyond.
The dying light of collapsing stars,
The decay rate of all time,
Gasping beneath its atmosphere.
Gravity holding your hand and
Holding you down.
Crushing space and the infinite.
Eyes wide,
Minuscule and present
Aware of a moment beyond instants
Breath shared by starlight,
Glowing alive,
A limit approaching zero,
Glowing forever,
An end, An end, or never at all
Oil on Canvas
36 x 36”
While studying astronomy, I have developed a habit of looking up at the stars, and I have become obsessed with the deep, inky, almost tangible blackness of a dark night sky. After seeing the milky way for the first time, I wanted to paint the way looking at the stars made me feel. The resulting painting, Stars, is a 36 by 36 inch canvas covered in black paint and shaped by interlacing fields of blue, red, and gray. Through each gap in its colorful web, like the antinodes of gas clouds, a field of stars pokes through, interacting with the broader shape of the composition. I hoped to not only convey the realness of space and stars, but to do so through the lens of human experience.