Inklings Gone Wild

Pillow Case Skirt with Cat

Hey! I'm still here having creative inklings like crazy.  It's just I've been doing the documenting at Project Minima.  You know, since it's about that stuff.  

And I've been so single-focused, working on it everyday as much as I can - which is a lot!  Matter of fact, I'm just taking a break right now... 

So take a look when you have a chance!

The Book of Symbols, Day 66: Peach

Day 66: Peach, gouache, 6x8 in., Otto

In appearance and in taste, the peach suggests a juicy abundance that is both natural and sacred.  Blossoming in early spring, the peach tree is a sure sign of nature's regeneration...It is reputed that when a soul eats of the sacred peach tree, it will enjoy three millennia of good health.

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 65: Apple

Day 65: Apple, gouache, 6x8 in., Otto

A botanical relative of the rose, the apple goes back to the earliest phases of human settlement; its present size and sweetness results from long domestication of its small, sour prototype...it served as a common love gift in ancient Greece, where the apple was imagined as an attribute of Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

- ARAS

The Tree of My Life, Currently

Palm Tree Construction, found objects, 9x6x5 in., Otto 

Yes, silly me as a tree from the Archetypal Stages of the Great Round of Mandala workshop I'm facilitating.  We're on Stage 7 Squaring the Circle or Owning the Light and one of the focus points was a tree as self image.

It seemed to tie together all the projects I'm involved with:  the mandala group, the symbol a day, and all the fabric and sewing of clothes.  Of course, I didn't realize that at the time of creating it - I was just going with my inklings.

The Book of Symbols, Day 64: Thistle

Day 64: Thistle, gouache, 6x8 in., Otto

Evoking one who is barbed but has a soft heart, the thistle's prickliness is associated with self-protection, impenetrability, austerity and resilience...Nevertheless, the thistle also conveys love that endures suffering and labor that endures hardship.

- ARAS

Project Minima

Photo by Otto

I have to mention here that my creative inklings are also being realized in another project that I began last month. That's why The Book of Symbols images are slowing down and not appearing every single day.  They are sharing creative time with my Project Minima endeavors.
It's all good.

The Book of Symbols, Day 63: Lotus

Day 63: Lotus, 6x8 in., Otto

As a poetic image and visual icon, the lotus symbol evokes the realization that all life, rooted in mire, nourished by decomposed matter, growing upward through a fluid and changing medium, opens radiantly into space and light.  The mire and fluidity symbolize the grosser, heavier qualities of nature, including mind's nature.  The flower, beautifully multipetalled, symbolizes the array of subtler, more lucid qualities, with the golden hue, the radiance of spirit, as its center.

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 62: Rose

Day 62: Rose, gouache, 6x8 in., Otto

Above all, roses signify love, in all its earthly and heavenly hues:  what or who we love in the present, the one we loved and have lost, and the longing for something nameless--embodied in the form and color of roses, and in the perfume that "suddenly...lies on the air like fame" (Rilke, 149)--that both beckons and mysteriously eludes us.

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 61: Lily - revisted

Day 61: Lily, gouache, 8x6 in., Otto

Equally reflective of the vital source, the deep calyx of the lily shaped into trumpet, bell and chalice shoots up in every hue from the dark earth at springtime, heralding resurrection and renewal.  Highly regenerative, the lily surfaces even after fire or drought.

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 60: Iris

Day 60: Iris, gouache, 8x6 in., Otto

It is the multicolor display of the iris that is responsible for its appellation.  Iris, meaning "rainbow" in classical Greek, was the messenger of the Olympian gods.

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 59: Flower

Day 59: Flower, gouache, 8x6 in., Otto

Flowers are incorporated into ritual and sacrament the world over, as emblems of eros, beauty, perfection, purity, fertility, joy and resurrection. The simplest form of the flower with a radial shape is a natural mandala linking the flower symbolically with the wheel and eternal, cosmic movement around a mystic and orienting center.

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 58: Garden

Day 58: Garden, gouache, 6x8 in., Otto

In almost all cultures and religions, the garden represents a sacred space, a uniting of the conscious self with its unconscious source.

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 57: Yakshi - revised

Day 57: Yakshi, gouache, 8x6 in., Otto

The female Yakshi, in particular, is identified with the life of the tree...the tree draws its sustenance directly from subterranean waters absorbed through its roots and transformed into vital sap.  The sap rises, channeled and propelled up the central trunk of the tree toward the light.  As it reaches its apex, like a fountain it spills out and over into the many branches of the tree, bringing the tree to maturity in a canopy of foilage, blooming flowers and abundant fruit.

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 56: Kabbalistic Tree

Day 56: Kabbalistic Tree, mixed media, 8x6 in., Otto

Perhaps the central teaching of this profound symbol is that there is a single structure that underpins all things...It is ultimately about the many levels, visible and invisible, that connect the primordial unity with the reality we experience every day.  

The Kabbalah teaches that this divine system has an order and a beauty of its own, and that by coming to know and align ourselves with it, we may promote greater harmony both within ourselves and in what is around us. 

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 55: Roots

Day: 55 Roots, gouache, 6x8 in., Otto

...The roots of an individual extend into layers of personal and archetypal ground.  The quality of such rooting, fostered by experience, mirroring and imagination, affects the capacity to thrive, generate new growth and creatively blossom.

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 54: Palm Tree

Day 54: Palm Tree, gouache, 8x6 in., Otto

Considered a grass rather than a tree despite its tall sturdy trunks, a palm ripens its kernels enclosed in fleshy rinds (dates) or in hard protective shells (coconuts).

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 53: Pine Tree

Day 53: Pine Tree, 8x6 in., Otto

Of all the trees, pines are the most ancient.  Bristlecone pines of Western United States are known to be the oldest living plants on Earth.  One in Nevada (since cut down by chain saw) possessed over 4,800 growth rings; it was "the oldest single living organism ever know."

- James Balog

The Book of Symbols, Day 52: Olive Tree

Day 52: Olive Tree, gouache, 6x8 in., Otto

Olive trees perpetually renew themselves from their roots.  They resurrect after fire by sprouting new shouts and are able to grow back even if their tops and trunks decay...That is the olive - symbol of the quintessence that survives the dissolution of the old forms and renews itself from the roots up.

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 51: Oak Tree

Day 51: Oak Tree, gouache, 6x8 in., Otto

Gathering strength throughout its span of life from acorn to spreading giant, the oak represents invincible, august strength.

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 50: Tree

Day 50: Tree, gouache, 8x6 in., Otto

How we long to achieve the growth the tree fosters in itself, the reach and rootage, the sturdiness and balance between high and low, the way it meets each season, holding its ground, spare or blooming.

- ARAS