Digital Graphic

I created these swirling shapes by filtering and manipulating a photo of the Christmas lights I use to decorate my house. I used warm and cool colors to represent the hot and cold water that swirls and mixes in the vicinity of deep-sea hydrothermal vents - seafloor features which I have viewed near the Galapagos Islands via high definition video from a robotic submersible. Despite extreme pressure and temperatures as high as 750 degrees Fahrenheit, life finds a way to thrive in the vicinity of these vents.