ARTIST'S STATEMENT

FROM SCIENCE AND ART TO SCIENCE AND RELIGION

  Artists should only make one kind of thing.  If you want the market to understand you keep it simple. But sometimes keeping faith to your vision makes this impossible. And with me, as you will see, one vision has produced many products.

  It began with a vision of art and science that focused on one of the four forces. I used the cosmic glue of gravity, to create a kind of balanced poetry in brick. I photographed these buildings of unmortared block and toppled the result. It was a “rule based” art form, born from mathematics and engineering, and it created a kind of elegance which I called beauty. It produced successful shows. But a constant but restless vision moved me on.

  Out of the four cosmic forces, the one we know most intimately is electromagnetism. And soon electricity replaced gravity as the object of my desire. Now the forces compelled me to make sculptures that were working AM and then FM radios. With no hidden circuitry these radios showed the world what electronics really was. I had now created two successful art forms based on physics. But again the vision pushed me on.

  Working with the strong and the weak nuclear forces of nature seemed impractical. And my vision had other plans. This is when I made a jump from science and art, to science and religion. I created a Center for the Convergence of Science Theology and Video Art, “The Myth Factory” and based it in Staten Island. Here I explored video feedback and created the Octagod, a lasting symbol of science and faith.       

  Combining science and religion became a continuing source of artistic inspiration. I created a number of products which I now understand as an expression of the movement from the “one to the many”. The first step on this journey from unity to diversity came with the Octagod, which takes us from oneness to eightness. The next step toward the many came with the creation of “the Atheists Tarot”. A deck of thirty six cards based on the Big Bang. A third step in creating gods from the Big Bang came in the form of Science Cartooning. In these cosmic stories monotheism becomes polytheism and then pantheism and finally all four of the forces of nature can be represented in works of art.

  Now I’ve presented all of these forms on the web for your enjoyment. So perhaps now the vision is complete. But somehow I doubt it.

--Jason W. Homer