I’ve spent a lot of the pandemic gazing into the microcosm. There was not much room to paint, with all the galleries closed. So I have taken to microphotography, as it takes a lot less storage space. Lately, I have been wandering around the neighborhoods of New York, then returning home to culture my dog’s and my own paws on agar plates, then I wait to see what grows, and then I photograph it. The microsphere is beautiful. It’s not our enemy. We are a part of an intricate, complex, glorious biosphere that fractals into whole new worlds on every scale.

(Just to be clear, I’m not interested in being the Timothy Treadwell of the microsphere. I wash my hands, don’t kiss microbes on the lips, and treat them with respect. I don’t expect them to change their fundamental natures just because I appreciate them. Some bacteria are harmful to our physiology, and given the difficulty of telling them apart, it’s best to treat ALL of them with a healthy respect. But understanding that one must be cautious around them still doesn’t make them all our enemy, and “killing 99% of germs!” isn’t a rational, reasonable, or ecologically sound response to them. Being cautious is reasonable. But, given that the vast, vast majority of microbes are beneficial and/or harmless to us, pretending this is some kind of war between Us and Them is just not helpful.)

Plus, just look at them. They’re beautiful.

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