Love of Life

Inspired by the connection between beach fossils found by their children and the creatures living on earth today, artists Mark and Jennifer Berlinger turned their personal research on our vast ancestry into absorbing works of art.

In this high quality, hand signed giclee print, the artists review our planet's 4.6 billion year history through the evolution of its environment and the creatures that dwelled upon it. They bisect Earth's many diverse organisms into two easy-to-follow categories, flora and fauna. From there, they trace our lineage through millennia, back to the Pre-Cambrian period, when geologists theorized that Earth first formed from the cohesion of colliding cosmic debris. A timeline along the side illustrates the duration of each eon, era, and period in striking color. To the right of the chart, she pairs her charming watercolor creatures and plants with contemporaneous portrayals of the planet from afar, making it easy to see life change as Pangaea gradually split and formed into the continents we know today.

Beneath the grid, a pie chart shows the vastness of geological time, with annotated eons shown at relative scale. To the bottom right, a lovely list bulks all of the organisms on Earth into the six major kingdoms: archaebacteria, eubacteria, "protists", plants, fungi, and animals.

The complete piece-including illustrations of life and historical facts-has been thoroughly researched and is based on the most up-to-date scientific understanding, but truly reveals the exquisite beauty that grows throughout the diversity of life.

The print is made individually on German etching paper, using rich, 200-year archival inks. It is available in a custom-mounted, walnut finished frame, accented with off-white archival mat board that is FSC-certified for environmentally responsible production. Made in Westtown, Pennsylvania.