This and That and Everything
I’ve started 2 new series, one spilling over into the other. I would like to write about how this idea came about in my next post.
It has a lot to do with abstract calligraphy and my dabbles in Daoism and Zen. This picture is the fifth in the new series and I like it the best so far. So I want to present it separately. It probably doesn’t need any further explanation, so I’ll be brief.
The objects in the picture, if you want to see them as objects, appear like characters in Chinese calligraphy and are composed accordingly. (Classic Chinese calligraphy is almost always read from the top right to the bottom, with the next line starting at the top again).
As for Dao or Zen: Right in the center of the picture, you can see a landscape that suggests details both nearby and far in the distance. And yet the part is embedded in a construction that suggests that there is much more beyond this landscape. It is reinforced by the fact that the object at the top right is pointing far into the distance. The same goes for the object at the bottom right.
These two points lead to the vertical pink line, which adds a lot of power to the image.
What is always important to me is the harmonious juxtaposition of extremes. In this case: coarse :: fine, movement :: calm, abstract :: concrete, height :: depth, solid :: ethereal etc.
related: painted calligraphy, gestural surrealism
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