Coming Full Circle
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Art and life itself forever mirroring each other
My adult son is about to spread his wings and fly off to build a nest of his own, half way around the world. He is my only child and the moment is both bittersweet and ripe with possibility.
The great comfort of cyclicality
I might buy a small piece of land and build a yurt, or a teepee. Since reading John Fire Lame Deer two decades ago, I’ve been wanting to live in a circular home! That sentiment was reinforced by reading Buckminster Fuller and later still, by going to Burning Man and marveling at all the geodesic dome shaped structures present in so many camps.
More likely perhaps, I will stay in my loft and anchor myself deeply into my personal practice, which follows the cycles of our sun and our moon and our beloved Earth. I will simply continue to observe the cyclicality in all things, while remaining painfully aware of my own impermanence. And for a little while longer, before moving on to something entirely different, I will make digital art in the shape of orbs, often incorporating the artwork of artists I am collecting and very much wanting to celebrate.
“The circle is the synthesis of the greatest oppositions. It combines the concentric and the eccentric in a single form and in equilibrium.”–Wassily Kandinsky
The irresistible allure of orbs
Several people have asked me whether I “only” worked with circles. I suspect it’s a valid question, if you‘ve only known me a minute. The short answer is no, not by a long shot! But in the CNFT space a handful of weeks is an eternity and perhaps I’ve already been branded by the use of this surprisingly unorthodox format.
Mind you, if I had to choose a single shape for the rest of my days, I would absolutely choose the circle. It is evocative of so many of the aspects of our humanity. Immediately the indigenous circle of life comes to mind, quickly followed by the medicine wheel, the mandala, the samsaric wheel of death and rebirth, the energetic wheels of the chakras, the sacred labyrinths found on all continents and ancient prehistoric monuments such as Stonehenge, etc.
All these circular expressions point to the womb, not only the physical womb but more importantly the cosmic womb we both inhabit and contain within ourselves, as holographic expressions of the universe. This sacred place at the core of everyone’s being is the seat of our sexuality and the seat of our creativity. It is associated with the element of water and it carries the strong yet yielding feminine energy of yin. In many traditions this energetic nexus is called the second chakra, or in Sanskrit, svadisthana, which might be translated as “in your own abode”.
“Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.”–Twyla Tharp
Art is a conversation–my orbs create the perfect container for those conversations to unfold
Another question I’ve been asked as I’ve been making a lot of “mashups” is whether I also make my own art, or only borrow from others. An easy answer might be that no one creates art in a vacuum, especially if they have an internet connection. Making art for me is about having a conversation and what better way to do this than to actually dance with the energies of other artists?
This is not to say that I cannot harness my own energy and create pieces that look more like they are strictly my own. I have done that almost exclusively in the past and I will naturally do it again. I currently have two vast projects underway that are more solipsistic, shall we say.
As I continue to explore the CNFT space, I wanted to take the time to immerse myself in the proverbial metaverse. I’ve been creating and also collecting, which is one of the great joys of being a part of this nascent digital art movement. As someone who asks herself a whole lot of ontological questions, these simple orb shapes have allowed me to ask the questions and quite literally open a space within which answers may come to light. This has been far more enriching for me as an art lover, art curator and writer, than if I’d just created a bunch of boxes in my mind with definitive labels where I can mentally file every NFT I acquire. Rather, I’ve been enjoying the long conversation with some of the incredible treasures I’ve had the good fortune of collecting.
“On the seashores of endless worlds, children play.”–Rabindranath Tagore
Do I actually have anything to say?
It’s not lost on me that making mashups is also a way of holding up a mirror for others to peer into. In other words, it might be a way of deflecting. I actually worried about that for one full nanosecond. Then I remembered that I’d been in the CNFT space for barely a moment and that there was ample time for me to share my far more personal and controversial photography.
Notwithstanding my advanced age, I sense that I am on the cusp of birthing the best art of my present incarnation. For this to happen I need to be very quiet and still. Thanks to decades of personal practice I can do this while floating in and out of twitter and discord, provided I don’t second guess myself.
This might be my way of saying that until further notice, yes, I will be making more orbs, possibly even until Halloween! And during that time, I’ve made a promise to myself not to worry about folks thinking I had an especially limited repertoire.
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