oil and acrylic on panel, 24"x30", 2005. Stars are furnaces for life-supporting elements. A star is a gravitationally-contained nuclear explosion which, under extreme pressure and temperature, converts hydrodgen into helium and then up through the periodic table until iron is produced. At this point, the star becomes a victim of its own gravity and explodes in a massive event called a supernova. This force of this explosion is enough to create all the other elements after iron, and it sends life-sustaining particles out into the universe where they can seed life.