July 27, 2013 Sunday Whirl #119

Calligraphy by Kanjuro Shibata XXNote:The pattern of the artist’s process is a circle.

Enso

One day

Always the first day

Always a beginning

Gather scarce resources

Jeweled colors

 Stuffed into tubes

The finest brush

Paper like skin

Revisit old ideas

Rooted in days gone bye

Weigh their strength

Count crows on the fence

Woven into patterns

Catching rain

To water the vegetation

That fills the garden

 And grows in your brain

 Left unattended

 The cells of the

 Heart are eroded

 Without the strength

 To begin again

Until the last day

 When the artist

 Breaks the circle and

 Stops

This infomation from wikipedia.   This is about the Japanese word, Enso, which means circle.
Ensō (円相) is a Japanese word meaning “circle” and a concept strongly associated with Zen. Ensō is one of the most common subjects of Japanese calligraphy even though it is a symbol and not a character. It symbolizes absolute enlightenment, strength, elegance, the universe, and the void; it can also symbolize the Japanese aesthetic itself. As an “expression of the moment” it is often considered a form of minimalist expressionist art.

In Zen Buddhist painting, ensō symbolizes a moment when the mind is free to simply let the body/spirit create. The brushed ink of the circle is usually done on silk or rice paper in one movement (Bankei, however, occasionally used two strokes) and there is no possibility of modification: it shows the expressive movement of the spirit at that time. Zen Buddhists “believe that the character of the artist is fully exposed in how she or he draws an ensō. Only a person who is mentally and spiritually complete can draw a true ensō. Some artists will practice drawing an ensō daily, as a kind of spiritual practice.”[1]

Style[edit]

Some artists paint ensō with an opening in the circle, while others complete the circle. For the former, the opening may express various ideas, for example that the ensō is not separate, but is part of something greater, or that imperfection is an essential and inherent aspect of existence (see also the idea of broken symmetry). The principle of controlling the balance of composition through asymmetry and irregularity is an important aspect of the Japanese aesthetic: Fukinsei (不均斉), the denial of perfection.
The ensō is also a sacred symbol in the Zen school of Buddhism, and is often used by Zen masters as a form of signature in their religious artwork. For more on the philosophy behind this see Hitsuzendo, the Way of the Brush or Zen Calligraphy.

Prompt: one,  wove, scarce, revisited, rain, rooted,

crows, vegetation, last, cells, eroded, strength