When Life Begins - encaustic collage

Scientist might have discovered how human life begins, how it grows, how to do in vitro fertilisation and countless other amazing things. Even in times of overpopulation the growing of a fetus and birth itself still seem like an unbelievable miracle.
Thinking of Christmas, the catholic belief of a virgin giving birth to baby Jesus seems an even larger miracle - but what would religion be without faith in things which can't be proved scientifically?

I'm also very intrigued by Ginkgo leaves. The Ginkgo tree is a phenomenon, an object of veneration, a sacred tree of the East, a symbol of unity of opposites, by some seen as a symbol of changelessness, possessing miraculous power, bearer of hope and of the immeasurable past, a symbol of love. Because of all its properties it is associated with longevity.

"When Life Begins" - encaustic collage on board (30x34cm)

Secrets of Life and Death

"Secrets of Life and Death 1" - encaustic collage including Leonardo da Vinci's "Fetus" (70x50cm)

Birth and Death - enigmatic events which science never will totally decipher I think.
And there is no day without us being confronted by both ( more by death when you watch the news...), and no day without me thinking and fantasising about these topics.

I have been fascinated by the genius of Leonardo da Vinci for a long time.  Two years ago I visited a brilliant exhibition in his manor house in Amboise (Loire/France), where he lived until his death. They reconstructed many of his engines and inventions, and huge semi-transparent posters showing his drawings were hanging from the trees in the surrounding parc.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) was an Italian Renaissance genius: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer.
As a successful artist, he was given permission to dissect human corpses at the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence and later at hospitals in Milan and Rome. From 1510 to 1511 he collaborated in his studies with the doctor Marcantonio della Torre. Leonardo made over 200 pages of drawings and many pages of notes towards a treatise on anatomy.