The Book of Symbols, Day 35: Solstice

Day 35: Solstice, gouache, 7x7 in., Otto

Rather, solstice reflects a numinous simultaneity of the sun's standing at an extreme and turning into the opposite, a divine rotation of ascent and descent that makes of light and darkness one.

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 32: Spark

Day 32: Spark, interference acrylic, 7x7 in., Otto

The origins of the word spark attest to its fertile, spermlike quality, as well as its animating, vital essence.

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 14: Whirlpool

Day 14: Whirlpool, collage, mixed media, 6x6 in., Otto

The vortex produced by these currents can appear to create an aperture, falling away into immeasurable depths, sucking all things into the void and then disgorging them again.

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 8: Eclipse

Day 8: Eclipse, collage, 6x6 in., Otto

Eclipse conveys the idea of the ego being overshadowed by the unconscious 
or
the ego itself 
blocking the essential source of illumination.

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 6: Moon

Day 6: Moon, prismacolor pencil, 6x6 in., Otto

And still, in the night sky, her "same clear glory extends for ten thousands miles."   - Tu Fu, Full Moon

The Book of Symbols, Day 5: Sun II

Day 5: Sun II, collage, mixed media, 6x6 in., Otto

Seemed a more fulfilling Sun was necessary…


...so along came Sun II

The Book of Symbols, Day 4: Sun I

Day 4: Sun I, collage, mixed media, 6x6 in., Otto

Spirit and matter –
the transparency of consciousness
and the crystallation of light as focus –
coalesce in the golden disk of the sun.

- ARAS

The Book of Symbols, Day 3: Star

Day 3: Star, collage, 6x6 in., Otto

Stars tell us of the infinite,
the visionary,
of something in ourselves that is starlike,
star stuff.

- ARAS

Cultivating A Daily Creative Practice

All Manner of Spirals

Just had my practice practice group last night, and here is the result of my participation in the “20 expressions in 20 minutes” task.

Check out the site at Daily Creative Practice to see more.

Proteus: a 19th Century Vision

O!M!G! I saw this film last night...I am speechless.

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)

When a Name Does Not a Pencil Make

But first, here's a light scale mandala using my new Prismacolor Turquoise Drawing Pencils - 20 of them ranging from 9B to 9H.  

I very much dislike the feel of these pencils -- they're  inconsistent, rough and scratchy, and often mismarked.  

Perhaps they've disintegrated in quality after all the company buy outs.  I can remember them being labeled as Venus, Eagle and Berol Turquoise pencils over the years,  prior to this latest Prismacolor takeover.

Rolling, Rolling

...down a light scale mandala using my Faber-Castell 9000 drawing pencils (6B -5H) from Germany.