Perhaps “unexpected inspiration” is redundant since I have no idea how to plan inspiration! I am grateful for the ever-expanding frontiers of science that provide artistic inspiration and for Google that links me to it!
However, there are some images from my inner travels though my imagination that I know I either cannot reproduce due to lack of skill or lack of patience and willingness to take the extensive time to do it. Being a not so closet sci-fi fan, I love vistas of space. I have a bookmark for the A.P.O.D. (Astronomy Picture of the Day) photos. which are part of my daily inspiration search.
This dovetails with my slightly obsessive focus on the spiritual journey of the soul and what my inner eyes and my heart envision that to be. Here is a painting where I wanted to include “worlds without end” impression. I do not have the patience for the detail I see within.
I have searched for months, perhaps years, for images that reflect “worlds without end” and reflect what might be the inner realms and inner heavenly vistas. I have always found it hard to match what I see inside with what I have found available – perhaps until now.
Last week there was a posting on Facebook which I can no longer find. That was the unexpected inspiration that led to this week’s Heart Haiku and the associated digital image.
The story was a link to an article, videos and maps created by scientists describing what they are calling a giant supercluster and have named it “Laniakea, the home of Earth’s Milky Way galaxy and many others”. This is an image (linked) from a YouTube video by Nature Video if you want to see more. I love this stuff!
That led me on an extensive google search and found that Laniakea is Hawaiian for “immeasurable heaven”. In Wikipedia they described “The Great Attractor” as “a gravitational anomaly in intergalactic space at the center of the Laniakea Supercluster”. That supercharged my inspiration!
I was moved and inspired to take one of the renderings I found of the supercluster mapping of what they say are the gravitational waves of Laniakea and play with it to reflect the inner journey into worlds without end…..immeasurable heaven indeed! This is what I started with. I cannot find the source to give the team of scientists the credit for the mapping image.
Then I played with some layers and filters on Photoshop…..adding an earth image, my winged heart (a Photoshop process all in itself), and experimented with various tools. Following my own directive to color on purpose, I had fun exploring new ways to do that.
Then settling on some filters, adding an earth image and some golden light…..to the “great attractor” and added a haiku:
Dedicated to those we have loved who have left the earth realm before us.