I Ching Meditations » Art

I Ching, Hexagram 2, Chinese Character Painting

Adele Aldridge — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:49:47 +0000

I recently posted my first image of a new series of paintings I am working on inspired by the Chinese characters for the hexagrams. I have been calling the “characters” glyphs. because when working in the program Illustrator when you want to see what a particular font looks like the program names all the fonts glyphs whether it is a text font or an image font.

I have been corresponding with James Hewes since he bought my font of the Chinese “glyphs” for the hexagrams. James has been doing research on ancient Chinese literature and the origins of the I Ching. He is also creating interpretations of these characters/glyphs in the medium of clay. When I got that pressing urge to use real paint again I was inspired by seeing Jim’s clay I Ching characters.

Jim wrote to tell me that I am using the wrong word and should not be calling the Chinese Characters “glyphs.” He always has something interesting and relevant to say regarding the I Ching so will include here a quote from his reasoning on this subject.

I think it is correct to call the Chinese writing as “characters.” When they speak of the ancient form the term “character” is still used rather than hieroglyph. Even the ancient bronze inscriptions are referred to as “characters.” I’ve never read anything that has referred to the characters as hieroglyphs except for one comparing the inscriptions on the shells to hieroglyphs. They seem much more abstract or primitively symbolic than say the hieroglyphs of Egypt. Using glyph to me is like calling them dingbats. It’s really not correct. When it comes to Chinese the meaning of the word is very important. Translation, interpretation or just mumbo jumbo. Too broad or loosely used and words meanings change character.

The way the Chinese classify their writing evolves this way. First there was the “shell and bone” style writing on the tortoise shells and oracle bones. Then there was the “Bell and Pot” style writing for the characters cast on the bronzes. (14th to the 3rd century B.C.) Then the “Stone Drum” style of writing the character around the 8th century BC. probably the style in which Confucius wrote around 500 BC and much more sophisticated than mere hieroglyphs or dingbats. During the Waring states period 400 BC they used what is called a Greater and Lesser Chuan style of writing. Some hundred of bamboo tablets with writing on them have been discovered from that period. It was close to the “Stone Drum” style. Next came the Lesser Chuan or “Seal Style of 221 BC which Ch’in- Shih-Huang-Te (the First Emperor) made the official style in his attempt to unify the writing of China. The various artistic forms of writing today began with him and evolved since the unification of writing, though there was some beautiful script styles along the way too.

James Hewes

Just to back up my reason (even if incorrect in this case) for using the word glyph, I include here the dictionary meaning of the word.

glyph (ɡlɪf)
— n
1.    a carved channel or groove, esp a vertical one as used on a Doric frieze
2.    rare another word for hieroglyphic
3.    any computer-generated character regarded in terms of its shape and bit pattern

Since the I Ching is a lot older than computer-generated characters I defer to Jim’s correction.

I Ching Confession

Adele Aldridge — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:49:39 +0000

I constantly complain to myself about how long it has been taking me to complete work called, I Ching Meditations.

The reason it is taking me so long is because not only is this a huge task to make seven images and words for sixty-four hexagrams, I have started from the beginning several times as my medium changed over the years. I began this work before there was such a thing as a personal computer and Internet. My original I Ching inspired images were drawings, etching and paintings. I am also frequently side tracked with what I feel are other seductive tasks such as, The SketchBook Project sponsored by The Brooklyn Art Library.

My confession is that I have a new addition to my I Ching obsession.

All my illustrations that are seen here for I Ching Meditations were created on a computer with digital programs. I love making images using computer technology and my mantra is that the Internet is the greatest invention since the discovery of fire. Creating in this way is fun and rewarding and a very different experience from using any tactile medium. Every once in a while I am over come with a fit of wanting to use real paint. The feeling is physical, sort of like when I am very thirsty and need a drink of water.

