They're not all dead yet...The video is regarding the gift of quotes sent to me by my good friend and artist Caroline Richards. They are an inspiration and the video is showing the development of layering, compositions of words upon the words and how these transform into the artists silhouetted against the light of their wisdom. This is my way of expressing the absorption and assimilation of their words in this moving image art piece. Art & Philosophy Quotes
“Art, freedom and creativity will change society faster than politics.” Victor Pinchuk “Being an artist isn't just about making nice things, or people patting you on the back; it's some kind of communication, a message.” Tracey Emin “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” Pablo Picasso “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it.” Martha Graham “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” Edgar Degas “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way... things I had no words for.” Georgia O’Keeffe “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” Scott Adams “Creativity is an act of defiance.” Twyla Tharp “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.“ Aristotle “Objective painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense. A hill or tree cannot make a good painting just because it is a hill or tree. It is lines and colors put together so that they may say something.” Georgia O’Keeffe “There's nothing more superficial to do than to paint a beautiful woman. The most beautiful portraits in art were of ugly women. If you paint Brigitte Bardot, it's a disaster. Sunsets, you have to stay away from sunsets. You paint a sunset, you are in great danger.” Fernando Botero “For me nature is not landscape, but the dynamism of visual forces.. an event rather than an appearance. These forces can only be tackled by treating color and form as ultimate identities, freeing them from all descriptive or functional roles.” Bridget Riley “If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” Vincent Van Gogh “De Kooning is my main man, really, because he just did everything you can do with paint. He reversed it, dripped it, scraped it. But I want to hold on to a certain amount of reality.” Jenny Saville “Technology is a compulsive and addictive way to live. Verbal communication cannot be lost because of a lack of skill. The ability to listen and learn is key to mastering the art of communication. If you don't use your verbal skills and networking, it will disappear rapidly. Use technology wisely.” Rick Pitino “The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there is free time or if one can afford it. Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion, design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation.” Michelle Obama “Personality is everything in art and poetry.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “Find something you really love doing and mix it with something you really care about. That’s why I’ve had such longevity as an artist. I really, really care about ending violence against women, and I really, really love playing music. It’s super enjoyable!” Kathleen Hanna (Punk singer and activist) “One eye sees, the other feels.” Paul Klee “Use your faults, use your defects; then you’re going to be a star.” Edith Piaf. “To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” Elliott Erwitt “Everybody’s an artist. Everybody’s God. It’s just that they’re inhibited.” Yoko Ono “I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things.” Henri Matisse “You will have to experiment and try things out for yourself and you will not be sure of what you’re doing. That’s alright, you’re feeling your way into the thing.” Emily Carr “Personality is everything in art and poetry.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” Dorothea Lange “I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own.” Jackson Pollock “...to feel simply that's a chair, that's a table, and yet at the same time, It's a miracle, it's an ecstasy.” Virginia Woolf “Pop Art looks out into the world. It doesn't look like a painting of something, it looks like the thing itself.” Roy Lichtenstein “Doing brings happiness. Too much time for discussion - discord.” Theresa Sjoquist “Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.“ William Bernbach “In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth.” Patti Smith “We have art in order not to die of the truth.” Friedrich Nietzsche “The main thing is to care. Care very hard, even if it is only a game you are playing.” Billie Jean King “My art is an attempt to reach beyond the surface appearance. I want to see growth in wood, time in stone, nature in a city...” Andy Goldsworthy “Great art picks up where nature ends.” Marc Chagall “Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike.” Margot Fonteyn “Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.” Pablo Picasso “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” Billie Jean King “Art is what you can get away with.” Andy Warhol “Never limit yourself because of others’ imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination.” Mae Jemison “Colour is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.” Claude Monet “You did not wake up today to be mediocre.” Anonymous “Art is not about thinking something up. It is the opposite -- getting something down.” Julia Cameron “Paint the essential character of things.” Camille Pissarro “Art has always been the raft onto which we climb to save our sanity. I don't see a different purpose for it now.” Dorothea Tanning “Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.” Frederic Chopin “You should keep on painting no matter how difficult it is, because this is all part of experience, and the more experience you have, the better it is... unless it kills you, and then you know you have gone too far.” Alice Neel “In visual perception a color is almost never seen as it really is - as it physically is. This fact makes color the most relative medium in art.” Josef Albers “Serious art is born from serious play.” Julia Cameron “Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do.” Edgar Degas “With Pastel you don't have the brush between you and the surface. Your hand is making the picture. It's almost like being a sculptor. You are making the person. It’s very tactile. And lovely because it's very difficult, learning what colours to use together to make shadows and so on. It's wonderful to do.” Paula Rego “Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television.” Woody Allen “If I knew what the picture was going to be like I wouldn’t make it. It was almost like it was made already... the challenge is more about trying to make what you can’t think of.” Cindy Sherman “You don't take a photograph, you make it.” Ansel Adams “The camera was another weapon in the wars of domination.” Lucy R. Lippard “It's not new that architecture can profoundly affect a place, sometimes transform it. Architecture and any art can transform a person, even save someone.” Frank Gehry Being an artist is about creative freedom. I want to save the world and that’s why social commentary is always present in my work. It’s easy to live with your eyes shut but that’s not fulfilling or helpful to the world.” Bambi (graffiti artist) “Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” Oscar Wilde “Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.” Anais Nin “History has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed; art has remembered the people, because they created.” William Morris “Like any artist without an art form, she became dangerous.” Toni Morrison “Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change – it can not only move us, it makes us move.” Ossie Davis “When you're socially awkward, you're isolated more than usual, and when you're isolated more than usual, your creativity is less compromised by what has already been said and done. All your hope in life starts to depend on your craft, so you try to perfect it. One reason I stay isolated more than the average person is to keep my creativity as fierce as possible. Being the odd one out may have its temporary disadvantages, but more