Love is Love: An Expanding Theory of Relative Gravity (2022)
Love is Love: An Expanding Theory of Relative Gravity is about the forces that draw us to our authentic self, and the powerful connections that happen as a result. The dark clouds at the sides represent suffering, with text such as: “Am I worthy of love?” “How did I become so lost?” “I feel so alone” “I just want to be myself” “holding my emotions in” “all my fault” “feeling so afraid.” As these emotions become heavier, the droplets of (t) time are pulled away from suffering, gravitating toward the colorful explosion of authenticity, acceptance, and possibility. Type bursting out of this energy says “we can feel why we exist,” representing a sense of purpose and connection.
The subtle text and equations in the background are about various scientific theories used to explain fundamental principles of life such as time, space, gravity, light and other electromagnetic forces. Theorists have often searched for one theory that links all the theories of physics, and the “M-theory” is a recent attempt. My interpretation of this quest is along the bottom: “The great challenge is to express it in a way that is so elemental, so essential that it is both infinitely universal and deeply relative.” I expressed it this way because this is also the way I see love, and the power of the phrase “love is love.” Whether it is love for another person, love for a field of study, or love for oneself, its strength is in the fact that it is both universal and relative. We may all feel it, but in different ways, depending on who we are and our unique interests. When we find the courage to fall in love with our authentic self, and to openly accept that of others, we have truly entered the realm of possibility.
Love is Love was created in Adobe Photoshop where I combined original painting and type. The scientific theories are mostly paraphrased from various sources, but especially inspired by Carlo Rovelli’s book “The Order of Time.”