Lory Pollina
www.lorypollina.com
lorypollina55@gmail.com
p.o. box 2834 Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504
OMEGA POINT PROJECT
The Noosphere, 2012 and Beyond
This project was started at the Santa Fe Art Institute in March of 2008 and was completed in September 2009. What began as a residency program offering me the chance to work on a large-scale for the first time, wound up serendipitously wedding my drawing method (see History of Process in Formative Work) to the evolution of consciousness described in the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
Since 2007 I began questioning the nature of conscious evolution, and in my philosophic studies had come to see the planetary shift in consciousness of 2012 as a shift of epic proportions. I had just discovered the writings of Teilhard de Chardin after completing my first 4 large-scale drawings. I was perplexed as to why my method was naturally producing a new effect – hot spots of multi-faceted clarity, which looked like spheres in orbit.
Upon reading Teilhard de Chardin’s description of the Noosphere (the planetary layer of human thought) I realized I was already depicting it in these new large-scale works. It was Easter morning (Chardin died on Easter morning 1955) when I finally put Teilhard de Chardin’s concept of mankind’s rise to global consciousness and unity with God (the Omega Point) together with my new work, and an inner voice instructed me that 99 drawings would sequentially cover the scope of this event. At this point I had 4 drawings that were seemingly representations of an atmosphere of separate thought-orbs but I had no idea how it would materialize into a visual depiction of global consciousness, and finally a merging of this consciousness with God. But as I strictly adhered to my drawing process, the sequence unfolded and completed itself in 99 drawings. In keeping with my process-driven approach to this subject, these drawings however guided by my subject matter, nonetheless are an artistic expression that stands on its own.
The display of events in the Omega Point Project begins with the blackness of the void, and then proceeds with pre-historic thought-orbs, and eventually on to man’s conscious development. At first the orbs or spheres are dense and depicted at close range; but as the drawings continue to evolve they grow lighter within their individual orbs, and are increasingly depicted at mid-range - revealing more orbital configurations. As the drawings progress new and smaller shapes appear and far-range constellations are formed. With the advent of many new arrivals and groupings of ‘string’ constellations, there comes a moment - a pause, (when the 26,000 year cycle is complete and the astronomical alignment with our sun and the center of our galaxy occurs – December 2012) a moment of eternity, where the cosmic exhale or expansive-momentum from the big bang reverses, and then, the in-breath. At this point the individual thought-orbs that were separated by black, now begin to be reeled in. In an almost claustrophobic encasement this mass circuitry eventually works its way free of inner restrictions; and in the end, each individual personality energetically unites in a dance of unified consciousness-transcending time and space and merging with God (Omega).
Sometime after the completion of the project, a friend remarked at the number 99 and pointed out the similarity between the 99 drawings I had done and its resonance to the 99 names of God in the Islamic culture. It made me think that consciousness of God can bridge diverse cultures to unite in Love.
Lory Pollina
October, 2010
Santa Fe