Ties That Bind (more in progress)
“Mandalas are everywhere. They are the structures of our cells, our world, and our universe.” -Author Unknown
Working on this paper cutting slowly but surely. Taking my time with it. Thinking about colors, etc..
“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think.
When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” -Buddha
Music: Bert Jansch – October Song
Happy October.
Autumn Movement
I took these photos during my first autumn back in Kansas in 2009.. I’m guilty of saying that every season is my favorite season at the turning of each, but when I boil it down, autumn really is the one I feel the closest connection with for various reasons. I picked up a mountain bike today — looking forward to exploring my trails further on my non-running mornings, especially now that the trees are really starting to turn.
Autumn Movement
by Carl Sandburg
I cried over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.
The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper sunburned woman,
the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.
The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes, new beautiful things
come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind, and the old things go,
not one lasts.
Shel Silverstein – The Voice
Sacred Earth :: Sunset
This evening I went to the Lied Center at the University of Kansas to see Ragamala Dance: Sacred Earth. From the Lied Center: Ragamala Dance brings the sensibility of mysticism and sanctity of the 2,000-year-old Indian dance form, bharatanatyam, to the contemporary stage. By interfacing choreography with live Indian music and the visual traditions of kolams and Warli paintings, Sacred Earth celebrates body and nature, and soul and earth. It was really enjoyable. The Warli paintings that they used as backdrops are monotone and have a very similar quality to traditional paper cuttings.
The Lied Center sits on a hill and I had a perfect view of the sunset to the west and the moonrise to the east as I was going in. My iphone pic doesn’t do any justice – the sunsets lately have been really spectacular. And an FYI: tomorrow, Sept. 29, is the harvest moon.
Write-up on Artdog Observations
Many thanks to artist/ paper sculptor Jan Gephardt for featuring my artwork on her write-up on Artdog Observations about paper artists exhibiting in the Kansas City area recently. Other artists included in her review are Dan Bi and Kent Davis. An excerpt: I love the “design” feel of her cut-paper work, where color is used strategically in a limited palette, to maximum effect. Pickman’s subjects are usually somewhat mystical, and always seem to reference nature in one way or another. Read the rest HERE or click the image above.
Gray Autumn Days
‘Twas a morning coated with fog. The trees are turning and the gray skies make a perfect backdrop to bring out the vibrant reds and oranges. I went for my usual run, and because of the fog, I could only see a little ways ahead and a little ways behind. I didn’t even realize I was approaching my mid-mark until I was almost upon it. Today I stopped at that mark and ventured down the hill past the tree line to explore whatever might lay behind. I found myself in a circular meadow between the trail and the river naturally fenced in by trees with lots of tall grasses dotted with yellow wildflowers and queen anne’s lace. I sat on the ground and the tall grasses came over the top of my head. The fog creating a light haze and obscuring views of anything past the immediate scene made it all very dreamlike. I stayed for as long as I could.
Ties That Bind – More In Progress
Conjoined mandalas.. I had a dream involving a mandala the other night. It was made of concrete and it was floating in the sky in place of the sun. Mandalas mean different things in different cultures. When I started doing these circular geometric shapes, they were representative of something microscopic — something that you’d have to look deeply at to see. The more I made, the more I enjoy making them. There’s certainly a meditational aspect of it for me. I also love the fact that they are infinite – I could continually add layers if I had the paper.
I’m referencing information I got off of Wikipedia here: According to the psychologist David Fontana, its symbolic nature can help one “to access progressively deeper levels of the unconscious, ultimately assisting the meditator to experience a mystical sense of oneness with the ultimate unity from which the cosmos in all its manifold forms arises.” The psychoanalyst Carl Jung saw the mandala as “a representation of the unconscious self,” and believed his paintings of mandalas enabled him to identify emotional disorders and work towards wholeness in personality.
According to Google, mandalas are:
1. A geometric figure representing the universe in Hindu and Buddhist symbolism.
2. Such a symbol in a dream, representing the dreamer’s search for completeness.