humans and nature both prefer circles

the circle is one of the natural shapes that all humans are first exposed to, when the infant looks into the (circular) eyes of its mother. similarly, the circular silhouettes of the sun and the moon captivated all ancient cultures. the beauty, perfection, and strength of the circle have drawn humans from the very beginning. the earliest signs of this fascination date as far back as 35,000 BC in the form of petroglyphs in europe, asia, and africa.

circle of y-shaped twigs

circles are the most creative form

according to the oxford dictionary, a circle is a plane figure, round in shape whose boundary, also known as a circumference, is equidistant from the center. as Pythagoras, the ancient greek philosopher, and mathematician, puts it, circles are the most creative form. he goes ahead to name them “monad,” which means “a single unit” because circles have no beginning and no end.

ruffed grouse ruff feathers

a week of circles

i am leaving today for four days in joshua tree, california. and i have decided to travel light. i will not be bringing a camera nor a laptop. so i have queued up a collection of seasonally appropriate circles for you during my absence–some new, some previously published. circles are my favorite STILL compositional form. circles represent the notions of totality, wholeness, perfection, the infinite, eternity, timelessness, and the divine.  so, let’s get rolling…

apple tree bark

desktop bits

at some point every winter, i turn to the bits and pieces of drying summer that have gathered on my specimen table–which is actually the top of my piano.  these bits are delicate, and will continue to fade throughout the winter. and i will return them to the soil in spring. in the meantime, they brighten my winter white days. it always astounds me how little color it takes in winter to make a big impact.

the temps and times are different

i was at the dentist this week (i chipped a tooth),  and at the dentist office there were icicles that reached all the way to the ground. we don’t often see that here in minnesota, because it requires temps to hover right around freezing (32 def F), so there is some melting water that can build up into an icicle. and typically january and febraury are just too darn cold for there to be any real thawing. but not anymore. we are looking at a whole week of low 30’s. which will mean icicles everywhere! stay safe everyone, they can be dangerous when they start breaking.

icicles