My painting, The Deep, interprets the vision of the great Russian scientist Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1863-1945). A minerologist, geochemist, and founder of the biosphere concept, Vernadsky calculated the amount of cosmic energy that the biosphere absorbs as the chlorophyll of green algae traps solar energy. Vernadsky ultimately saw living matter as the greatest of all geological forces. In this painting, photosynthesizing red and green bacteria, algae, and plants transform the sun’s energy (shown as photons) into a “green fire,” . According to Vernadsky, the expansion of the “green fire” fed by the sun, pressured other beings, like animals, to become more complex and more dispersed, i.e. to evolve into the millions of species of creatures who have inhabited and still inhabit our planet.

On the surface of the Earth is Water, essential to life, and here depicted as ponds or lakes. There are also vast oceans on Earth in whose depths live amazing jellyfish-like creatures discovered only recently. Two of these dragon-like ocean dwellers that appeared in Claire Nouvian's The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss are now swimming in the deep cosmic space of this painting: Pleurobrachia pileus, or Sea gooseberry; (depth 0-750 meters; length 30 cm including tentacles), and Praya dubia (depth 700-1000 meters; length up to 50 meters).

Finally, below the Earth’s surface lie vast reservoirs of water and mineral deposits. Deeper still is the Earth's core of molten iron. And so we return to a mineral in honor of Vernadsky, who started his great career as a minerologist and eventually revolutionized our entire understanding of life on earth.

Also, the painting The Deep is the title art for the TV interview show Like Wow! Click on any episode and wait for the video to begin.