seventeen :: circle
hello friends. after a bit of hiatus, i'm happy to welcome back the documentary project that shari and i collaborate on.
shari actually chose this word a long long time ago. but we are just now getting to it. i dunno about shari - but i sure felt out of practice. i also simultaneously felt very glad to be working on this again. it's a reason to look around - a reason to take photos [something that has been sorely lacking in my life since returning from japan]. so with out further ado -
SHARI's response
i chose the word circle a long while back. at the time, i was thinking of life and how i used to feel it was more linear. high school, college, career, etc. etc. lately, i've been thinking of life more as a circle like a life cycle. the photos i took are from a walk at the eno and at the nc botanic gardens. the cyclical, circular aspect of life is always so much more evident in nature i think. therefore, i was drawn to the natural circles found in my everyday landscape.
circles: repetition, walking in circles, continuing, never ending. around and around we go!
MY response
when shari first said circle i couldn't help but think of circles as a primary shape. how they can be transformed and combined with other primaries to create new shapes. i also thought of the six feet under episode when claire is in art school and is complaining that one of her teachers i making her practice drawing the perfect circle. ha! i've never had that assignment - nor would i give it - but it makes me laugh.
circular tools [thanks gwen! ] on a polka dot fabric [the double circle]. i then thought about how i do love circles in art. how they can represent closure - a sense of "zen" - repeated they start to become something else - they go beyond their one-ness.
as i looked around me circles really popped up everywhere. they are just so handy - jars, buttons, clocks, candles, camera lens, plates, tomatoes, plums. it's funny how you know something, but don't SEE something until you concentrate [why i like this project]
i then started thinking about the duality of the circle. so it can symbolize a closed space - a family [circle of trust] or something eternal [like a wedding ring]. if you leave an end just a tad open it starts to represent something else - a means to escape or a way in - a dragon eating its own tail. it can mean eternity in a good way, but also in a bad way [running in circles - going round and round in an argument]. this fascinates me.
in my life and art things often seem circular. i return again and again to colors, shapes, ideas, thoughts, patterns.... i never seem to be totally finished with them.
lovely sunflowers w/ their deep brown center. planted for my by my husband! :D
where do you see circles in your life???
don't forget that shari also is hosting a week of elements in photos on her blog today. looks like a lot of fun. i'm going to try and participate at least one day. fingers crossed.
shari actually chose this word a long long time ago. but we are just now getting to it. i dunno about shari - but i sure felt out of practice. i also simultaneously felt very glad to be working on this again. it's a reason to look around - a reason to take photos [something that has been sorely lacking in my life since returning from japan]. so with out further ado -
SHARI's response
i chose the word circle a long while back. at the time, i was thinking of life and how i used to feel it was more linear. high school, college, career, etc. etc. lately, i've been thinking of life more as a circle like a life cycle. the photos i took are from a walk at the eno and at the nc botanic gardens. the cyclical, circular aspect of life is always so much more evident in nature i think. therefore, i was drawn to the natural circles found in my everyday landscape.
circles: repetition, walking in circles, continuing, never ending. around and around we go!
MY response
when shari first said circle i couldn't help but think of circles as a primary shape. how they can be transformed and combined with other primaries to create new shapes. i also thought of the six feet under episode when claire is in art school and is complaining that one of her teachers i making her practice drawing the perfect circle. ha! i've never had that assignment - nor would i give it - but it makes me laugh.
circular tools [thanks gwen! ] on a polka dot fabric [the double circle]. i then thought about how i do love circles in art. how they can represent closure - a sense of "zen" - repeated they start to become something else - they go beyond their one-ness.
as i looked around me circles really popped up everywhere. they are just so handy - jars, buttons, clocks, candles, camera lens, plates, tomatoes, plums. it's funny how you know something, but don't SEE something until you concentrate [why i like this project]
i then started thinking about the duality of the circle. so it can symbolize a closed space - a family [circle of trust] or something eternal [like a wedding ring]. if you leave an end just a tad open it starts to represent something else - a means to escape or a way in - a dragon eating its own tail. it can mean eternity in a good way, but also in a bad way [running in circles - going round and round in an argument]. this fascinates me.
in my life and art things often seem circular. i return again and again to colors, shapes, ideas, thoughts, patterns.... i never seem to be totally finished with them.
lovely sunflowers w/ their deep brown center. planted for my by my husband! :D
where do you see circles in your life???
don't forget that shari also is hosting a week of elements in photos on her blog today. looks like a lot of fun. i'm going to try and participate at least one day. fingers crossed.
Comments
dress circle (very lisa),
circle graph,
circlet worn on the head...
i always think
of the circular
graphs
on our chamber doors
that tell
us
that the chamber temps
are on track.
i need
to send you some
you'd love them.
xo
you've both really hit on something when you mention the duality of a circle. i love the annie dillard quote: 'i would like to learn, or remember, how to live.' the idea that if life is indeed circular and not linear, we are meant to learn something, but keep forgetting...the circle becoming a snare, rather than the thing that teaches us to live, the thing that sets us free.
anyhow, i have a bad habit of mixing metaphors...so what i really should say is, thank you for the thought-provoking post, and all the beautiful photos.
i like circles because there is no beginning or end; i have been thinking a lot about the changing of seasons lately, and that i have been through this circle/cycle so many times, but it is different each time.
love the images :)
andrea, marsha and kat - thanks so much for coming by for the first time and leaving such kind thoughts....
shari... me too ... me too....
xo
Lisa, I love your thoughts on 'zen', definitely an influence from Japan? :) I love the thought processes and how they're integrated in your art.
also thinking about your thoughts on the duality of the circle. i think for me those 2 things are inseparable when i think about circles, the positive and negative... i associate going around and around with being trapped, but i also love the imagery of things like the wedding ring. i think what is most positive to me about the circle as a cycle, as revisiting as you talked about with your work, is returning to the same point in one sense but with a different perspective.
xox
The funny thing is that since I read about you experience in Japan, where the children wanted to know what colour the circle should be and the radius (after you asked the to draw a circle) I have been thinking about circles... and now this project. I love the idea and the associations.
I must say that you have done a appreciated work on this documentary project, which really show's the different aspect of circle's in the normal life, this is a very sensible documentary. I am sure that everyone will like this.
Shawn
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www.widecircles.name