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Kate BreakeyBlue Morpho Butterfly
About the Item
The Element ‘Gold, (Au) can only be make in the nuclear reactor of stars.
It came to our planet when the Earth was first forming, as dust from catastrophic astronomical events –stars imploding and ejecting energy, as light and matter. The events that produce most of the gold in the universe are called ‘Gamma Ray Bursts’. This occurs when a double star consisting of two neutron stars collapses under the force of gravity. Neutron stars are the cores of dead stars. They are only a few miles in diameter; so dense that every last bit of matter has been compressed down to the density of the atomic nucleus. The two dead, dark stars spin around each other for millions of years at millions of miles per hour, constantly pulling each other closer. Then finally they touch. At that moment more energy is released than the rest of the universe combined. Much of their mass collapses into a black hole and leaves our universe forever, but the rest is released in an enormous explosion of gamma rays and newly- formed elements. Some of that star- dust flung into space, is gold. The gold in the Earth’s crust was carried here on asteroids that hit the earth, during the ‘Late Heavy Bombardment‘ 3.8 billion years ago when the Earth gained most of its mass.
The Ancient Egyptians believed that gold was the flesh of their Sun god ‘Ra’.
This image is made with 24kt gold leaf
–Kate Breakey
- Creator:Kate Breakey (1957, Australian)
- Dimensions:Height: 5 in (12.7 cm)Width: 7 in (17.78 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Sante Fe, NM
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1342772582
Kate Breakey
Kate Breakey is internationally known for her large-scale, richly hand-colored photographs including her acclaimed series of luminous portraits of birds, flowers and animals in a series called Small Deaths published in 2001 by University of Texas Press. Her other monographs include Painted Light, University of Texas in 2010, a career retrospective that encompasses a quarter century of prolific image making. Her collection of photograms, entitled 'Las Sombras / The shadows' was published by University of Texas Press in October 2012. This series is a continuation of her lifetime investigation of the natural world which in her own words is ‘brimming with fantastic mysterious beautiful things. Since 1980 her work has appeared in more than 110 one-person exhibitions and in over 60 group exhibitions. A native of South Australia, Kate moved to Austin, Texas in 1988. She completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Texas in 1991 where she also taught photography in the Department of Art and Art History until 1997. Her collections include the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, The Australian National Gallery, and the San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts, as well as various private collections. She has resided in Tucson, Arizona for 20 years. She regularly teaches workshops nationally and internationally.
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