importantly, it has its permanent advantages.” Criss Jami “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” Cesar A. Cruz (and again by Banksy) “There is nothing new except what has been forgotten.” Marie Antoinette “A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.” Paul Cezanne “A poor original is better than a good imitation.” Ella Wheeler Wilcox “If you're not trying to be real, you don't have to get it right. That's art.” Andy Warhol “Travel is the only context in which some people ever look around. If we spent half the energy looking at our own neighborhoods, we'd probably learn twice as much.” Lucy R. Lippard “Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” Jonathan Swift “Consider everything an experiment.” Corita Kent “There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.” Pablo Picasso “I am an artist you know ... it is my right to be odd.” E. A. Bucchianeri “Art is in the eye of the beholder, and everyone will have their own interpretation.” E.A. Bucchianeri “A work of art is above all an adventure of the mind.” Eugene Ionesco “Art is a process, not a product.” MaryAnn F. Kohl “Most artists are surrealists. … always dreaming something and then they paint it.” Dong Kingman “They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” Frida Kahlo “Art is either revolution or plagiarism.” Paul Gauguin “Stop trying to be less of who you are.” Jennifer Elizabeth “The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing.” Eugene Delacroix “It took me years to learn to sit at my desk for more than two minutes at a time, to put up with the solitude and the terror of failure, and the godawful silence and the white paper. And now that I can take it . . . now that I can finally do it . . . I'm really raring to go.” Erica Jong “Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” Andy Warhol “When Van Gogh was a young man in his early twenties, he was in London studying to be a clergyman. He had no thought of being an artist at all. he sat in his cheap little room writing a letter to his younger brother in Holland, whom he loved very much. He looked out his window at a watery twilight, a thin lampost, a star, and he said in his letter something like this: "it is so beautiful I must show you how it looks." And then on his cheap ruled note paper, he made the most beautiful, tender, little drawing of it……But the moment I read Van Gogh's letter I knew what art was, and the creative impulse. It is a feeling of love and enthusiasm for something, and in a direct, simple, passionate and true way, you try to show this beauty in things to others, by drawing it.” Brenda Ueland “Every form of art is another way of seeing the world. Another perspective, another window.” Claudia Gray “We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.” Pablo Picasso “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” Anais Nin. “Being an artist means drawing inspiration from my own experiences and the things that I am passionate about, things that upset or anger me” Tatyana Fazlalizadeh “Carolee Schneemann’s art is not made for your comfort” interview Pipilotti Rist "My work became a bridge that had to be crossed by young feminists working with their bodies," Carolee Schneemann ''Yes is More'' Bjarke Ingels “[F]irst of all, we really need to care about the people we are designing for, understand what their dreams and desires and priorities are, and then we have to use that understanding as the driving force of the work we put forward, because the second we know what questions … are important, then all we have to do is answer them.” ― Bjarke Ingels
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In 2012 Professor Derek Jones team at Cardiff University’s Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC) offered to scan my brain. Following the scan I had my first look at Diffusion Tensor imaging (DTi). In bright spectral colours, neuroscience seems to give use the blueprints we need to draw the architecture of the mind. I was hooked. I feel that the freedom of artistic expression allows us to give form to cognition, using the smallest vibration and most detailed structures within us as source material. In this vein, I think of the words of Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944): It is never literally true that any form is meaningless and ‘says nothing’. Every form in the world says something. But its message often fails to reach us, and even if it does, full understanding is often withheld from us. And, properly speaking, form is the outward expression of this inner meaning. - The language of Form and Colour : Concerning the Spiritual in Art
Upon seeing a diffusion tensor imaging (DTi) scan of my brain for the first time (represented in “Saggital Self Portrait”), I wondered about the relationship between the real structures within the brain, and the pure abstract expressions that Kandinsky is concerned with. In his painting 'Picture With White Border', I personally can see a sagittal view of the brain, with many structures recognisable within. Is there a relationship between 'Picture With White Border' and my painting 'Sagittal Self Portrait 2013'? Did he mirror his mind on canvas? As he put it, ‘Is form an outward expression of inner meaning?’ NEW SIGNALS does not attempt to answer these existential questions. But these existential ideas form part of my journey and creative process. MINDSCAPE I chose Zoe Cormier, an author and science writer , to be the face to represent MINDSCAPE. Cormier has a minor form of epilepsy, and Dr Leandro Beltrachini’s research at CUBRIC involves creating mathematical models to improve the medical care of epilepsy. I therefore took the view that Cormier would be an interesting person to speak to about how her seizures colour her experiences of the world. I travelled from Cardiff to London to gain insights into her perspective. You can see my sketches of her on the NEW SIGNALS image page and here.  These are visual expressions of how she describes her seizures: “It feels as though the connection between myself and my personality is severed. I can’t remember having ever been happy or imagine being happy ever again.” I incorporated the visual data provided by Dr Leandro Beltrachini and Dr Kevin Murphy with Zoe’s perspective in mind. The outcome: MINDSCAPE, a multi-layered landscape of the mind that depicts EEG recordings, tractography maps, MRi machines, and the structure of blood vessels. ILLUMINATED TRACTOGRAPHY My collaborators and I decided to celebrate tractography – a method of mapping the nerve cell tracts in the brain by measuring the movement of water molecules as they travel along neurons - with my CUBRIC collaborator, Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neuroscience at Cardiff University Dr Emma Tallantrye. We arranged to extract tractography data from the 3T MRi Connectome using the 'ExploreDTi' programme, which processes the data gathered in tractography. We enlisted the help of Alex Goodall, an intern with the local NHS trust who was working with CUBRIC to improve his technical skills with ‘ExploreDTi’. Working closely with Goodall, Dr Tallantrye and I collected a variety of different views of each of the tractography maps using the ExploreDTi programme. This allowed us to turn the nerve cell tracts into spaghetti-like tubes using toggled lighting effects, giving shadows and highlights to each tract, creating texture and life. The map became soaked in hues of red, green, blue and a whole rainbow of colours in between, each colour relating to one direction in the three-dimensional space 3-D space traversed by water molecules. Here are a selection of the stunning Regions of Interest (ROIs) we created together. We decided to use a Lightbox to display the art – the same device used in hospitals to illuminate X-rays and MRi scans. We printed the artwork onto transparent film using state-of-the-art processing at Wave Design to Print Ltd to ensure the depth of hues, tones and gradients. These are so fine, that no trace of ink can be seen, even under a magnifying glass.  An enormous amount of research, ideas and time go into every project I am involved with - and NEW SIGNALS is no exception.
