So Many Inklings, So Little Time

3 Intersecting Planes by M.C. Escher

...coming fast and furious, but really, I have all the time that I need for my creative process don't ya know.

Anyway, Escher coming through, and platonic solids, and paper folding, crease patterns, and graduating light scales, and Notan or principles of shadow and light - both Jungian and design-wise, cultivating a daily creative practice workshop, and Sufism, and of course the labyrinth designs, mandalas in general, sequences, stages, phases, diagrams, geometric/ archetypal forms, systems.  

It's all in there, stirring around, re-combining, shifting, sifting.  I'm just percolating...and drawing, and being fascinated... 

A Roman Labyrinth Complete

Roman Labyrinth, graphite pencils, 7x7 in., Otto

eh,

not so interesting to me...

since the Roman labyrinth doesn't crisscross into the different quadrants until each section has completed its spiral, my overlay system hasn't much room to play out.

...turns out, when each quadrant is basically the same, the light scales lay out basically the same, and the end result is...

not so interesting to me.

A False Duality Revealed

work in progress: Roman Labyrinth

yeah..., so what I seem to find fascinating about doing these drawings is that I'm working within two very simple, structured systems: 1) the labyrinth design, and 2) the light scales. Both go in and out or forward and back in only one way - the labyrinth goes step-by-step into the center and out from the center, the light scales incrementally transition from dark to light and back again.

I wanted to overlay one system upon the other, and starting with the darkest dark at the center point of the labyrinth, follow its path around and out, by following the transitions of the light scale. Even though they were both systems of a type, the light scales were going to work at odds with the symmetry of the labyrinths. I liked the fact that even while all things were constant within their respective parameters, the drawings were unpredictable and looked, well, odd.

Drawing A Medieval Labyrinth

Chartres, graphite pencils,7x7 in.,Otto

...using light scales with graphite pencils,

its the second of a series,

apparently.  

Hey! a DIY Labyrinth Flash

...for what's called the Classical Seed Pattern Labyrinth,

subtype, the Chakra-Vyuha or Hecate Labyrinth

...as found in Mysore, India.

I do think I'm on a roll now!

Walking the Labyrinth at Dusk

digital photo by Otto; labyrinth made by Dan Raven

...in community with the Mandala group

...for the last meeting of the Winter Session.


silence 

          currents of energy

                   metaphors of life 

                                      alright-ness

Labyrinth as Light Scale - Redux

Classical 7-circuit Labyrinth, graphite pencils,6x6 in., Otto

Completed...okay, I refined it and then continued until the cycle was finished, going from dark to light and back again.

...using a combo of Creta-color graphite pencils and then some Tombow Mono Professional pencils for the H's.

hmph, interesting because using the light scales morphs the labyrinth into a different form...really sort of disguising it more than emphasizing it...almost 3-D-ing it.

hmph.

An Outdoor Labyrinth

image from Goggle Earth

...is near my house, open to the public, free to use, although not many know about it...

even though it is really huge, the labyrinth can't be seen from the perspective of the nearby street or sidewalk...

it is back a-ways, and is flat on the ground - apart of the ground - sand and bricks...

you only see it when you're there.



(...or I guess from satellite)

Light Scale Labyrinth

...using all the range of graphite pencils.

It's not really complete, as a labyrinth, that is.

Maybe not as a drawing either...perhaps I'll continue with the light scales in reverse - going from light to dark and back again - until it completes itself.

The Labyrinth is Stage 3 or Turning Toward the Journey in the Archetypal Stages of the Great Round of Mandala workshop I've been doing.