In the Round

Looking Glass

As I make initial preparations for a new suite of drawings for an upcoming show in the early spring, I find myself contemplating a circular format. I made this piece today as a way to get my feet wet, so to speak. And I started making a list of things that are round....writing them down in my sketchbook as they came to mind. Coins, the sun and moon, the earth, spirals, buttons, spools, wheels are all round...or circular...or spherical, I suppose. Since I am thinking in two dimension (drawing on paper), I think of all these things merely as round. Then there is "circle" or "round" as a metaphor, which called to mind the cycle of the seasons, mirrors, magnifying and looking glasses. Somehow I stopped there....at the notion of the "looking glass."

I thought about the notion of the lens and how we are continually seeing the world through the lens of our own experience and physicality. And too, there are magnifiers, microscopes and telescopes to extend our vision, to see the far reaches of the cosmos....the infinitely far away, in time and in space, as well as the infinitesimally small. We continue to learn about the vastness of the microscopic world and the interconnectedness of the roots of trees and plants, the microorganisms that dwell there....seemingly infinite worlds reside in a speck of dirt...or of dust and somehow these worlds seem to mirror or echo what we see in the larger cosmos. Or maybe they form a kind of circle. I think there is something worth exploring in a new group of drawings....in the round.

Like much of the country suffering from frigid temperatures, we've been plunged into the winter season and are finding the cold a bit of a shock. Already there is ice flowing down the Missouri River and I suspect soon it will appear more like a solid sheet of ice. In the last 9 years, I don't recall the river has actually really frozen, as there are always some channels open, but there is a definite frozen quality to the surface that makes you feel as if you could walk across to Nebraska on the other side. A little snow on Friday served up the gentle reminder of the coming months.

December 12, 2016

I'll leave you with today's daily drawing....hope it brings a note of cheer! Enjoy the rest of your week...hope it is full of inspiration and joy.