The whole journey has been so challenging and so stimulating, I will probably still be discussing it in years to come. It is another chapter in my journey merging art and science. Thankfully, the NEW SIGNALS story is not over yet: all the artsci works will eventually be placed on permanent display at the CUBRIC centre in Cardiff. Plus, over the next few years a touring exhibtion of all the works commissioned from myself and other artists will be toured around the UK before they then take their final resting place at CUBRIC. For now I would to give special acknowledgements to... Director Professor Derek Jones for inviting me to participate in the project, and for all the conversations and encouragement he gave me I had over the years since 2012. Project Manager Ying Lin Wellcome Trust Strategic Award WTSA for all the advice, patiences, understanding and recommendations. Editor Zoe Cormier, for making sense of my words, sharing her experiences and allowing me to make her a part of MINDSCAPE. Scientists Dr Leandro Beltrachini of the Brain Imaging Group in the School of Physics and Astronomy, and Dr Kevin Murphy, Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow. I want to thank them both for our conversations and for explaining their research. Researchers Dr Emma Tallantyre, Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neuroscience at the School of Medicine, and Alex Goodall of the Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust. I am thankful to both for their enthusiasm, for sharing their research, and for creating beautiful tractography images. Scientist Fabrizio Fasano, Collaboration Scientist at Siemens Healthineers and CUBRIC. I want to thank him for sharing his research and conversations. And to The PROVIDI Lab, headed by Alexander Leemans, which focuses on processing, analyzing, and visualizing diffusion MRI data for investigating microstructural and architectural characteristics of tissue organization. I have not yet had the pleasure to meet Alexander yet, but I would like to thank him for giving me permission to integrate PROVIDI Lab images into NEW SIGNALS. 
I have been creating pieces in the genre known as “artsci” since 2012, when I first met Professor Derek Jones, Director of the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Center (CUBRIC) at a local art exhibition where his team present their visual data – images of the brain – as art.
This inspired me to bring scientific ideas to life through my painting and illustrations. For the past six years I have been commissioned to create and exhibit a range of artsci pieces that explore subjects ranging from neuroscience to magnetism and astronomy. I find the beauty in the data irresistible. Memory Sketches of Conversations at CUBRIC in 2012...
For all of my commissions, I have worked closely with scientists to understand their research and incorporate their ideas into my work. These collaborations have had a profound influence on my perspectives of how we experience our existence.
I have been lucky enough to have a glimpse of the potential of the research at CUBRIC. Inspired by their incredible images of the brain, with every new piece of knowledge I gain from my collaborators, I find myself meditating on the composition of thoughts themselves. Such as the “spin echo” of a hydrogen atom’s proton as it vibrates inside a magnetic resonance imaging (MRi) machine. Or how through “tractography” we can map the nerve cell tracts in the brain by measuring the movement of water molecules as they travel along neurons, pushed by magnetic fields. In a way, it feels like we can see the shape of our minds, and I find it incredible and very inspiring. A selection of visual data from CUBRIC...
Provide by Alex Leemans of
PROcessing & VIsualization in Diffusion Imaging (PROVIDI) Lab http://www.providi-lab.org/image-gallery.html
Research in the macro scale and the micro scale into the anatomy of the brain lies on spectrum so vast, it seems the deeper one delves into the structure of the mind, the further down the axons we fly into a profusion of probabilities. It blows my mind.
The colours seen in diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scans and tractography images are not just pretty to look at: each hue represents one direction in the three-dimensional space in which echoing protons flip with magnetic pulses. With each pulse, they move along, through, in and out of axons, white matter, grey matter and the vortices of the brain. I find these to be incredibly beautiful in their own right. I have create many artsci work regarding DTi. Selection of macro diffussion tensor artsci works in pen and ink and oil on canvas:
One portion of my work on New Signals for CUBRIC involved collaborating with Dr Leandro Beltrachini and Professor Kevin Murphy of the Brain Imaging Group in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University. Over several months starting in January 2017, I met with them to discuss their ideas and research, which I assimilated into my work.
Leandro explained to me how he works with electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors, magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanners, and the university’s new 3T connectome scanner to map the microstructures of the brain. With these he develops “numerical models for representing physical processes in arbitrary domains and conditions” – a complex way to describe something known as the “forward problem” .
