Bud and Betty Micheels
student artist-in-residence grant

TIMOTHY BERGELIN 2005-06

It is often that we think of the arts and spirituality as antagonistic to math and the sciences. Everyday thoughts and experiences about our world are dissimilar when approached from these contrasting foundations. I have a great interest in both of these areas and find myself looking for balance between these worlds. The accepted separation and differences parallel many of our constructed dualities. These dualities experience unification as we begin to see the threads that connect these modes of thought and existence.
Contemporary physics research and theory have pointed towards the realms of aesthetics and spirituality. Our lack of understanding and limited abilities in observation and experimentation has left our scientific journeys with no conclusion. The work of Fritjof Capra, Briane Greene, Gary Zukav, Masaro Emoto, and many others have dealt with the undeniable fact that our knowledge and understanding of our world is imperfect. They have also been witness to the captivating amazement that comes with dialog about the workings of our universe. Humility and awe become common when we discover characteristics about our world or possible worlds. Intellectuals have held this position while theorizing and exploring our world with ambition and curiosity for centuries. Even our understanding of our own earth's subtleties and phenomena perplexes us; multitudes of questions still remain.

This body of work explores imagery and ideas that have been pivotal to physics in understanding our world; connecting the beauty of a bubble chamber's atomic collisions to the elegance of well-formed water crystals. I have investigated contemporary and modern ideas of physics as well as forms that have been aesthetically inspiring to me. Through a blending of these influences I desire to create works of exciting ambiguousness and elegant construction.

I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. --Issac Newton 1855

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