Quarks and Dark Matter
Quarks could be considered the basic "building blocks" of protons and neutrons, very tiny subatomic particles. Quarks, however cannot be separated and do not occur in single form. The union of three quarks in one proton or neutron is a beautiful image o f the trinity - three in one. Dark matter is invisible but its tremendous power is "felt" through its gravitational attraction.

Time Frames
Observers traveling in different directions at speeds close to the speed of light can measure the same event and get different results. Measurements of length and time will vary at these speeds according to Einstein's Theory of Relativity. In the painting , the two 'time frames' are hurtling through space in different directions and the clocks in each show different times.

A Brief History of the Universe
Our four dimensional space-time is represented in this painting by making the time scale the vertical line, and the other three space dimensions are flattened into the two dimensional picture-space.
At the bottom left corner, space-time bursts forth from a singularity, a unique fluctuation of the energetic vacuum. From the mouth of the laughing child, the beginning of time, the hot soup of elementary particles and antiparticles issues.
As time passes, the face of the woman indicates the aging of the Universe as molecules, planets, galaxies and living beings emerge. The cooling of the Universe is indicated by the changing of the colours from yellow to red, green, blue, and finally bla ck. At this 'back' stage the Universe has expanded and cooled down so that all activity ceases, all energy has been dissipated, total disorder (entropy) has been achieved. This is called the 'heat death' of the Universe, the end of all activity at the ph ysical level. (This scenario is only one possible 'history' suggested by physicists.)  particles. The protons and neutrons in turn consist of even smaller building blocks. These basic units are now thought to be indivisible and were named QUARKS. The st range thing about quarks is that although we can detect their presence and observe qualities which distinguish different quarks from each other, a single quark cannot be separated out from the proton or the neutron each being made of three quarks. This i dea formed the inspiration for the painting 'Quarks and Dark Matter', showing the connection between Cosmology and Particle Physics, and the three-in-one quality of quarks also giving the artist a beautiful analogy to the Trinity of the three Persons in t he One God.

GOINGS ON IN THE NUCLEUS.
Within the nucleus, the centre of the atom, protons and neutrons are held together by an attraction which is called the STRONG FORCE. This force is described as a constant exchange of tiny particles called gluons. Each proton and neutron gives and receive s pions in this constant exchange which is in some way an image of the love-connection between people: talking, giving gifts, making love, each action binding them together with stronger bonds.

Gravity waves and intergalactic space - with alpha and omega

Strings
String theory is a mathematical device to overcome problems of infinities which occur when particles are considered as very tiny points. If the fundamental building blocks of matter are infinitely thin strings that can wiggle, form loops, join into each other and break apart, at very high energies their behaviour is modified "in such a way that infinities are quenched."(Paul Davies)
This wondrous world of high energy physics can have ten or twenty-six dimensional space-time. (Totally unimaginable, but mind-blowing.) The texture on the black background represents the world of shadow particles.

THE BIG BANG - THE BEGINNING OF TIME
Based on the observation of the Universe, we know that stars and galaxies are rushing away from each other at incredible speeds. Calcu lations of how it may have been many millions of years ago lead us to the hypothesis that it all began about 15 billion years ago from NOTHING, the Universe exploded into existence and a rapid expansion of space and matter took place.
Not only THINGS, but even DIMENSIONS were exploding. This is shown by the exploding cube, representing dimensions. This was truly the beginning of space-time, from NOTHING, the ultimate FREE LUNCH.
Acrylic on canvas 61x97 cm.

GOD PLAYING DICE WITH ALICE IN QUANTUM WONDERLAND
Einstein's Theory of Relativity was proved to be a successful explanation of the Universe. The four dimensional world of c urved space-time produced a fundamental change in our understanding and view of the world. This change is represented by the purple slide marked 'paradigm shift'. Albert Einstein is sitting on a box labeled 'Schrodinger's Cat'. This closed box contains a cat which may or may not have been killed by an unpredictable radioactive reaction triggering a cyanide capsule. This thought-experiment shows the necessary involement of the observer, because the cat is not known to be definitely dead or alive until someone opens the box.
The observation of 'bent' starlight during the 1919 solar eclipse was a vindication of Einstein's theory about gravitation.
He predicted this event two years earlier. On the painting the telescope is receiving the starlight which is 'bent' as it passes the eclipsed sun.
Beyond the broken looking glass is the Alice-in-Wonderland world of Quantum Theory, based on probability and intrinsically indeterminate reality. Einstein could not accept Quantum Mechanics, protesting that 'God does not play dice with the Universe'. In this weird world of quantum uncertainty Alice is sitting on a probability curve. She is surrounded by probability clouds which describe the regions where the electron of a hydrogen atom may happen to be at different energy levels.
Light is streaming down, the dice are bombarded by little packets of light energy called 'photons'. A large diffraction pattern above her reminds us that the wave nature of light can be illustrated by some experiments while other experiments can show that light has a particle nature.