Painting the celestial sky brings to mind questions of the origins of life. Thoughts of conception, pregnancy and birth evoke similar wonderment of the initial moments of life. At the moment of human conception is the convergence of sperm and ovum. In the celestial realm the “big bang” is a similar unexplained fraction of infinitesimal time that represents infinite energy in a singular space area, the elements of which are beyond human perception. Human beings are designed to grasp all reality on a very limited scale. We are limited by what our sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch can perceive. The micro cosmos is far too small and the galactic worlds are far too vast for my perception but a notion arises, a strange and enigmatic notion, i feel that there is a strong similarity if not connection between the worlds. Since 1995 when I began painting deep space; galaxies, quasars, blue super giants and supernovas have become my models. In recent years I started to paint a new series of painting inspired by the inner body photography of Lennart Nilsson, his depiction of human formation and the fetus in the womb. As I explored deep space and the latest images of the HUBBLE telescope, I began to recognize a similarity between the large scale formats of the universe and the tiniest building stones of the human existence. All that exists moves. As the electron orbits the proton, the earth orbits the Sun; the Sun orbits a central point in the Milky Way. There is nothing that stands still in the universe. There is a constant vibration that is at the core essence of every movement, a vibration that has similar shape in the most miniscule worlds as in the infinite galactic realm. In my art I try to connect these worlds. The atomic and molecular space-time bar and the star-galaxy- galaxy cluster space-time realm. I try to visualize the placements within space and the relations between celestial bodies with the emerging fingers of the new born embryo. The main notion behind my body of works is As above so below

1. The Art of Deep Space
Ted Barr’s Paintings
Barr 2008 Presentation editor – Daniel Vahdat

2. The Origin of The Universe
• Our known universe exists billion years
• It started in The Big Bang which echoes
through space till nowadays
Barr 2007

3. The Formation of Galaxies
• The first galaxies were created 100 million years
after the big bang
• The current knowledge speaks about more than
billion galaxies in the universe.
Barr 2007

4. Types of Galaxies
• There are five basic types of galaxies. In the
upcoming slides we will view some of them.
Barr 2006

5. Spiral Galaxy
• The Pinwheel Galaxy is located 27,000,000 ly
from Earth. In the direction of the constellation
Ursa Major.
• It’s diameter is 170,000 ly.
Hubble 2006

6. Spiral Galaxy
• The Pinwheel
Galaxy is located
27,000,000 ly from
Earth. In the
direction of the
constellation Ursa
Major.
• It’s diameter is
170,000 ly.
Barr 2007

7. Ring Galaxy
• The Hoag galaxy is located 600,000,000 ly. In
the constellation Serpens.
• Ring galaxies are formed when a smaller
galaxy passes through the center of a larger
galaxy.
Hubble 2006

8. Ring Galaxy
Barr 2003

9. Andromeda Spiral Galaxy
• The Andromeda Is located 2,500,000 ly from us and
its our closest neighbour.
• the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way are
approaching one another at a speed of 120 kilometers
per second. in about 2.5 billion years the the two
galaxies will likely merge to form a giant elliptical
galaxy.
Hubble 2006

10. Elliptical Galaxy
• NGC 5253 is an irregular elliptical galaxy in
the constellation of Centaurus
• the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way are
approaching one another at a speed of
120 kilometers per second. in about 2.5 billion
years the the two galaxies will likely merge to
form a giant elliptical galaxy.
Hubble 2006

11. Elliptical Galaxy
Barr 2003

12. Lenticular Galaxy
• The Spindle Galaxy lies in the Northern
constellation Draco, at a distance of 44 million
light-years.
• It has a diameter of roughly 60,000 light-years
only two-thirds the diameter of the Milky Way,
although its mass is similar to our galaxy.
Hubble 2006

13. HH47
• 5 billion km of star dust.
Barr 2007

14. Nebula
• A nebula is an interstellar cloud of
dust, hydrogen gas and plasma. It is the first
stage of a star's cycle.
•
Hubble 2006

15. Nebula
Barr 2007

16. The Horse Head Nebula
Hubble 2006

17. The Horse Head Nebula
• The Horse Head
Nebula is called
Barnard 33 and is
part of the
constellation
Orion.
• It is located 1,500
ly from Earth.
Barr 2007

18. The Eagle Nebula
• Three enormous pillars of old gases and dust.
• The longest of the pillars is 1 ly in length
•
Hubble 1995

19. The Eagle Nebula
Barr 2001

20. Eta Carinae Nebula
• The largest star forming region in the Milky Way
Barr 2008

21. The Tarantula Nebula
• Located in the
large magellanic
cloud.
• It is located
180,000 ly from
Earth.
Barr 2008

22. The never ending story of the
universe is to be continued in
the next exhibition.
Ted Barr 2008