The relative and the absolute.
I'm assigning a meaning to it after-the-fact but it fits so that's where I am. I was doodling while on the phone one day and sketched the basic idea. Something about it made me want to draw it bigger. To do it "for real". At the time I was also in a creative push phase. My mindset was tilted toward production. There are times when the energies are lining up; ideas are flowing, time is available, motivation is high, and you just have to produce. The flow is there and you have some confidence in the execution and the work gets done, almost as if it simply blinked into existence. This was one of those times. Also, it seemed easy enough.
This "easy enough" drawing ended up taking longer than anticipated. Something, as it began to take shape, was drawing me in. As the shading developed and made dimension from outline, my interest in the piece grew. This was only supposed to be a doodle! For a few days, I stared at it, turning it to look at different angles, wondering what needed to be added to it. I knew that, really, it was finished. There was nothing that could be added that would enhance it. It was complete in its incompleteness.
Man! There has to be an analogy there right? So a few more days of staring at it wondering what the analogy was. For now I've settled on this representing the relative and the absolute. The pair of objects representing the relative, our individual self in relation to the other. The two slipping into a unified, interconnected space after passing through a distinct line of demarkation. The two and the one equally occupying the whole.
That still feels incomplete. It's taped to the wall in my office. I'm still staring at it.
A monk asked Joshu - Can a drawing have buddhanature? "Mu!" said Joshu.
