Perfect Love
Ray-traced (Bryce5)
2004

How was it created?

The desert model is a height map I created and modified using Bryce erosion effects, and a layered material map for the rock surface.  The rose was modeled as a smooth mesh, and the casing uses a glass material with a medium index of refraction.  Sky and cloud textures were added along with some fog to finish it off.

What Does it mean?

The rose is meant to represent love. Miraculously it can blossom in very harsh environments (even within a cruel society). However, love is often created within people's minds, and we all dream of a kind of "perfect love". Unfortunately, no love is perfect, so actually we cannot experience the joy or pain of perfect love, just as we cannot touch, smell, or be injured by a rose that is trapped in glass. The inspiration for this image originally came from a movie I watched many years back called "Shadowlands". It is a true story about the life of CS. Lewis, the famous author and Oxford Professor. There is a scene in the movie in which he talks about the definition of "platonic" love with his students, and compares it to a rose trapped in glass.