Recently I suddenly felt that nagging urge to use the hands-on medium of paint again. There wasn’t any particular image I wanted to paint. I just wanted to “play” and enjoy the experience. I thought of the book Henry Miller wrote after he left Paris and was living in California, called, “To Paint is to Love Again.” That’s a good way to describe it.

In order not to get side-tracked from my work on I Ching Meditations I decided to paint something simple and fairly small while staying connected to the I Ching. I began by using the Chinese glyph for hexagram one, as the basic starting point for an abstract design. I enjoyed the process so much I am compelled to complete all sixty-four glyph paintings and will gradually scan and post them here. The originals are each nine by twelve inches, painted with acrylics. I have had to make two promises to myself for this paint series. I limit the time I spend each day working on these paintings and do it as a treat, like having desert. I often work on them while I watch my two favorite television shows, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, combining two pleasures at once. The second promise to myself is that I will not start over on any painting until I finish all sixty-four.

The act of making these glyph paintings may be like taking vitamins to keep my system in good health. They become a meditation themselves as I focus on shapes of the Chinese calligraphy that signifies the meaning of the hexagrams. I think of them like the manuscript illuminations from those early days of books when works were hand painted with elaborate initials.

I begin here with the glyph painting for hexagram one, The Creative.

I recently posted the image and line one for Hexagram 14 in a Page. The rest of the lines and hexagrams to follow there.

I Ching Prescriptions: Choosing Change

Adele Aldridge — Mon, 02 May 2011 19:40:39 +0000

My new book, I Ching Prescriptions, is now available on Amazon.

An excerpt from the Introduction in the book:

What are I Ching Prescriptions?

The I Ching Prescriptions are a different way of working with the I Ching. Many people wonder how could anyone take seriously an answer to a question arrived at by tossing coins. For this reason they decide that the I Ching is not for them. You don’t have to believe in synchronicity. You don’t have to take the time to understand the poetic symbolic language of the I Ching. When people dismiss the I Ching because it relies on random chance they miss out on the philosophy embedded within it. A philosophy, based on nature that has survived for thousands of years has a message worth pondering.

I wrote this book for people who are not drawn to the more complex translations that often require one to read the responses like one would a dream. Not everyone responds to symbolic language. I wanted to make the Prescriptions direct and easy to use, just like taking a pill might be. I don’t know how an aspirin works. I just know that it does. This does not mean I do not appreciate all the other I Ching interpretations. I get benefit from them. I love symbols, poetry and symbolic language. If I didn’t I would not have been consulting the I Ching for so many years.

Choose Your Changes

When consulting the I Ching as a prescription, instead of asking a question in the traditional coin throwing approach, decide what issue in your life that you either want to deal with or are now involved in.

Pick your prescription. Decide what prescription you need. Look up the prescription distillation in this book, read it and see how the advice applies to your life.
Each I Ching prescription has seven parts to it; the general meaning at the top and the six phases written from the bottom up. These lines are written on top of the image of a tinted color of the trigrams that create the hexagram.
There are seven paragraphs of counsel for each hexagram prescription that can be used — one for each day of the week. Focus on or meditate on the prescription you have chosen. Keep a record over the next seven days as you follow each step. Write down what happens for you in the process.

The Sketch Book Project and I Ching Prescriptions

Adele Aldridge — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 16:24:06 +0000

Earlier this year I entered an exhibition called, The Sketch Book Project sponsored by The Brooklyn Art Library of New York.

I have been working on a new book, soon to be released, called I Ching Prescriptions. So I decided to make a small black and white version of the book for my submission to the project. The exhibition is now open to the public. To my dismay at the thought of anyone ever seeing my work I found out that 28,839 artists from 94 countries contributed to the project. The exhibition began in Brooklyn and will travel to Austin, Texas, San Francisco, Californina, Portland, Maine, Atlanta Georgia, Chicago, Illinois, Washington, DC and Winter Park, Florida.

After the tour, all sketchbooks will enter into the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library, where they will be barcoded and available for the public to view. Participants in the exhibition can choose to receive an email if anyone checks out their book telling you that some one actually looked at your book. How cool is that? But when I saw the numbers of books entered I gave up hope that anyone would find mine. However, to my delight I did get such a notice.

