Oh Artists....

Draft of Hyperbolic Space

Not a high resolution photo of not a complete painting.

The original title for this piece was "Does Not Exist," Which I think is still a very suiting title.  I just found out I first started this canvas in September 2011, you can see my first image in this link.

1)  Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid:

"A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll".

By exploring common themes in the lives and works of logician Kurt Gödel, artist M. C. Escher and composer Johann Sebastian Bach, GEB expounds concepts fundamental to mathematics, symmetry, and intelligence. Through illustration and analysis, the book discusses how self-reference and formal rules allow systems to acquire meaning despite being made of "meaningless" elements. It also discusses what it means to communicate, how knowledge can be represented and stored, the methods and limitations of symbolic representation, and even the fundamental notion of "meaning" itself.

This idea is represented throughout the work.  Fugue is a perpetual loop, a melodic harmony that can layer itself one over the other.  The image itself is full of mathematics and symmetry, where certain ratios and shapes are in perfect alignment with every other element in the work. 

2) Polyhydra or The Platonic Solids:  

Through history, polyhedra have been closely associated with the world of art. The peak of this relationship was certainly in the Renaissance. For some Renaissance artists, polyhedra simply provided challenging models to demonstrate their mastery of perspective.  For others, polyhedra were symbolic of deep religious or philosophical truths.  For example, Plato's association in the Timaeus between the Platonic solids and the elements of fire, earth, air, and water (and the universe) was of great import in the Renaissance.  This was tied to the mastery of geometry necessary for perspective, and suggested a mathematical foundation for rationalizing artistry and understanding sight, just as renaissance science explored mathematical and visual foundations for understanding the physical world, astronomy, and anatomy.  For other artists, polyhedra simply provide inspiration and a storehouse of forms with various symmetries from which to draw on.  This is especially so in twentieth century sculpture, free of the material and representational constraints of earlier conceptions of sculpture. 

I have hidden numerous Polyhydra within the work, including cubes, hexagons, and star tetrahedrons.

3) String Theory/ Einstein's Unified Field Theory
In my own words, all I want to say is that there are many different ideas out there.  With the current models for Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity, there is no law that functions for one as it does the other.  Essentially these two very separate fields of study have no commonalities.  And we continue to follow the rules and laws we have set in place because 99% of the time it works.  Einstein was the one who came up with the philosophy that there exists something that unite these two fields of study.  String theory claims to have solved this age old problem, however there have been multiple "answers," just none accepted by the masses.

This work represents the miniscule- quantum mechanics through mathematics, and the infinitely  large- general relativity through space.  All these elements will mirror each other once you reach a certain degree, such as the harmonic scale starts over when you reach the next octave.

4) Ying Yang/The Torus
Most people have always known that the yinyang symbol stands for balance of opposites.  But around a year ago when I first saw this video and herd research on the Torus, I was a little blown away.  A deep obsession of mine has always been black holes.  The idea behind the Torus is that it moves inward and outward through its core into space and back again.  Perpetual loop (Theme of GEB at the top)  Some believe black holes to work this way, matter and particles being sucked in and spit out again.  At the center of every galaxy (including ours) exists a black hole, and currently we are being spit out.  




As you must have noticed at the exact center of this work is an yinyang symbol, which is also the eye of the gecko.

5)  Soundwaves, Frequencies, and Music
Light and sound exists as waves.  Each has a unique wavelength, or frequency.  Every element in the universe has a frequency.  Cymatics.  Just saying.
Our current harmonic scale was invented by Pythagoras.  One note is different from its parent by half of the string's length.  So by sectioning a piece of sting in half, and a half of a half, and a half of that half, and so on gives you the scale of A B C D E F G, then it repeats an octave.  Perpetual loop.

I have imbedded this as imagery within the sphere.  Along with one of M.C. Eshers's images called "Circle Limit."  How this was achieved:  Take 6 consecutive circles and have them intersect each other just past the larger circles edge.  Take circles that are half their diameter and then place down 12 circles, all intersecting at the larger circles intersection.  Repeat this effect and you will notice that from the absolute center of the main circle outward, all the other circles intersect along a line at a ratios of 2:1.  Our harmonic scale.  This also represent infinity, because if you follow this pattern you will never come to the edge of the main circle. Its in other word expanding at an exponential rate.

 Look up "Mathmagic Land" from 1976.  Once again references back to mathematics, music, and Lewis Carrol
I must be an egghead.

6) Mandalas  

Sanskrit for ‘circle’ or ‘center’, mandalas have been used for thousands of years by indigenous elders and spiritual traditions, as a way of giving form to their prayers and weaving visions into the fabric of reality.  In nature, the ‘circle with a center pattern is the basic structure of all creation and is reflected everywhere we look. The center of a seed, a flower, a piece of fruit. The circling rings of stone dropped into water and the spiraling shape of a tiny seashell, up to the wide circular pattern of storms, celestial currents, the Sun, our solar system – and beyond! Every atom and every cell with its nucleus is a mandala.  In the Americas, Indians have long created medicine wheels and sand mandalas for healing and as a gateway to communion with the Divine.  In Tibet, mandalas have been used throughout the ages as an active form of meditation and integral part of spiritual practice. The creation of sand mandalas can take many hours or days to complete. When finished, monks gather in ceremony and they sweep their mandala away, emptying it into a nearby body of water as a blessing.  From Christian nuns to Aztec shaman, mandalas in various forms have been drawn, carved and created throughout the ages to infuse our visions with energy, to unify groups around an idea and to help ‘Dream Our World into Being’.  Pioneering psychiatrist Carl Jung used mandalas extensively in his own personal growth and as a way of communicating and understanding his clients’ subconscious.  He saw them as a “safe refuge of inner reconciliation and wholeness.” Today mandalas are even being used in European schools and hospitals as a way of calming, centering and enlivening patients and children.  Representing wholeness, mandalas can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself, as a doorway into you are on the artistic path of life, you are surely in the right place to begin.

If you haven't noticed, the whole composition encompasses many elements of classical Tibetan mandalas.  The major one being the square, also known as "gateway of the universe."  The whole image works from the center point outward, and tries to express a form of enlightenment, a higher knowledge that can not be explained, but only experienced. 

7) Geckos 
  To read about the Gecko you can find more at this earlier post.

J-One

I must be slowly slipping away.

Living in Your Head

Don't confuse the idea of something with the object itself.

Mastery comes from the experience of something, not the expectation.

Do it because you want to, not because it's what you were told.

I've spent hours in front of a canvas this weekend, and the more time you spend in silence the more realizations that come to fruition.   These are ideas from the past, only to become true to my painting and my life once again.

Let me explain more clearly.

With myself and the people around me, I can often see that we become caught up with the idea of something.  In your head you have it all planned out, it's there, it even feels real.  In your head it's the truth, and gets to the extent that it is your reality.  It is important to let go of this misconception, because what is in your head isn't always (if ever) what is really happening.  This is how to master your reality.

In order to become a master of anything, there is a certain amount of focus and experience that needs to happen.  You can not just pick up any object and know it.  First you must hold it, then use it, and after many many hours will you then start to understand it. When you have mastered it, it's no longer a separate entity but part of you, an extension of yourself.  Don't expect to know it because you've been told.

Lastly, no one needs to do anything the way its been taught in the past.  Learn the rules so that later you may break them.   The only reason there has been any improvement or evolution in the world is because others were willing to try something new.  Be on the leading edge, do what feels right in the moment, and always create your own path.  Sure you shouldn't try to reinvent the wheel, but why not toss it out and just learn to fly?

Just some dizzy thoughts from a paint filled weekend.