The world is filled with empty spaces. As you repeatedly divide space from the macro to the micro, the more uninhabited it becomes. Eventually, we are left with a vast infinity between atomic particles. We are more not-here than we are here.

A blank sheet of paper presents similar questions. It represents 100% possibility of containing everything known in the universe of human comprehension. A crayon mark or drop of pigment on the paper is like the initial milliseconds of the Big Bang. A flag has been planted into Chaos. Space has been addressed and a strategy will emerge and grow as the chaos slowly takes on a recognizable form. More drops and washes of color are added. Loose grid lines and organic forms further define (or limit) the universe that is forming.

And so it goes, this tension between abstraction and a representation of reality, until in my case usually, a reality forms. There is Up. There is Down. I see a Horizon and Depth. I see Light and Shadow. How predictable! But then I run from this predicament and add a bird, a figure that represents consciousness and a sense of history and even culture. This is the bird brain: an intersection of Mind and Mindlessness.