Volume 1. Chapter 19. Succession

Contrasts

The eye is attracted, at first, to the strongest contrasts, then to more and more diminished contrasts as the mind takes in the whole. Color, saturation, angle, active or static, there are many ways to energize and to relax a scene to tease and to satisfy the eye.

Sails after a storm

Lines in disarray like reflections on the waves.

Polyphony

Increase and overlap, adding to the light, illuminating shadows.

Receptive process

The present time is more than an instant. We luxuriate over our past fifteen minutes, during which our minds produce realities in both time and space.

Flowers

Flowers spiral among furrows. Tendrils grasp the walls. Everything under the sun basks in layers.

Fear

Nothing makes sense. Nothing connects. Repeating nothing leaves the eyes and the open mouth.

Figure

The eye draws a figure following a continuous line that isn’t visible in the figure. The figure draws a form in the mind of itself from its essence.

Balance

We know an image is right when it looks as though things in it won’t fall over. We get the feel of it having learned to stand, and to walk without falling.

Pendulum

A pendulum suspends static forces and joins with dynamics to balance gravity, momentum, and the rotation of the planet.

Tension

Movement and countermovement create tension like a cat ready to pounce.

Inscription

Each culture, each person has its own hieroglyphics speaking of the innovations of dreams and fantasy. Each device is enough to equip an enterprise of moment and depth; together, arrayed in color and detail, they astonish.

Curves

The circle symbolizes endlessness, cosmic wholeness. The spiral symbolizes life and death. The pendulum symbolizes the back and forth of time. The artist constructs, like a cosmic geometer, the meanings of existence.

Water cycle

Water cycle Water fountain Human being See where oceans become clouds, where clouds become snow, where snow melts and flows down the mountain. Water transforms and transports as a pawn of natural energies, connecting everything.