Ever since I started painting abstract works in 2016, I’ve been adding shapes. More recently, people have begun asking me what my little triangles and squares signify.
Up to 2021, I used them to represent dimensionality. The square was the third-dimension and the fourth was the fourth-dimension. In science/science-fiction, it’s speculated that once humans achieve light-speed travel, we will have entered the fourth-dimension (which is the control of time).
That’s changed quite a bit in 2022, since I started working on my new series (Dreams). I’ve been influenced by esoteric cosmologies. The LACMA exhibition, “The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985” hugely influenced me and shifted my use of shapes. You can read more about this genre- and institution- shifting exhibition here.
Anything that can represent something is a symbol. This includes colors, which I often use based on their associations with nature. While that has been pretty clear for most folks, I thought I’d share more about some of the shapes I now use in my works that are not as obvious.
So why use symbols? I use lines, shapes and colors - and their symbolic meanings - to tell a story through composition.
Here are some common symbols that I use in my artworks.
The Triangle
Who doesn’t have anything to say about the triangle? Found in cave paintings, the triangle has been around since literally the dawn of human civilization. Personally, I use the triangle to represent the unity between the cosmos, humans and the earth.
I find Bell Wen’s website and book, The Tao of Craft, an immensely helpful primer into basic Taoist cosmology and its principles. The compendium of resources alone is worth the read/buy for a non-Chinese reader like me.
I recently found the triangle in magic-making references, like the Rider-Waite Smith Temperance card, to be interesting as well. The triangle represents fire, symbolizing human passions. The triangle looks like two hands coming together in order to summon a great work.
Sources
https://www.alittlesparkofjoy.com/temperance-tarot-card-meanings/
The Rose
While I don’t paint actual roses, lately I’ve been using lots of rose-colored hues, from light pinks to rosy magentas. I am obsessed with the color of the sky right around sunset, when pinks and blues bathe the world in tranquility.
The red rose is a symbol of passion. In Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, roses were the consort of Venus and her principles of beauty. In Greek mythology, when Adonis died, his blood fell on white roses and turned them red. This symbolized a love that transcends death - a love that never dies.
In Christianity, the rose has represented union with god: the love that synchronizes will and grace. There is also the sub rosa, the secret rose, under which nothing spoken will be revealed.
Sources
https://thepresenttree.com/blogs/tree-meanings/rose-meaning
https://www.charentonmacerations.com/2014/10/29/mythological-rose/
https://www.theperfumechronicles.com/chronicles/rose
Honey & Honeybee
I use a lot of gold in my artwork. I don’t really have a significant reason other than that I love shiny things. Gold reminds me of the sun, joyfulness, and warm climes by the sea. Gold reminds me of honey, making sweetness for others to share, and the happiness that one feels after hard work pays off. Gold is reflective, speculative and malleable.
Melissa means honeybee in Greek. In Greek mythology, they were reincarnated souls (nymphs) that were messengers of the gods. In Chinese mythology, swarms were considered lucky. It has been associated with the underworld, as bees were originally found in caves, and with fertility.
Zeus purportedly turned bees into gold to protect them. In many cultures, honey is perceived as liquid gold. Bees distill the sweetness of the divine and gifts honey to mortals. The Melissae were high priestesses who served Demeter, Persephone (honeyed one), Artemis, Aphrodite - as well as the great mother(s): Gaia, Cybele, Rhea. The Melissae were conduits of prophecy, inspirers of thought and song and speakers of divine truth.
Sources
https://www.planetbee.org/planet-bee-blog//the-sacred-bee-ancient-china
https://www.planetbee.org/planet-bee-blog//the-sacred-bee-ancient-greece-and-rome
https://threehundredandsixtysix.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/the-melissae-in-greek-myth-and-legend/
https://www.planetbee.org/planet-bee-blog//the-sacred-bee-bees-in-ancient-india-and-china-7tmcx