Rob Rey

Return to the Stars
8 x 6 inches
A new tiny painting available this Friday on Every Day Original

Some of your atoms, mostly hydrogen, come from the beginning of the universe. Many more were created in the super novae of ancient dying stars. In the time since then, your atoms have been part of many things: oceans and oaks, dinosaurs and dandelions, foxes and fireflies. For a brief moment, these disparate, voyaging elements have come together to be you, to feel the breeze, and to wonder at the night sky. One day they will move on, scattered and woven into many more incarnations before eventually returning to space in nebulous clouds to birth new stars.

Magnetosphere, an allegory
30 x 24 in, Oil on panel, 2021, homage to Fumée D'Ambre Gris by John Singer Sargent.

In addition to the warmth and light we receive daily, our sun expels a constant barrage of dangerous charged particles called the solar wind. When solar storms occur, flares and coronal mass ejections can be thrown our way at speeds of millions of kilometers per hour. Luckily, movements within earths molten metal core generate a protective magnetic shield around our home planet. Without our magnetosphere to protect us, the solar wind may have long ago stripped away our atmosphere, leaving Earth looking much more like Mars looks today: barren, dry, and lifeless.

Human wellbeing has been shown to benefit greatly from the experience and practice of gratitude, whether that gratitude is directed toward someone else or not. Most of us don’t spend much time thinking about our magnetosphere, but it’s one of the many extraordinary things that make life possible on our little world. This can serve as a reminder to take notice of other things we may be taking for granted in our lives.

Prints: https://robrey.storenvy.com