Jupiter Optimus Maximus is composed of three interrelated artistic realizations of an overarching vision:

Twelve paintings by Robert Ruckman
Twelve pencil and pastel drawings by William Fields
Twelve electro-acoustic sound signatures by Samuel Allen Taylor

A unified work by three artists in twelve chapters, Jupiter Optimus Maximus is available as a traveling exhibition for non-commercial venues such as museums, universities, and art centers. It is conceived as a collaborative meditation- giving the viewer a glimpse into the “dwelling place” of the intelligences of Nature. As such, the works all inform one another and interpenetrate in the sensory realm of the observer. 

Jupiter of ancient classical mythology was King of the Gods, and has aspects of bringing together and activation of all the natural forces. Each individualized consciousness of Jupiter may be understood as embodying a force of the natural world (such as electro-magnetism, radiation, gravitation, crystallization, etc.), or as precipitating an impulse of life (such as cause/effect, equilibrium, fertility, and evolution).

Each of the twelve painting and drawing pairs depicting a particular intelligence of Jupiter are exhibited together. The corresponding twelve sound signatures are projected continually throughout the space. Each is a movement of a large-scale work, with recurring periods of activity and rest.

Spatialized sound, as an invisible abstract media, is given focus and resolution by its intervallic, timbral, and motivic content. It provides the link between the seemingly polar opposite worlds of the abstraction of the paintings, and the linear definition of the drawings.

Reflection of dynamics between the three art forms, and the similarity of aesthetic sensibilities that inspirit development within them, create a symbiotic nexus of resonance- a visual and sonic domain the perceiver is moving within.