Kevin is uses the aging process as a model to understand altered vasculature – how veins and arteries change, and how that affects an entire organ. He is developing neuroimaging tools we can use to assess the health of the cerebrovascular system – the veins, capillaries and arteries within the brain. In January 2017 he explained to me how his work on brain blood vessels and their relationship to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.
I also collaborated with Dr Emma Tallantyre, Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neuroscience at Cardiff University, whom I was introduced to by CUBRIC’s Project Manager Ying Lin of the Wellcome Trust. Emma can be seen in this video: Cardiff Brain Scanner from Paper Cow on Vimeo. Emma can be seen in this video at 2:44 discussing a scan with a volunteer in July 2017. In this video, we can see some of the first highly detailed scans from the new 3T microstructure scanner. It was very inspiring to witness. We were also joined by Alex Goodall, an intern from the NHS Trust, who was there to improve his technical skills with the ‘ExploreDTi’ programme, which processes the data gathered in tractography. NEW SIGNALS funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Cardiff is home to one of the country’s most prestigious neuroscience institutes, the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Center (CUBRIC) a powerhouse of brilliant minds and cutting edge technology that aims to bring together world-leading expertise in brain mapping with the very latest in brain imaging and brain stimulation. Their goal is to “understand brain and behaviour in health and disease through advanced imaging and cognitive methods” – but they also extend their work beyond the walls of the lab and into the realm of the studio. CUBRIC commissioned three artists, of which I was one, to create “artsci” works that celebrate and reflect the research and images they produce. Through various mediums, each artist produced works inspired by the work of brilliant researchers, who collaborated with every artist to help them appreciate and communicate specific scientific concepts. My work, a project we titled NEW SIGNALS, is finally complete. I would like to thank all the collaborators I had the pleasure to work with: - Dr Leandro Beltrachini, Brain Imaging Group, School of Physics and Astronomy - Professor Kevin Murphy Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow, - Dr Emma Tallantyre, Clinical Senior Lecturerin the Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neuroscience in the School of Medicine and - Alex Goodall of the Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust I also had awe-inspiring exchanges with Fabrizio Fasano, Collaboration Scientist at Siemens Healthineers, advice from CUBRIC Ying Lin, Wellcome Trust Strategic Award WTSA and CUBRIC Project Manager and feedback and encouragement from the Director Professor Derek Jones of CUBRIC These are the results of two years of research, collaboration and inspiration... MINDSCAPE  Mindscape 150cm x 180cm Acrylic on Canvas 2018 Collaborators: Dr. Leandro Beltrachini and Dr. Kevin Murphy Professor Matt Griffin, Head of the School of Physics and Astronomy, recommended Dr Beltrachini and Dr Murphy to work with me for my NEW SIGNALS project. “It is interesting, the possibility of immortalising the alliance between Physics and CUBRIC in an artistic way,” commented Dr Griffin. As I had been commissioned recently by the School of Physics and Astronomy for 'Infinite LIGO Dreams' it was natural to carry on the connection.  Prof. Matt Griffin and I at the opening of the 'Rest Frame' room, November 2016 Cardiff School of Physics and Astronomy.  Infinite LIGO Dreams Dr Beltrachini, Professor Murphy and I decided to create an artwork combining images from electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRi) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTi) to celebrate their research. We also discussed epilepsy; Dr Beltrachini explained how he creates simulations that can more accurately predict where an epileptic seizure will start in the brain. These discussions with Professor Murphy and Dr Beltrachini inspired me to incorporate images of blood vessels, tractography, eigenstates and EEG into the artsci work. ILLUMINATED TRACTOGRAPHY Illuminated Tractography Lightbox with transparent digital Artsci work 594mm x 841mm 2018 Collaborators: Dr Emma Tallantyre and Alex Goodall Working with collaborators Dr Emma Tallantyre and Alex Goodall, an intern from Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, we decided to create an 'artsci' work that expressed the forms and structures derived from the DTi and tractography images produced by the 3T MRi Connectome scanner. All these images are produced as a range of views – axial, sagittal and coronal - of so-called “Regions of Interest” (ROIs) in the brain. Emma, Alex and I chose each image with the aim of giving our audience insight into the beauty of tractography. Emma suggested we use images of the corticospinal region, which in the brain branches into the corona radiata, internal capsule, fornix, and corpus callosum. I suggested we also use images of the cingulum and tallantyre, which I found to be aesthetically pleasing. In the end, we decided to merge images of the fornix and cingulum together. Aided by Goodall’s expertise with the programme ExploreDTi , we created three sets of stunning tractography maps. THE MAGNET  The Magnet 36 inches by 24 inches Oil on canvas 2017 At the beginning of my work on NEW SIGNALS, I was invited to visit CUBRIC as the building neared completion to attend the arrival of a 40 ton 7 Tesla MRi Magnet being craned into the new building in the summer of 2016. This became the first of several artworks for, NEW SIGNALS. Cardiff University produced a video documenting that day, featuring sketches and paintings I produced afterwards. BRAINTREE  Braintree 100cm by 70cm Acrylic on canvas 2018 Braintree is an integration of everything my collaborators had shared with me over two years, and an outpouring of all my experiences through the medium of paint. It was completed towards the end of this project and for me it is a visual conclusion to how I have absorbed their research and integrated their ideas into my own work – and how I understand how we experience our existence.  