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