newton revisited

i was recently commissioned by a collector friend of mine to "free newton". dave is much better with explaining what he had in mind in terms of concept, so i asked him if he could send me a quote that i could post along with the pieces. i've posted the quote below the art. the first image is "newton" by william blake, and below that is my response inspired by his piece, which i've titled "enter spectrum".


"Romantic artist William Blake banished scientist Isaac Newton to the depths of some sea, wrongfully imprisoning him inside an unmovable rock by locking his leg in place and forcing Newton to gaze down with great focus, self-absorbed: as if blind to the beauty of the world around him.

This view expressed an inherent disdain for science, that Newton had the audacity to “reduce” nature into deterministic explanations — into natural laws that allegedly eroded the mystical, metaphorical heart of art and even suppressed personal interactions with an active God.

The human species, however, uses science to better understand not only the reality in which we exist but also this same reality of which we are made. And this understanding can lead to greater feelings of interconnection with the world and with each other, not less.

Newton supplied humanity with the beginnings of several groundbreaking insights, later refined (as is often the case in science) by many, including Einstein, who improved rather counterintuitively upon the notions of time and gravity.

Freeing Newton from this imprisonment should have occurred long ago; and with the march of progress and a longing for enlightenment, we as a species may continue to attempt to assess the real nature of reality, rather than deluding ourselves with our own inventions, beautiful as they may be.

Physicist Richard Feynman generalizes the overall point quite well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSZNsIFID28"--dave fischer

i had a great time working on this commission. thank you, dave...