London Plane Tree Bark, by Annette Hansen
This is a photograph of the bark of a London Plane tree, a type of Sycamore. Photo taken in Canandaigua, New York, by Annette Hansen. 2025
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"Tuning" Heart Cells with Acoustic Signals Using Faraday Waves!
"Heart cells are among the most densely packed in the body — about 100 million fit into a space the size of a sugar cube. The compact structure crams the cells so close together that they can communicate with one another and beat as one lump. For tissue engineers, however, it poses a tricky hurdle: Pack the cells too tightly and some won’t get proper nutrients; too loosely and they can’t coordinate a beat."
https://stanmed.stanford.edu/innovations-helping-harness-sound-acoustics-healing/
"Every Breath is Beautiful" Lung surfactant photo by Benjamin Stottrup
2nd Place at the Biophysical Society's annual Art of Science competition in 2024 went to Benjamin Stottrup for this stunning image - "Every breath you take is possible because of lung surfactant. Lung surfactant makes these intricate and beautiful patterns that vary with composition and surface pressure. This image was taken by confocal fluorescence microscopy. Sample composition is 9:1 (4:1 r:racDPPC):hexadecanol with 1.5 mol% dehydrocholesterol."
Rodent optic nerve head - photo by Hassanain Qambari and Jayden Dickson
This image of a rodent optic nerve head showing astrocytes (yellow), contractile proteins (red) and retinal vasculature (green) by Hassanain Qambari and Jayden Dickson won first place at the 2023 NSW Photomicrography competition.
https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2023-photomicrography-competition/rodent-optic-nerve-head
Lidar-Derived Aerial Maps Reveal the Dramatic Meandering Changes in River Banks Over Millennia
The processes of erosion and subsequent sediment deposition can produce some very intriguing and visually staggering imagery, whether on a small scale, or visible from satellites, as presented here.
Wherever there is nature, you will never be far from Art.
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/10/dan-coe-lidar-rivers/
Spiral Jetty: 50 Years in an Ecosystem
One of the most amazing things about Art which is meant to change within an environment as the environment changes, is the cumulative effects that change can have, when viewed over a long period of time. This artwork was meant to archive that change, as that change transformed the work of art.
It's important to revisit works like these, to get in touch with the passing of time in beautiful new ways.
"Geodesic Actin Structure" by Dong-Hwee Kim
Kim's work resulted in this beautiful image, which won 2nd place in the annual "Art of Science" image contest hosted by the Biophysical Society, in 2013!
https://www.biophysics.org/Portals/0/BPSAssets/Awards/ImageContest/
"Tree of Sand" by Brian Canavan
Sediment deposition/erosion is a natural process that produces some breath-taking imagery! Many thanks to Brian for this newest work!
"Surface of titanium carbide crystal" by Dr. Lynn Boatner and Hu Longmire
This image was captured by Differential Interference Contrast by Dr. Lynn Boatner et al of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA for the 2003 NSW competition, where it placed 15th. ...But of course I will hone in on it because it looks so much like a landscape!
"The Phoenix" by Loren Hall
This painting was a salvage operation, from the moment when I discovered that my gesso had been replaced by a cheap impostor wearing the same bucket. The gesso cracked and fell away from the masonite, and I almost gave up on this painting - and painting in general. I didn't though, and just applied more gesso over what was left in this painting. The end result was definitely an interesting surface to apply pigment to, resembling a rocky coastline where a few puzzle-pieces of gesso held on.
My work has always attempted to echo nature, by applying some of the same processes that nature uses - in this case sediment deposition (in addition to fractal field applications), to reproduce alluvial fans, river deltas, and other geological features often found in the natural world.
Pigment is applied in a highly aqueous state by pouring it over a level painting like flood waters, which move over some areas quickly, and others more slowly. Depending on the pigment grain, the individual particles settle at different rates, collecting on the surface in differing concentrations. Just like in nature, this liquid collects from these "rivers and streams" into larger "lakes and seas", which sometimes take days to dry completely in the sun.
Each consecutive layer interacts in unexpected ways with the previous, resulting in a work that was painted by nature. As the artist I just facilitated the various processes it needed to accomplish its magic.
https://blog.yourdesignjuice.com/2021/11/an-artists-life-by-loren-hall/
"Thin slab of Brazilian agate" by John I. Koivula
Submitted to the Nikon photomicrography competition in 1990, this entry won 4th place. In addition to just being a lovely piece, it has the distinctive signs of nature repeating herself - this time in the form of an alien desert landscape! And THAT, is a tell-tale sign that some natural process art is afoot!
Elin Thomas exhibition pieces, Pt. 2
The more I look at these, the more I'm taken by the feeling that what I'm looking at was not only formed by nature, but colonized by nature in a seemingly random way that has a mind of its own - apart from the artist. It is this "mind" that creates a lot of natural process art, and as an artist I can tell you that it is a joy and a wonder to work with, once you can forge a relationship with it.
I do not think that this particular artist copies mold colonial distribution exactly, mapping them all out using mathematical coordinates, but there's an overall feeling that says "this is natural", not a placement that feels labored over, or over-considered, and that requires an artist for which the natural world, its preservation and presentation, is more important than the ego, or the will of the artist.
I can highly respect that.
"Carbon Nanodiamond Particles Alter the Morphology of DPPC Monolayers" by Prajnaparamita Dhar
This entry from the 2013 competition won first place, and in spite of its rather pixelated appearance, it is indeed fascinating, and visually intriguing! It was created by using fluorescence microscopy imaging, and shows "alterations in the morphology of Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) monolayers at an air/water interface due to extended exposure (8 days) to carbon nanodiamond particles. The images show discrete dark liquid condensed phase domains in a continuous bright liquid expanded phase due to interactions with the carbon nanoparticles."
...I couldn't have said it better, myself.
"Crystals evaporated from solution of magnesium sulfate and tartaric acid" by Richard H. Lee
This image won first place in the NSW photomicrography competition, in 1990. Looking at the other entries from that year, the competition seemed to be fairly stiff. I will most definitely be posting some more images from that year!
This particular image was produced by Richard H. Lee of Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois, and looks for all the world like a fish rising to the surface of the water to me.
Flying again... 2023
This community is for people who train their own image generating models, to share their output images and videos, but until more people volunteer to do that I'll continue to post my own. I hope that's okay, and thank you for your interest!
Big crater streaks
This rocky (and sandy) moon has produced some great big displacement streaks, at the site of this meteor impact!
"A Morphological Examination of Programmed Cell Death" by Eammon Kennedy
This striking image, produced by Eammon Kennedy of Notre Dame, is a composite of six Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) topographs of cancer cells. Programmed cell death (apoptosis) has been induced by laser irradiation.
This image won 2nd place in The Biophysical Society's annual Science of Art competition, in 2017.