September 26, 2023
As part of the class I am taking with Sally Hirst, I have been exploring circles.
I love drawing and painting circles. And daisy array’s - which are really just fancy circles. But when I have a painting with a circle in it, it feels like cheating, like I am being lazy. So I decided it was time to dive into this - to understand what circles mean to me and explore ways to use them in paint that do not feel like “cheating.”
I went out and about in my neighborhood, searching for circles.
In my sketchbook, I have been painting circles with all sorts of different tools. Circles of all different sizes. I have learned I love an imperfect circle.
I love a full body circle, a circle that takes the full arc of my arm to make. I also love circles made from thin lines and described in more than one pass of their circumference.
I am beginning to think the reason circles feel like cheating is because they are such powerful imagery. They represent wholeness; they can simultaneously be full and empty; they can be perfection or imperfection. Our eyes are circles. Circles represent the sun AND they are the moon. What is more elemental than a circle?
What makes circles compelling is exactly what makes them feel like I am not trying hard enough.
But this is what I am starting to learn from painting all these circles: they mean something to me. They are the beauty of human imperfection: no one can draw a perfect circle. They express what all my work expresses: the weight and comfort of family history. They are a brave statement, an assertion of self that compels me to make bold marks.
So there you have it: I need to be brave enough to embrace the circle.
Prompts for the Week:
Is there a shape or mark you feel compelled to make that you feel conflicted about? Try exploring it more deeply. Write about it. See where it takes you.
Pull out a fresh piece of paper. Start with a dot.
This week I have some repairs going on in my house that are throwing me off my game. I am finding it hard to focus. Do you have any tricks when you feel like you are having trouble settling your brain? I would love to hear about them.
Hi Stephanie, I couldn’t help but think of Ensō reading this. I don’t have a single good reference for you, but you might find some of the resources online useful in figuring out your fascination with circles - which I think is great. I tend to default to squiggly water like lines!