Oort Cloud
I first learned about the Oort Cloud when I was designing the solar system exhibits for Challenger Learning Center in Woodstock, Illinois. A theoretical envelope encompassing our solar system, the Oort Cloud is thought to contain trillions of icy, rocky fragments, material from other stars, as well as asteroids and comets. Perilously far from the sun, these fragments are only tenuously held in orbit by the sun’s gravity. It is understood that many earthbound meteors have originated in the Oort Cloud, making this boundary formation as dangerous as it is mysterious.
Since it is not directly observable, the domain of the Oort cloud seemed a perfect point of departure for a detailed, layered series of drawings expressing this obscure system in a notional way. So, I applied a set of graphic tendencies to each drawing as they unfolded, including overlapping configurations of orbs, rotational paths, gravity waves, and roughly concentric fluctuations. The drawings attempt to breathe outward from their centers, and elements within them feel a bit unstable, and prone to splinter off.
I hope viewers will connect these nonrepresentational works to their enigmatic subject with a sense of wonder and puzzlement.