The art works shown below are influnced by early 'P1 Penrose Tilings' from the 1970 (prior to the 'P3 Tiling of darts and kites', that the creator Sir Roger Penrose developed later.) Image right: P1 Tiling https://penroseinstitute.com Penrose is known for his work in mathematical physics, in particular for his contributions to general relativity and cosmology. He has received several prizes and awards, including the 1988 Wolf Prize for physics, which he shared with Stephen Hawking for the Penrose–Hawking singularity theorems. He is fasinating...for more information go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Penrose9 I highly recommend looking up ORCH OR theory- here is one of my favourite papers I like to read and take inspiration from- Consciousness in the universe: A review of the ‘Orch OR’ theory lStuartHameroff RogerPenrose www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1571064513001188 Which became the inspiration for this painting- P1 Tiling, microtubule,superpositiion....Lay in pastures of pattern and infinite, let the awareness of self emmerge as the turning doors fly open and let me in.  Johannes Kepler, in his 1619 work Harmonice Mundi, created the first list of all the Archimedean tilings, tilings that can be created from sets of regular polygons. http://www.keplersdiscovery.com/Harmonies.html Penrose progressed on from Kepler and look to the pentagon. It is in the first of the Penroses tilings systems from the 1970 that includes the pentagon at the center that I find most alluring. Penrose found that six tiles shapes could tile a 'plane' these and these are dipicted in the paintings. Called a 'P1 tiling' which is Penrose's original set of six prototiles. It is five-fold rotational symmetry, about the center of the of a centeral pentagon, reflecting the nonperiodicity of the tiling. Any tiling created using this set of tiles must be nonperiodic, a not recurring at regular intervals system. More information about this can be found here- http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Penrose_tiling Personally I find fragments and shapes jumping out visually in infinite overlaying patterns. It really evokes something in me. In P1 tiling I see everything. The paintings are an abstraction of geometry and nature the figure dancing in between the corridors of consiouness. I 'feel' this as a creative response rather than an anything makes sense. It is more of a fasination for the system of tiles and how these relate to everything and to us. It is also a refinement following on from work I had done proir, that began with sitting in a tree and drawing the branches going out from the bough I was sat upon which you can see below in the gallery. For me the pentagon and geometry thereof seems to be everywhere. This series continues... more explainations will come in time, for me the words take longer, it is the vision that comes first and it this that I explore in the works below.   Dragon slayer
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Giclee Hahnemuhle German Etching 310gms Signed Limited Edition of 200 Paper size 16" by 20" Image Size approx. 11" by 15" Ideal for a mount with an aperture of 12" by 16" This painting is dedicated to all the Dragon Slayers, to all the lives saved and those who are still fighting the dragon. A blog is to come soon about the story behide this work... link coming soon, Dragon Slayer
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Art Poster Fotospeed Smooth Pearl 290gsm Title and 'Penelope Rose' logo printed underneath. Paper size 16" by 20" Image Size approx. 11" by 15" Ideal for a mount with an aperture of 12" by 16" This painting is dedicated to all the Dragon Slayers, to all the lives saved and those who are still fighting the dragon. A blog is to come soon about the story behide this work... link coming soon, Dragon Slayer
Acrylic on Canvas A3 2018 by Penelope Rose Cowley Click here Signed Limited Editions Giclee or Art Poster This painting is dedicated to all the Dragon Slayers, to all the lives saved and those who are still fighting the dragon. Inspired by my husband Mr. David Cowley patient advocacy and work to facilitate life-saving medicines to people with Hepatitis C through his facebook group- https://www.facebook.com/groups/HepCworldgenerictreatment/ The pharmaceutical compounds for are hepatitis-C- sofosbuvir and ledipasvir. Sofobuvir somehow cloak it's self until it's gets to the liver.... so i have emblazoned into the cloak on the Dragon slayer. It looks like a fog too, and for all those that have ever suffered with Hep C will know what that's all about... Sofosbuvir was invented by, and named after, Michael Sofia... 'Sofia hypothesized that if he could shroud a nucleoside with an “invisibility cloak” to get it into liver cells he could then count on the liver’s enzymes to break down the cloak and activate the drug. Once the cloak has been shed, the nucleoside would be trapped inside, protecting the rest of the body from exposure.' Read the full article here https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/a-better-treatment-for-hepatitis-c Penelope Rose Cowley Cosmic Rays- Art merging with Science. Saturday Club 28th April and 5th May 2018....  The relationship between art and science is in a renaissance of activity. From collaborations to education there is a perceptual shift forming an adjunctive connection. First Campus, Institute of Physics, QuarkNet Cymru and Cardiff Metropolitan University academics and professionals have to come together to form a Masterclass for the young people, aged 13–16, attending free Art&Design and Science&Engineering Saturday Clubs at Cardiff Metropolitan University. The Clubs, that run for a full academic year during term-time, are part of the National Saturday Club programme. I was invited to present and facilitate a workshop regarding Cosmic Rays. Cosmic Rays come from outer space entering our atmosphere from all directions travelling almost at the speed of light. Upon entry, they collide with other particles and split into quantum particles showering down, on and through, us and everything. And this I was asked to assimilate into an artsci method exploring and recreating the Physics of the phenomena. I welcomed the exciting project and got on with the planning. After some thought, meeting with Dr. Paul Roche, emails and research the idea came together - Wax Resist - My intention for the students was to have a sense of discovery, whereby the invisible wax is metaphorically the Cosmic Rays muons etc made invisible through layers of watercolour washes. That the process its self is like an experiment inspired by the detection methods and thus being more than an illustration of information. The sessions were over two weeks the first was the Physics presentation and workshop followed by a presentation I gave about my profession and a plan given for the week ahead. Images Dr Peri Jones, from QurakNet Cymru giving a presentation on cosmic rays