SWASTIKA

For 3,000 years, the swastika meant life and good luck. But because of the Nazis, it has also taken on a meaning of death and hate.
These conflicting meanings are causing problems in today's society. For Buddhists and Hindus, the swastika is a very religious symbol that is commonly used.
Unfortunately, the Nazis were so effective at their use of the swastika emblem, that many do not even know any other meaning for the swastika, and in Germany it is now outlawed.
Can there be two completely opposite meanings for one symbol?

I say no. Even the Nazis used the symbol for good luck in their struggle and the fact that their struggle was hateful does not change the meaning of the symbol.

That's why I want to rehabilitate it in the Western iconography by using it in a way that cannot be mistaken.

AND……

These are the last from my six weeks at John Brown's studio, the blue was a second time in the kiln and the others in the display of the week.

MORE POTS

The ceramic adventure goes on, I actually sold my first bowl yesterday! (Thank you, you know who you are!) Now I'm back in school in the hand building class. It's socially satisfying but I don't have much time to do my own things, so I try to get the best out of the assignments.

IN THE DARK

I took this picture in the dark and changed the exposure afteward, and it made the mood closer to the original than the one taken with flash.

I'VE BEEN CREATIVE

These are my two last paintings. The lower one, the newest, is called 'Nigth falls in the 6th dimension'


and here are some stoneware from the latest firing:


The blue lotus, but the blue is hardly visible:

RAIN

It's good to paint when it's raining, and this Sunday it has been coming down all day. So, I'm back to the watercolors and here is the result.

POTTERY

Click to enlarge.

My six weeks of working at the ceramics studio every day has payed off. The last batch was very satisfying. Several things came out better than expected and it's usually the other way around: bad surprises. I'm also more in command when I throw on the wheel; today I made four bowls without any mishaps.

REVIEW

Here is the whole series with bonus!

BONUS

This is not really part of the series but 12 is too important a number not to be celebrated.

QUOTE OUT OF CONTEXT

The important thing is to realize the least distorted image of the workings of the universe. We are part of the universe; we are both observers and actors. Whatever we do or think or say is part of the ongoing creation. Therefore we need a reasonable framework, a knowledge based on wisdom and compassion that unifies the different viewpoints and celebrates the diversity.
First, let those who adhere to an organized religion follow its message of love and disregard the rest. Trust yourself to recognize your own spirituality if you are seeking it.

NUMBER TEN

Ten introduces Zero and closes the circle, returning to before One. So, in the depiction of ten the Zero is shown as a bud and this bud contains the O from on top of the A, standing for Awareness of the true Self, which is all there is in the transition from life to death.

I also read the cards as the circle of life and death:

1. The Bardo state (Death after the ‘Judgement’)
2. Conception and life in the womb
3. Birth & divine infancy
4. Childhood
5. Youth
6. Coupling
7. House of seven energies, spiritual awakening
8. The “best” years
9. Old age
10. Death & confrontation with the pure Spirit

NINE

THE OCTAGON

Here the Å is incorporated in the octagon itself. The center of avareness is in the center of the cross - and the cross is an ancient religious symbol, older than Christianity.

SEVEN

The house of seven energies is the human body with the seven chakras.

HEXAGON

PENTAGON

NUMBER THREE AND FOUR

I did the Triangle again and then the Square made up of three Triangles

ONEANGLE

In the same way that I got from three to two I now shrink the line, which is the ‘Twoangle’, to a point, the ‘Oneangle’ but a point is only an idea, it doesn’t actually occupy space. How to represent this?
With the sight of my telescope I focus on the Point and here I place the o on top of the A as a symbol of my center of Awareness.
The small Å being part of the Great Å is symbolizing the unification of the individual Awareness with the Universal Awareness of the Great Spirit.
It is both the sight and the Seer.

TWOANGLE

I am doing another series of ten pictures. The theme is figurative expressions of the numbers from 1 to 10.

I began with the triangle – that’s the one I posted for New Years.
You all know what the pink triangle means, but that’s just my personal gay joke. Here the form of the triangle symbolizes Being, the eye in the middle is pure Awareness and the color pink stands for Bliss. This is the trinity of the Great Spirit taught in Hinduism as Sat-Chit-Ananda.
The signature symbolizes the single Awareness of the worshipper floating in rapture because I let A stand for Awareness.

When I was in school in Denmark we had the letter ‘Aa’ which is pronounced like an open ‘O’. Later the Swedish form ‘Å’ was adopted and I used it in spelling my name ‘Åge’.
So, with A standing for Awareness, Å would stand for Double Awareness, that is Self-Awareness, and it is in this sense that I now use it in this series.

Representing higher numbers is simple enough but going back to two and one poses a problem.
If you shrink one side in a square until it disappears, you’ll end up with a Triangle; in the same way if you shrink one side in a Triangle you get a ‘Twoangle’ - and it looks like a Line.
A Line, for example the line between the sunny and the shady side of the street, is a symbol of separation, which again is the basic principle of Duality. So this days picture is an attempt at a pictorial representation of the number 2 with a bit of philosophy thrown in.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

THE BLUE LOTUS

Ulysses: "On the tenth day we reached the land of the Lotus-eater, who live on a food that comes from a kind of flower. Here we landed to take in fresh water, and our crews got their mid-day meal on the shore near the ships. When they had eaten and drunk I sent two of my company to see what manner of men the people of the place might be, and they had a third man under them. They started at once, and went about among the Lotus-eaters, who did them no hurt, but gave them to eat of the lotus, which was so delicious that those who ate of it left off caring about home, and did not even want to go back and say what had happened to them, but were for staying and munching lotus with the Lotus-eater without thinking further of their return."

THE SERIES COMPLETED

Here are the two last drawings in the series:

SPIRIT OF THE WILD

This is the eighth in my series. I had a definite plan for the picture, but the result still was a surprise.

NUMBER SEVEN

I surprise myself with every new picture!

NUMBER SIX

BARON SAMEDI

IS NUMBER FIVE:

NUMBER FOUR

FINALLY FIRING

Two and a half months into the ceramics class the first glaze firing happened and I saw the results of my experiments. Only about half of them were satisfying - oh, well!

NUMBER THREE

My friend Georg from Denmark was here recently. He is a painter and naturally we talked shop. I complained that I had a hard time getting started, now, when my setup in the new house is perfect. He told me that to get going he gave himself the task of painting ten pictures like a series. I have taken the idea up in a series of ten drawings in pencil. I bought some very soft black pencils when I went to Costa Rica and there I made a drawing that is kind of a forerunner for the set. I have already posted that and recently the two first of the actual series, and here is the third.

HERE'S A NEW ONE

NEW DRAWING

THE LIVING SPACE

RAKU

Raku is a Japanese firing technique that takes only about an hour. I had two bowls fired today and that was the first things finished this semester. I haven't been too happy about this class but today's result made me feel better.