Everyone's 'pecial

People watching is one of my favorite pastimes. So many to choose from to capture in a moment. They're out in public on display. This time I spent looking at people on the Kona "stroll," a time when  the Kailua-Kona shops are open late in the evening.

Mandala: I Ching

When I was twelve, I went looking for a "Chinese Magic Book" and found the I Ching. Didn't figure out or understand what to do with it, so took it back. But then I checked it out again when I found a magazine article about how to toss coins to access the I Ching's oracle function.

I was fascinated, partly because the symbols and what they meant came from a completely different source than my Western history experience.

I've been consulting the I Ching during every life-change since then, with some interesting results. Asking the same sort of question twenty years apart can result in the exact same result.

Before I really knew anything about how to interpret, I tossed the coins (in the presence of three other people, my friends Cathy Danzeisen and Steph Holbein and Jim McManus)TEN times in a row - coming up with #29 - the chasm of an Abyss repeated -  in either the first or second position. The last time I tossed, it was the complete duplicate of the first - so I stopped.

I was in a life-changing choice, and the I Ching wanted to say that I had previously foreseen this situation and had already decided what I was going to do. I shouldn't change my mind now (remain aligned with my "true" nature." But I didn't know what exactly that meant and made the wrong decision to do something differently - with disastrous results. I left the support of my friends and situations I knew.

I think I'll be making some more images imcluding the I Ching, and possibly be revisiting more mandala shapes...

Antennae

Sometimes, strange images come out. Dream-like. This one I had imaged would be discovered on the sea floor, stuck inside of a shell deep and away. It happened when some humans went back to the ocean, but - unlike cetaceans - didn't swim around.
Also I always wondered what would happen if people had antennae. In a way, out senses work to "feel out" the world around us, like radio beacons...sending and receiving.

Underseascape

Was lucky to find a prescription mask in a second-hand shop, which made snorkeling a really different experience. Found out that if I tucked my keys into my suit so they didn't dangle, the fish would come closer.

This piece was done using a technique called "paper staining." Color is dropped onto a different sheet of paper on top that bleeds through onto the finished piece underneath. So there's a lack of control that is fun to watch as it grows. And since it was about being 'undersea', I thought it was appropriate for the subject matter.

Banyan Deva

Haven't posted in a long time, but I have been drawing here and there. Here's a little sketchy imagination, from sitting next to a tree.

What would it feel like to be a tree, if you had previously had the soul of a person?  You'd probably celebrate the sun, the moon and the stars if you had a chance to grow up in the tropics.