Photographer Helen Baldwin / Saturday Club Trust The workshop commenced and I feel the students learned a great deal about some methods using watercolour and wax resist as I could see from their application and they showed understanding of the science through discussion and the layering effects they produced. I was surprised by their focus and abilities, they all worked extremely hard, listened brilliantly and undertook the task diligently with imagination and inventiveness. I am very pleased by all their work. I feel that they must be learning a great deal from the Saturday Club and that it showed from their overall attitude and ability to carry out the tasks. Maybe surprised is not the right word, I would like to say that I was more impressed rather than surprised. The project has further ingrained my interest in delivering more projects in this manner, to highlight that there is a strengthening bond between art and science through activities that merge the two fields. That in the future more people will be working together merging art and science. The sessions increased my awareness of this bridge between the two and the collaborative effort of everyone involved. It has been really fantastic to have been a part of the Saturday Club Masterclass. I have personally learned a lot more about 'Cosmic Rays' and that delivering the way I merge art and science to a group of 13–16 is very rewarding and wonderful to see their interpretations. It is great to experience working with a multidisciplinary team of people all working together for an admirable cause, to provide the younger generation with skills required for this complex and confusing world. The team is very inspiring and I personally feel that combining art and science fields, like I have done, will create an explosion of innovation and more inventors and creators who think outside of the box. I suspect it is what the future requires. I learned to work with this inspiring team people that we are heading the right direction with these Clubs. For more information go to- Cardiff Metropolitan University Art&Design Saturday Club Cardiff Metropolitan University Science&Engineering Saturday Club National Saturday Club Masterclass page on the National Saturday Club website Photographer: Polly Thomas / Saturday Club Trust
 My daughter received this letter now framed, just a week after I met Sir David Attenborough @UCL She wrote a letter to him which I passed on to him whilst he was on tour. We are so very much appreciative of this wonderful kind gesture from the truely delightful Sir David Attenborough what an honour! My daughter will carry his words of encouragement all her life whilst she endeavours to make better this world through environmentally friendly innovative product design.
Meeting Sir David Attenborough…. 
It has taken me or a week or so, to really absorb the events that happened last week on the 17th April for the reopening ceremony of the Kathleen Lonsdale Building (KLB) at UCL Photography by Anita Maguire
I was invited to attend the morning ceremony and asked to talk to guests and to Sir David Attenborough about the artsci-work ‘COSMOPARTICLE’ when they were on a grand tour of the building. I had been commissioned for the artsci-work by the UCL Cosmoparticle Initiative for the beautifully transformed KLB building in early 2017. The building is home to UCL Earth Sciences and groups from Chemistry, Astrophysics, and Mathematics. 
Early Morning April 17th 2018-
The journey began with the 5.55am train from Cardiff Central to Euston Square travelling 1st Class (a first for me, due to no other available tickets). The coach was mainly full of men in smart suits and two well dress women crouched in the area just outside the toilets (equality?). Everyone on phones or laptops, and me dressed in a fuchsia pink coat from M&S, a dress from Boutique 53 ltd from the Smashed Lemon Spring/Summer 2018 collection, pink sandals from Xti Tentations and a white bag from Fiorelle.
Photographer Phillipa Irving- Such fun! Posing for a pic the day before, thanks Pip! x 
All in all, I felt I was in high contrast to the grey, navy and charcoal of the coach. A glow with pinks, purples and white with fuchsia pink nails to match. Ready to attend a very special event at UCL. I arrived at Paddington Station a little after 8.30am and caught the underground to Euston Square. Hot and cramped passengers swayed together on the very busy tube. An elderly gentleman, shaking with nerves was attempting get through the carriage to leave, the doors were closing quickly everyone took note and someone called out to hold the door. Three people jumped in to action and held with some effort, the half closing doors and the man was able to safely get off. One the guys who held the door open, was standing next to me had oil and grease all over his hand. My contribution was a handwipe that cleaned it right off, much to the guy’s relief. It was really lovely to see everyone immediately working together and feeling that London has a sense of the kindness, the vibe after was sweet and set the tone for the day. I ended up at Euston Road instead of Euston Square. Which was a short walk from where I was meeting Anita Maguire at the George Farha café in the Lewis Building (which is next to Euston Square Station where I thought I was heading). Anita is Executive Assistant to Professor of Astrophysics, Hiranya Peiris. It was, Peiris who had initially contacted me after seeing ‘Infinite LIGO Dreams’. Anita and I grabbed some coffee and made away across the road to theCruciform building. We had been informed there would be ques for the event and we found ourselves at the door to a corridor that led to the theatre entrance, at the end of the rather long que, everyone buzzing with excitement. After a few moments we flowed in and took our seats, myself and Anita placed ourselves one row back and to the right and awaited the arrival of all the guests and the much-anticipated Sir David Attenborough. Photographer Kirsten Holst www.kirstenholst.com
The hubbub and babel of the theatre came to a murmur as Sir David Attenborough and guests including the Son and Grandson of much celebrated Dame Kathleen Lonsdale entered the room. Perfectly hosted by Professor Lars Stixrude (Head of UCL Earth Sciences) and Professor Ivan Parkin (Dean of UCL Mathematical & Physical Sciences) who introduced us all to the morning ceremony’s programme and our reason for gathering to celebrate the new building fabulously redesigned by Levitt Bernstien and built by John Graham Construction for the re-opening by the esteemed Sir David Attenborough who was waiting in the wings ready to join Professor Lucie Green.
