In organic chemistry we learn that a carbon can form only four bonds but it has no limits in what can be formed. We can go on and on by adding as many carbons as we want to another carbon or add alkyl halides to it or other carbon branches. We can choose a chemical formula and draw the molecule in many different ways. The only problem to this is that by connecting them in different ways we cannot say that they are the same even though they do have the same chemical formula. So we introduce the isomers.
Molecules could have the same chemical formula but to be different in the same time. If the molecule is chiral then we should expect that its mirror image is not the same. They will both have the same melting points, boiling points and densities, but they will deflect light differently. One will deflect light to the left and the other one will deflect light to the right. There are some molecules that not only they deflect light but when it comes to interact with an odour-receptor, they will have a different odour. We have two examples: the (R)-carvone and the (S)-carvone. The (R)-carvone is also known as the spearmint because of its strong odour of mint; and the (S)-carvone is also known as caraway because of its weak odour. To represent this, on one side of the painting we have the flower that represents the spearmint and on the other side we have the flower that represents the caraway. The two flowers are painted in different sides and do not overlap because I wanted to have the effect of the mirror but as in a way to say that not everything that is reflected is the same. The fact that I also showed the bond-line formula should prove it. We can see that the bond-line formula is the mirror image of each other, but in the case of the flowers, is not the same. Each enantiomer represents something completely different. They are mirror image but even where they have been extracted from looks different. The other thing that is different is the color that I used for the cloud that goes from the plants to the noses. That cloud represents the odour. The fact that I used different colors for it means that they don't have the same odour. This is the part where the odor-receptor should have its role because in that cloud we have the enantiomers that enter into the nose, to the receptor. Like it has been explained, the spearmint has a stronger odour and the caraway has a weaker odour. That is due because of the interaction of the enantiomers and the odour-receptor. The only thing that is the same in this painting is the background color. I didn't use a lighter yellow or a darker yellow. I just used the color yellow for both sides. The color yellow could be interpretive as the sun or heat. Why would the sun have a relation to the enantiomers? Well it does not have a relation to the enantiomers but to the flowers itself. For a plant to grow needs sun light. That's what we call the process of photosynthesis. I wanted to show that in this organic world everything is connected.



