![]() ![]() ![]() Cobalt mining is being carried out under unconscionably hazardous conditions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Charcoal production contributes to forest degradation as well as climate change through the production of greenhouse gases. The exploitation of humans and of our planet’s limited resources is the untold, sadder part. ![]() My curiosity triggered, I dug into the chemical compositions of other pigments and materials used by artists, and realized that just four of them-charcoal, cobalt blue, cadmium yellow and helium-can provide an expansive tour of the different ways in which our universe creates new elements.īut the origins of the elements are only the beginning of their story. So an ordinary statement in the context of art ended up serving as an extraordinary reminder to me that human beings, our various pursuits and the natural world are all fundamentally interconnected. While the elements and their cosmic origins are something I think about every day, for the first time I found myself thinking about how some elements made their way from the palette of the universe to the palette of an artist. The helpful museum placard informed me that “cobalt blue dominates the image,” and I chuckled, not because I am an artist but because I am an astrophysicist I study how the elements we find on Earth come from stars, supernovae and other astrophysical phenomena. On a recent visit to the Impressionist gallery at the Art Institute of Chicago, I found myself drawn to an exceptionally vibrant Renoir painting called Young Woman Sewing. ![]()
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