The exhibition has received a lot of news coverage. I have even seen a video news report on this from Japan which you can see here:

There is also a page about the show In the in the Feb 27, 2011 issue of New York Magazine.

Meanwhile, the larger, color version of I Ching Prescriptions will be published soon. Stay tuned.

I Ching Greeting Card

Adele Aldridge — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 20:09:24 +0000

This card based on four I Ching hexagrams, is appropriate for any holiday or occasion. It might be used for a birthday, well wishes, friendship or just saying hello. It is not necessary to be familiar with the I Ching to appreciate its message of Peace, Inner Truth, Friendship and Riches.

This I Ching card has a full color print for the Hexagram Peace on the front. The inside two pages contain the Hexagrams for Inner Truth, Friendship and Riches. The card is designed so that when you turn the card over Hexagram 13, Friendship turns into Hexagram 14, Possession in Great Measure or Riches. As I Ching people know, when you turn the hexagram of Inner Truth over you still have Inner Truth.

The card contains the images of the I Ching lines, the Chinese character as well as text in English for each Hexagram. The colors used are those that are defined by the trigrams contained in each hexagram. The background of each hexagram uses a tint of the trigram colors in a gradient blend of both colors.

I Ching Record Book

Adele Aldridge — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:31:12 +0000

I have created a Free PDF I Ching Record Book for keeping a record of I Ching questions and responses. You can find it in my Resource section of Special Places on the right.

The I Ching Record Book Includes:

A page for each of the 64 hexagrams to record your I Ching responses from the questions asked. By being able to print out pages as you need them you can easily add as many for the same hexagram as is necessary.
Work Sheet for I Ching Questions.
Interactive color chart for identifying hexagrams.
Black and white chart for identifying hexagrams – not interactive.
I Ching circular chart that can also be ordered as a large poster.
Chart listing all hexagrams to check off the name and date of an I Ching response.
Black and white chart with Chinese characters.
Two I Ching font charts.
Suggestions for how to ask the I Ching a question.
Suggestions for questions you might ask.
Instructions for the coin method of asking a question.
Included, by permission, the appendix from Dr. Katya Walter’s e-book, Double Bubble Universe. This chapter shows an example of her experience asking the I Ching a question as well as another method of asking a question as an alternative to using either the coins or yarrow sticks.

What’s Like Breathing to Me?

Adele Aldridge — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:44:28 +0000

Terry Starbucker’s wrote on his blog about an experience he had at the recent SOBcon conference in Chicago an article called, It’s Like Breathing. In it he asked the question of himself,

“What’s like breathing to me? What are those things that help define who I am but are yet rarely thought about, because they come so naturally?”

Terry’s article reminded me of what I wrote for a Blog Carnival, February 1st of this year on the subject of Inspiration. I began my post with the dictionary definition of the word, inspiration. One of the definitions that stood out for me was:

“The act of drawing in, especially the inhalation of air into the lungs.” And I responded with, “… the act of drawing in, is a way I think about inspiration. When I am inspired I draw that person, place or event into myself and then expel it out, like the act of breathing, involuntary and necessary for life.”

In my post on Inspiration I left out the obvious - that is, creating or making art, is like breathing; natural and necessary for survival. Having consulted the I Ching for more than thirty years has also become like breathing, and is especially satisfying to create art for my views on this ancient work – pure oxygen.

Inspiration: Nature, Art, I Ching and Internet

Inspiration: Nature, Art, I Ching and Internet

Adele Aldridge — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:17:30 +0000

Inspiration: From the Free Dictionary on line.
in·spi·ra·tion n.

a. Stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity.
b. The condition of being so stimulated.

