Artist statement, Four Elements
DNA researchers have discovered that four amino acids — adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine — form themselves in various combinations that are sequenced into patterns upon which all life is built. Each pattern holds in it a code that determines all of our genetic characteristics.
Each amino acid always works in a pair, and each always pairs with the same partner.
The sequence in which pairs of amino acids are combined is the determining factor of heredity. Microbiologists describe these extended strands as parallel tracks that curve into a spiral, called a double helix.
Thus only four amino acids, coupled into two pairs, offer almost unlimited possibility for variation. This is precisely the same model that Kabbalists have used for a thousand years. Rather than amino acids, the Kabbalists have described four key elements of creation: expansion (chesed), which always pairs with contraction (gevora); and giving (netzach) which always pairs with receiving (hod).
In this series, I have begun to process, in a visual manner, information concerning the best known symbol in Kabbalah: the Tree of Life. It is said to represent the essential foundation of creation. The Tree of Life is viewed as a graphic representation of the blueprint of creation.