3t’s Neo-Renaissance Exploration of Art, Science, and Nature

In the spaces between light and shadow, chaos and order, the seen and unseen, my art emerges as a visceral dialogue with the natural and metaphysical worlds. As an artist, scientist, and conservationist, my practice transcends traditional boundaries, weaving together a tapestry of inquiry that explores the interstitial zones of existence—those liminal spaces where beauty and meaning often go unnoticed.

The Art of the In-Between
My latest collection of paintings, “Spandrel Spaces: The Art of In-Between,” reflects my fascination with residual realms—the unintentional spaces created by the intersections of structure, purpose, and design. Borrowing from the architectural concept of the “spandrel,” these paintings embrace the serendipitous beauty of what is often overlooked: the pauses in conversation, the quiet crannies of nature, the fertile undergrowth of a rainforest, and the nuanced spaces of cultural interplay.

Inspired by the rainforest where I reside, each painting embodies the dense textures of trees, vines, soil, and the chthonic forces that bind them. My technique is immersive and primal: I employ paintbrushes, palette knives, machetes, wood fragments, and even my bare hands to carve and layer intricate ecosystems on my canvases. This physical process is a ritual—a rhythmic dance between body and spirit, a deliberate orchestration of space and soul. My art becomes a responsive arena, a place where primal intuition meets deliberate creation.

A Neo-Renaissance Vision

As a self-described “neo-Renaissance artist,” I draw on a lifetime of multidisciplinary experiences. Through these diverse pursuits, I have cultivated a philosophy of interconnectedness. I see art, science, and nature as inseparable threads of the same inquiry. This ethos echoes the Renaissance ideal: to blur the boundaries between disciplines, celebrate human potential, and explore the mysteries of the natural world. As a Fellow of the Linnean Society and the World Academy of Art & Science, I carry forward a tradition of intellectual curiosity and ecological stewardship, embodying the spirit of inquiry that defines the Renaissance while grounding it in contemporary challenges.

Cultural Layers and Identity

Born an Iranian Zoroastrian in Kenya, and raised in London from age ten, my years after college were in British theater as a designer and scenic artist. I spent several years as a ‘ambient architect’ within the rave scene in the UK in the late 1980s and spent two exploratory years traveling in India. In the mid-90s I sailed the oceans for three years on a Chinese junk, diving to study coral reefs. My identity is as layered as my canvases. Each place I have lived is a spandrel space—a site of cultural collision, rich in the interplay of belonging and estrangement. My work reflects these complexities, transforming personal experience into universal explorations of human and ecological connection.

In Puerto Rico, where i now reside since 2000, my work as director of Las Casas de la Selva in Patillas spans sustainable forestry, reforestation, conservation horticulture, and the study of critically endangered species, which informs and enriches my art with scientific precision and ecological awareness. I co-founded Puerto Rico Hardwoods, salvaging and repurposing timber from fallen trees after Hurricane Maria. This endeavor mirrors my artistic philosophy: to find value in the over-looked, the discarded; to transform potential loss into sustainable creation. The salvaged wood becomes both a physical medium and a metaphor, a bridge between destruction and regeneration.

The Chthonic and the Sublime

My paintings are deeply influenced by the chthonic forces of nature—the primal energies that churn beneath the surface. Each work seeks to uncover the hidden life of the rainforest: the unseen mycelial networks, the vibrant chaos of growth, the silent wisdom of interconnected roots. These themes are expressed through dynamic, layered compositions that capture the dualities of life: chaos and harmony, destruction and renewal, light and shadow.

Titles such as Filamentaspiralis silvestris or Luminomycedes nocturnalis reflect my fascination with the scientific naming of plants and fungi, infusing my work with a sense of discovery and reverence for the natural world. My art becomes a metaphorical herbarium, a collection of life forms both real and imagined, rooted in the interplay of science and mysticism.

An Invitation to Pause and Reflect

I create art not just to be seen but to be experienced. I invite viewers to pause, to inhabit the spaces between perception and intuition, to discover the electric mysteries that pulse in the margins of existence. My work is a call to embrace the overlooked, to find beauty in the accidental, and to reconnect with the intricate web of life that surrounds us.

In these interstitial spaces, art becomes a bridge—a spandrel—linking the physical and metaphysical, the personal and universal, the ecological and the existential. My paintings are not simply objects but explorations, not static creations but living dialogues. They ask us to consider: what lies in the spaces we fail to notice? What beauty awaits in the in-between?

Thrity “3t” Vakil, Patillas, Puerto Rico