An arm-chair style discussion followed with Sir David Attenborough facilitated by the lovely Professor Lucie Green from UCL Space & Climate Physics. Sir David was energetic and at same time relaxed, quick witted and funny, answering questions posed by about his career and his connection to Dame Kathleen Lonsdale.
Photographer Kirsten Holst www.kirstenholst.com
It was fascinating to hear him recounting many moments from his first love of fossils through to his career with the BBC and how he come to be presenting programmes, whereby for the many, he and the film crews were filming animals never before seen on the screen. Also, his encounters with Kathleen Lonsdale many years ago. I was poised on the edge of my sit completely engrossed in this wonderful man and the thoughts he was sharing with us. The whole audience was extremely engaged with what Sir David had to say and asked thought provoking-questions on a range of topics such as; the sustainability of the meat industry, or what is his favourite era, which I think is Jurassic (or may not have actually said, but implied this, because of his experiences on the south coast of Britain) and the field of Palaeontology, the optimism he has for the future of earth and so much more. He made a point of encouraging us to remember the film crews and scientists who have worked to produce the programmes over the years. In regards to Palaeontology, from my own recollection Sir David continued on to say, that hitting a rock with a geological hammer so that it splits to reveal a fossil that hasn’t seen the light of day for hundreds of millions of years is hugely romantic. You realise that it’s you, only you, who is first to set eyes upon the specimen since it laid down to its final resting place all those many years ago. Each rock holding its own mystery. This is an exciting moment and I thought to myself that I cannot wait to get back to Lavernock, off the coast south Wales and start digging to perhaps find my own Theropods just like the brothers, Nick and Rob Hanigan did back in 2016 or a fossil in a rock. I would be very happy to find an Ammonite again like my husband and I found a few years ago but that was worn on the surface of a rock. I’d like one from the smashing of rocks so that my eyes are fresh upon it for the first time in 201 million years from the Jurassic period or there about. Sir David Attenborough has reminded me of that sense of discovery from being curious enough to do so and how exciting it is. 
During the talk, Sir David was presented with a porcelain sculpture of the plankton created exclusively by University of Southampton researcher by Dr Samantha Gibbs, of the newly discovered species of ocean plankton named Syracosphaera azureaplaneta, in honour of the BBC’s Blue Planet series.
He accepted the sculpture, stood up and held it up in one hand, high in from of us all and I recall he said ‘and here in lies a great mystery’, it was a beautiful moment. He continued to explain that It is the depth and breadth at which all life is interconnected that precedes this ‘great mystery’. From the tiny plankton we may as well say all life on earth depends and therein lies its great importance of study. Words to remember and ponder! Photographer Kirsten Holst www.kirstenholst.com There is one question that for me stood out and the answer to which has enriched my sense of wellbeing and optimism for the future, I feel I am not alone in this sentiment as I heard it again talked about in the afternoons events. The question was something along the lines of- ‘What are your thoughts for the future of the Earth and everything that lives on it?’ It felt as if there was a hesitance in the voice of the audience member, perhaps a little anxiety too, I believe we all felt that feeling a little, we all know how much we humans have messed up Earth and the problems we have caused as a species. Sir David Attenborough replied with sincerity and compassion (from my recollection it was along the lines of); -Had you asked me 10 years ago I would have had a very different answer to the one I am telling you now. I would have been more sceptical. But now I have seen a change; When Australians noticed the hole in the ozone over their heads, a change commenced and since 1996 CFC’s have been banned. When whales diminished to the point of extinction, commercial whaling was banned in 1987. When I first started presenting, the oceans did not have many whales left, but now I see massive shoals, it is a change I have seen in my lifetime. Now we have plastics and the burning of fossil fuels to deal with, it is heart-breaking, however with; innovation, research, science and technology along with our ability to be curious, connect and communicate on a worldwide instantaneous level I feel that change again will happen. We are at a tipping point and the world of humans is now able to begin correcting the mistakes it has made. – 
If you were there you would have felt a sense of urgency and relief, the feeling that all is not lost and everyone individually and as a civilisation is capable of change. Sir David really does fill one with real hope.
For example, with regards to plastics; It is s a problem that caught the imagination of a Boyan Slat when he was a 16-year-old schoolboy from the Netherlands. I highly recommend finding out all about him. Photographer Kirsten Holst www.kirstenholst.com 
Here is a link to a video, he is 23 now (and adorable) what he has done is incredible #plasticfree- It just goes to show if you have innovation and passion each individual is capable of change.
Every little (and big) helps; go now to a bar and you will now see paper straws (hopefully recycled) on the counters. If not, customers will frown upon the plastic straw with the stomach churning images of the hippocampus (sea horse) clinging to the plastic straw or the young whale dyeing alongside her grieving mother from the programmes Sir David Attenborough presented. The awful feeling is enough for all of us to make the changes. And I suggest let’s also praise it where we see it to social media- Here you can see Ryan celebrating their new straws....
