Thursday, July 1, 2010

Sun-grazer



There are some comets that pass so close to the sun that they enter the outer corona of our fiery star. They are called "sun-grazers" which describes their trajectory. A lump of ice in a wind of fire, the comet shoots by the sun and is flung out into space again, trailing its luminous tail of vapor and particles. The comet survives its plunge and travels away into the outer darkness, never to be seen by Earthlings again.

This abstraction is inspired by the Sun-grazer comets. Other Sun-grazers include the cattle of the sun, energy beings in the shape of bovines who munch placidly on the filaments of gas (called "spicules") that flicker on the "surface" of the star. When called into their magnetic barn, the Sun-cows yield delicious glowing milk of fire. They are probably the same sort of creature as yesterday's floating cats.

"Sun-grazer" is acrylic on illustration board, 7" x 10", October 1991.

1 comment:

Tristan Alexander said...

This has a bit of a different feel. I realy like the over all effect!