Rainbow Spiral

by Jeanette French

Title

Rainbow Spiral

Artist

Jeanette French

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Rainbow Spiral
Rainbows have long inspired human beings, as symbols of hope and positive change. As a result, rainbows frequently show up in human culture, mythology, and the arts.
The multicolored spectrum of light that appears in the sky is both an optical and a weather phenomenon. Caused by sunlight reflecting and refracting in droplets of water, rainbows always appear in the area of sky that is opposite of the sun’s position. Although rainbows span a full spectrum of colors, the ones seen by the human eye are usually red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
The rainbow’s shape is actually a full circle, although the upper half of the arc is typically what we see. There are several different variations of rainbows, moonbows and fogbows. What is known as a primary rainbow will show red on the outside of its arc and violet on the inside arc. A double rainbow appears when the sunlight is reflected two times inside of the water droplets and the secondary arc, outside of the primary arc, will exhibit a reversal of its colors. The red color in both arcs will be facing each other.
One rare form is called a twin rainbow. In this form, the two rainbows emerge from a single base and their colors are in the same order in each arc. Twin rainbows are thought to originate from different sized water drops. Another rarity is the development of tertiary and quaternary rainbows, when light is reflected up to three or four times within the rain drops. They are difficult to see with the naked eye, but have been photographed with sensitive camera lenses.
Another infrequent rainbow form is the stacker rainbow, also known as the supernumerary rainbow. This rainbow is made up of several faint pastel rainbows inside the main arc and sometimes outside also. Interestingly, supernumerary rainbows led to discovering the wave nature of light, first written about by Thomas Young in 1804.
Sacred Spiral, as above, so below. This form of Sacred geometry is found throughout nature, in structures as large as our galaxy and as small as the double helix in our DNA. Here we see it in a Chambered Nautilus Shell. When cut open, the structure of an almost perfect equiangular spiral is revealed. Nautilus shell spirals are logarithmic spirals with ratios averaging 1.33 to 1. These shells have sometimes been used as examples of golden spirals, however the golden spiral ratios is a bit different at 1.618 to 1. Nonetheless, the spiral is beautifully crafted by the nautilus, one of the oldest known cephalopods. The oldest fossils found are from the Early Pleistocene time period. Spirals symbolize growth and evolution; the cycle of birth and death; beginnings and endings, surrender and release of rigidity; movement between inner and outer worlds and the path from ordinary to deep intuitive understanding of reality..
The poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes, paid homage to the inspiration and mystery of the nautilus. The conclusion of his poem borrows the spiral form as a metaphor for spiritual life, growth and death:
…Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul!
…As the swift seasons roll!
…Leave thy low-vaulted past!
…Let each temple, nobler than the last,
…Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
…Till thou at length are free,
…Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!
Rainbow Spiral image was photographed with a macro lens. Macrophotography is an extreme close-up photo in which the subject size in the image is life size or greater than life size. The ratio of the subject on the plane of the sensor plate is known as the reproduction ratio. A macro lens is usually capable of producing images greater than 1:1. Reproductions of greater that 1:1 are also known as photomicrography. In this digital age, a macro photograph is practically defined as a photograph with its vertical subject matter at a height of 24mm or less.
Jeanette French, paintings, photographs, canvas prints framed prints, metallic prints, acrylic prints, greeting cards, gift cards, fine art.
Creating portals of light, love, joy, beauty, compassion, hope and gratitude is my lifelong passion and gift for the earth, hence the name of my art business, For the Earth. My mother painted in oils when I was young and encouraged my own drawing, painting and handcrafting in all forms. My father, the photographer, gave me my first camera at age 8. As a result of these loving influences, I am a lifelong student of both mediums. I am grateful to my wonderful Pacific NW painter teachers, Stan Capon and Edi Olson, for training my eye and technique. I hope you will enjoy this image as much as I enjoyed its creation. More gifts for the earth can be found at these websites: jeanette-french.artistwebsites.com and jeanette-french.pixels.com.

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March 15th, 2014

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