As an artsci creator I do not generally use a lot of plastic but I do used a lot of paper for sketching ideas and making notes and so I ask myself- how can I save using all the paper I get through and the space it fills up? I find the idea difficult to move away from it. I love drawing on paper and love the feel of it and I know it would be better to save it for original artworks rather than piling up tons of sketches that will hardly see the light of day. Technology is providing solutions; Remarkable is a paper like tablet, it is a clever product, that I am eager to acquire for my business, I have a feeling it will become an invaluable tool. It is time for me to start saving and make the investment. It is changes like these, individually on a specific and unique scale, that the new norm becomes apparent. I wonder what it is you will invest in or change to go #paperfree and #plasticfree? Please comment below or tweet me @peneloperose27 I would love to hear your stories of #goingplasticfree #goingpaperfree The morning ceremony came to end, the audience applauded for a long time before settling down and calmly making their way to lunch. The afternoon followed with three tours of all the special guests. I had to be ready by 2.30pm to give my first talk in the Cosmoparticle Hub in front of the artsci-work, I was really frilled to be asked, I absolutely love having the chance to discuss the science that goes into the work and how it has come together, I was nervous too, I wanted to get it right for Hiranya Peiris, Andrew Pontzen and Chamkuar Ghag who had provided me with all the data. Here is a video showing, visually the development of the COSMOPARTICLE over a 5 months. 
In the moments before the tours began I met Linda Cremonesi, Christian Pedersen, Martin Rey and Luisa Lucie-Smith researchers at of the ‘Cosmoparticle Initiative’ whereby they were setting up equipment and displays for the demonstration they would be giving. I was very excited to see that Linda and Chris where setting up cloud chambers to detect secondary particles from Cosmic Rays most of which would be muons. It just so happens that I am the art lead for a Masterclass Saturday Club for @Firstcampus this weekend. The timing to acquire some extra knowledge and see the particle trails for myself (after training my eyes to see them, as explained by Linda) was perfect. Here is a image I took then were setting up. Here they are photographed by the professional photographer Kirsten Holst when the tour began....
And here I am explaining theCOSMOPARTICLE to Sir David Attenborough.
Sir David Attenborough is pointing at the Xenon atom and asking what it was…
(click here to find out (go on, #becurious ; ) ) I explained as best I could, with a little help from the Dean Professor Ivan Parkin and encouraging looks from Hiranya and Andrew. Here is a photo by Anita Maguire of the Hiranya, Andrew and I all together-> It occurred to me that Sir David may well have been pointing it out the atom because in many ways it looks organic, frogs spawn came to mind, at the time. 
However, in hindsight, Sir David may have thought it looked a little like Blue Planet plankton created by Dr Samantha Gibbs. I should have asked him.
Both Sir David Attenborough and the Son of Kathleen Lonsdale, Stephen Lonsdale said that ‘you can keep looking and looking into the painting and see more and more in it’. I believe that’s a good description and I am pleased I had the opportunity to discuss all the elements within it.
I was in awe, the memory, a fuzz of excitement and before I knew it the tour was moving on, I had forgotten to give the letter from my daughter and gift I had for him. I quickly grabbed the gift and passed it to Sir David. He shook my hand again and thanked me for it and I managed to say, ‘you’re an inspiration, it’s been an honour to meet you’ words I am sure he hears many times every day. 
To read more about the COSMOPARTICLE and the Initiative go to the UCL article ‘Making sense of the Universe through art and physics’ or (click the artsci-work above) written by Zoe Cormier, an author and science writer based in London.
So that was the day I met Sir David Attenborough! What a memory, it has been fun recalling the day for this News blog I hope you have enjoyed reading it (especially thus far, well done! It is long!) I will be back soon with news about COSMIC RAY, NEW SIGNALS and other projects happening right now. For now, all the best, please feel free to post comments below about -if you had the honour- to meet Sir David Attenborough and also about how you are #goingplasticfree and/or #goingpaperfree. Many thanks go to Anita Maguire for looking after me all day, Andrew and Hiranya for inviting me along and to Linda, Chris, Luísa, and Martin for sharing their knowledge and the brilliant conversations we had when some of us unwound at ‘Resting Hare’. Penelope Rose Cowley Artsci Creator ********************************************************************************* Signed Limited Edition Prints and Art posters are available here. COSMOPARTICLE
£233.00
Giclee
Hahnemuhle German Etching 310gms Signed Limited Edition of 75 Paper size 26" by 28" Image Size approx 22" by 24" Cosmoparticle was commissioned by Hiranya Peiris for University College London's (UCL) new Cosmoparticle Hub, where it is on permanent display. The original of this work is 200cm x 180cm, Oil on Canvas, It is a painting that incorporates dark matter, cosmic microwave background, galaxies and so much more see the development video here COSMOPARTICLE
£55.00
Art Poster
Fotospeed Smooth Pearl 290gsm Paper size 26" by 28" Image Size approx 22" by 24" Cosmoparticle was commissioned by Hiranya Peiris for University College London's (UCL) new Cosmoparticle Hub, where it is on permanent display. The original of this work is 200cm x 180cm, Oil on Canvas, It is a painting that incorporates dark matter, cosmic microwave background, galaxies and so much more read more on the see the development video here Film by Tom Forsey of the re-opening of the Kathleen Lonsdale Building by Sir David Attenborough Tom Forsey an Earth Sciences student at UCL who is also a very talented filmmaker, put together this fantastic video of the reopening. I will be writting the full experince of the day in due course- for now enjoy this brilliant film (btw there is short clip of me explaining the COSMOPARTICLE to him. That was an absolute honour!). For more articles articles visit: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0418/170418-Syracosphaera-azureaplaneta http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43796939 For information about the COSMOPARTICLE painting go to: https://www.peneloperosecowley.com/cosmoparticle.html  Credit: Anita Maguire
Project Manager & Executive Assistant to Professor Hiranya Peiris Cosmoparticle Initiative - Astrophysics Group |