2. An agency, such as a person or work of art, that moves the intellect or emotions or prompts action or invention.

3. Something, such as a sudden creative act or idea, that is inspired.

4. The quality of inspiring or exalting: a painting full of inspiration.

5. Divine guidance or influence exerted directly on the mind and soul of humankind.

6. The act of drawing in, especially the inhalation of air into the lungs.

The last definition here, the act of drawing in, is a way I think about inspiration. When I am inspired I draw that person, place or event into myself and then expel it out, like the act of breathing, involuntary and necessary for life. I have four main inspirations that I draw in and breath out.

1. Nature

My first inspiration was the beauty and power of nature. Besides sunsets and rainbows I have been inspired by wild rain storms, thunder and lightning, and even snow and ice. As a child I loved making snow forts to play in and once created a life-size nude woman snow figure that to my surprise shocked the neighbors. I guess they didn’t get it about inspiration.

I have been inspired by places in nature, drawing in pleasure of the body, mind and spirit while soaking in the hot springs of the Zen Center in Tassajara tucked high in the Santa Cruz Mountains in California.

I have been inspired and awestruck from experiences like watching full moons rising over Angel Island in Sausalito across the bay from San Francisco or by walking among the 2000 year old redwood trees in Muir woods once standing inside a tree feeling the living tree pour that energy from thousands of years into my awareness and body. I have been inspired by being above the clouds in Macchu Picchu in Peru where I imagined through a hypnogogic experience, because of the rarified air, how the ancient Peruvian people once lived.

Nature inspires me to attempt to capture it, hold onto it, take photographs of it and make art with it. I’m inspired by a raw lump of clay to make a bowl with it, to create something of use out of what appears to be nothing until I draw it in and and expel it out into form.

2. Art

One of my earliest memories is as a three year old was being on a family picnic in a park when we walked past a woman sitting in a field with her easel and paints as she captured the landscape in front of her. I was full of wonder as I saw that she was recreating on a flat surface the scene that lay before her. That for me was making magic. I had never seen anything like that in my limited three years of experience. I stood transfixed watching the woman use her brush to put dabs of color on a canvas and make a picture until my mother pulled me along to where ever it was we were going on that warm summer day. The fact that I still remember this, more years later than I want to divulge, is clear that I was inspired by a person making art.

I’m inspired by all the arts and especially the ones I can’t do like create music. I am most inspired by listing to live jazz. I can’t make music but I can dance to it. I’ve heard live concerts of musicians Oscar Peterson, Keith Jarrett, Tania Maria, Ella Fitzgerald, Betty Carter, Jimmy Smith, Milt Jackson and many other known and lesser know musicians. Some of these are not among us now but their music can be heard, even if not in their presence. When I have been fortunate to hear their live music I was inspired beyond words, leaving me with a feeling of awe and energy that lasted for a long time after the concert.

Artists and nature have always inspired me to make my own art. It is the process of making that is the reward more than the end result. Probably that is why I enjoy the process of cooking – rearranging or transforming raw materials and turning them into something to nourish, enjoy and to share with others.

3. I Ching

By consulting I Ching I’ve been inspired to take a direction, follow a path, or just be quiet and make more art that again has the inspiration of nature behind it, distilled through symbols over eons of time. The I Ching is a philosophy based on the elements of nature and evolved over centuries through the collective unconscious. Musicians, physicists, mathematicians, artists, writers and many people of various gifts have been inspired by I Ching and some how breathed out in new from what they had taken in.

The I Ching was the first computer – a binary system – which leads me to my next big inspiration.

4. The Internet

I am inspired by the Internet which is the best thing that has evolved out of human nature since the discovery of fire. I’m inspired by the fact that I have connected in meaningful ways with people all over the world of other languages and of varying ages. People from my past show up out of the blue that never would have happened before the Internet.

Most of all I am inspired to work on my own I Ching interpretation through art and words because now I can put it on the Internet for anyone to see who may be interested.

I include here one of my images inspired by I Ching that I use this at the top of the blog and plan to use as the cover for I Ching Meditations should I be fortunate enough to be able to complete it.

This aritcle is part of a Blog Carnival Sumission which can be found HERE.