Madonna of the Particle
by
Chris Shaw, 2013
I’m not sure exactly where my fascination with Madonnas was born, but I’ve loved Icons of all kinds for a very long time.
As an artist I’m intrigued with the the way icons present their ideas – an easily understood, blunt central image juxtaposed with deep symbolism and cryptic geometric foundations. Icons also have a reason for existing, they are conveyers of information.
The modern icons I create also convey information, it could be a scientific concept, a political statement, or a pop-culture reference. Regardless, each icon has a story and a reason for existing.
In this body of work I use the Madonna as the vehicle to literally carry the ideas I’ve chosen to portray. The titles are straight forward. However, underlying and obfuscated by the image is a rigid geometric base, over which the Madonna icon is constructed. The geometry within this base is a riddle to decipher as are many of the symbols within. . . .
The “Madonna of the Particle” and the “Madonna of Dark Matter” both concern the recently discovered Higgs-Boson particle. The geometric base used within each image contains natural ratios and curves that reference the sub-atomic particle collisions which led to the “God Particle’s” discovery. . . .
Each painting communicates its secrets in various ways.
Madonna of the Dark Matter
by
Chris Shaw, 2013
