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Back in the dark ages before the Internet and development of the personal computer, I began my I Ching Meditations saga with a set of black and white abstract woodcuts integrating the use of astrology symbols with the trigrams. I made sixty-four prints that I laminated onto canvasses and strung them all together in a large wall construction. I also made two sets of these prints on rice paper and hand bound them into books, 16 X 20” in size and after that I made a similar set in color. Next I translated these designs into large acrylic paintings 36” X 48.”

There followed a limited edition letterpress set of folders for Hexagrams One, Two and Three. After completing that edition I began my illustrations depicting women and created black and white pen and ink drawings for Hexagrams One through Sixteen. They were photocopied and published as a limited edition book. This was all before the birth of the Macintosh computer in January 1984.

Presently on my web site, (adeleart.com) are those first sixteen Hexagrams, some still in black and white and others that were subsequently translated into color.

I earned a Ph.D. in “Art and The Personal Symbolic Process” from The Union Institute University in 1981. The work included illustrations and writings from I Ching, as well as a study of dreams. My pre-computer days included hand-setting type, designing and illustrating books, exhibiting paintings in fine art galleries, co-founding a small press and lecturing on the I Ching.

Because the Chinese language is pictorial and not linear, I felt that by giving the work images to ponder, along with linear text, is a broader experience for the meaning of the text however subjective that may be.

I discovered that in my moves across the country from Connecticut to California and back again twenty-three years later, along with several changes of computers, I had some how lost the original work that I had created in color for my web page. I still have the small, low resolution of 72 dpi for the web, but that is not good enough for print. After feeling stupid and horrified that I had lost so much work I accepted that fact and began again which is what I am posting in this blog. On the positive side, I always like what I do better when I am forced to do it over again. The down site of this is a matter of time.

Another positive thing about this loss is that by this time I was using the 3d Program Poser, along with Photoshop, allowing me to create images at a faster rate than my original drawings. The wonders of computer technology never cease to enrich and amaze me.

So … I began my original graphic I Ching with woodcuts, a medium that originated in China. I Ching, originating also in China, was the first computer. So … the She Ching is coming full circle here.

5 Comments on History of my Art for Ching Meditations

  1. okeiNo Gravatar says:

    You might be interested to check out Margaret Pearson’s translation which goes back to the I Ching at an earlier less patriarchal time.

  2. I have studied and meditated the I Ching for years and use it whenever life seems to call for a creative and dynamic response. Although I’m a woman, I’ve never been bothered by the so-called sexist terminology; that’s the way it was written; that’s the way life was, back then in the Shang and Zhou dynasties.To wish and want otherwise is just fooling oneself. One should read abd consult many eidtions (Wilhelm Baynes, Alfred Huang, James Legge, Carol Anthony (she’ll give you the female slant), tao philosophy, and ancient chinese poetry and then will understand better… Besides. It doesn’t matter your sex; afterall, a man has an anima and a woman an animus so what’s the big deal? It’s one of the few books one can’t do without– once you know how to use it. bbs.

  3. […] I began this I Ching Meditations blog I wrote a Page about my art process and changes in creating the images over many years. I explained why I was re-working these […]

  4. […] I wrote in my History of working with I Ching, I am in the process of re-working the images for I Ching Meditations. I […]

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