The “mandala” of chaos and order was made long before we felt the chaotic global effects of whatever caused the Covid 19 pandemic to start.
The apparent wave of “chaos”crossing my symbol for order here (from a clay clock-face which I made in my pottery days) arose out of yet another combination of chance, real liquids and solids and finally, digital art.
The order of the universe itself, plus the order which we believe we see in it, plus chaos, chance, complexity, uncertainty, the interconnection of all things . . what we do with all that : c’est la vie!
Every exit is also an entrance. From the City Called Life series
The saying, “When one door closes, another opens”, a similar way of putting it, often refers to stages of life, jobs, retirement, relationships, moving homes etc. Now in this Covid time, as so many of our usual “doors” are closed to us, we are, of necessity, learning to find new ways to satisfy our human needs.
I made this picture, a long time ago, of the entrance/exit of a nearby shopping mall, just as it was closing for the night. It is made from a juxtaposition of two photos, one of people entering, one of people exiting. Now I am reminded of that saying any time I go there!
This was the first picture in my Covid project, Barbara’s Bits, and because those emails were originally going out to a group that was Buddhist-orientated, tho with members of all different backgrounds, it had a meditation theme.
This shows a person sitting (meditating or not, as you like) on a mountainside or hillside, the slope between where we are, and where we might like to be, and becoming still, despite the thunder and lightning crashing all around.
The lightning comes close, wavers around their head, but passes over them and they weather the storm. I made it a few years ago. This time of pandemic is a terrible “storm” we are in now, and we don’t know what may happen to any of us, but we are all trying, each with what we are given, to BE in it, in the best way we can.
So whether you: Meditate (sitting,walking or lying down); Question, or Inquire; Sit in Silence at home or in a Meeting; do Yoga; attend a place of worship; simply walk in appreciation of Nature in all its forms; delve into The Great Mystery; chant; practice compassion ; work with your anxiety, or a great many other possibilities, I hope you can relate to this.
Here’s an abstract which I originally called “Red Square.” . . . until it dawned on me that perhaps that was not a good name since it might be taken as meaning a place of that name in Russia, so then I called it “Message”. . . until it dawned on me that people might ask what the message was! And I had no message about this one ; it’s just an abstract!
No two people looking at someone or something will be seeing quite the same thing, nor all the history behind the person or object they think they are seeing.
If there’s a “message” in this, it is: “As in art, so in life.” We all look at everything through our own personal “filters”: our own darkness, light, sharpness etc, and through our own life histories.
We name what we see, sometimes automatically without thought (red square!). Sometimes our naming is learnt, sometimes we just don’t know what to call that which we see or experience. But every thing and person holds so much more than is obvious at first sight. We know that, but sometimes we forget it.
You can find more about the technique, one of my main methods, and to see what this was made from, go to Art Methods.
