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More than anything else, A New World is a genesis painting. It about coming to life, and the endless possibilities and chances that our endless, immense universe offers.. Things are always stranger than we realize, or want to realize, and fact is always deeper and wider and more awesome than fiction. So why not a universe where life is transported from planet to planet. In the 1970's British astronomers Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe rekindled interest in Panspermia, a theory that has been around since the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras. They postulated that life on earth as we know it started with seeding from a comet or other celestial body, and that our origins really are not local here on earth but perhaps from somewhere else in the universe. An interesting idea to say they least. Not a shed of scientific evidence so it remains just a theory, albeit a marvelous one. This theory is supported today by many thinkers, including William Golding and James Lovelock, who expanded the theory with their conception of Gaia. Here is a link to an interesting website about Panspermia

So, on Liza's Reef, life changed via Panspermia.... The  myths of the Manuia tradition  tell of a time many years before, during the reign of Queen Aiata, when shooting stars  fell  from the sky one night, and some landed just off the western side of the island,  in the vicinity of a large coral reef just offshore.   The islanders tell of  how  the  reef changed overnight  in extraordinary ways -new, exotic and previously unknown species of fish and coral appeared in great numbers, and celestial phenomena; stars, galaxies and lights began to appear among the corals. This painting then, is an episode from that chapter.

A difference here is that the life is being brought to the reef encapsulated inside the bodies of miniature planets. Planets that are really eggs, the bringers of life. Gaia is a common term many people now use to talk about our Earth, thanks mainly to Professor James Lovelock. Our earth is a She, a Mother, a Goddess, the bringer forth of life, the ultimate Yin energy. And on Liza's Reef, a Yin place if there ever was one, life springs forth from a deeper source in the universe.

 My favorite fish is the little  Saveur Noir et Verde, Green and Black Tangs, as they are called. They are clearly shown emerging from one of the planetary eggs, which makes sense since they are found nowhere else on the earth except on Liza's Reef. These are little fish that are lovers, and happy and always on the move for things to explore and learn about. They reproduce like crazy and within a few years, where there was two there will be hundreds!

To Painting # 9 "The Emerald Grouper"