12 When In Doubt, Make A Spiral

Looking at photos of Hilma af Klint’s paintings I noticed repeating shapes: spirals for one. This is one thing she is known for and I felt a personal connection with her as if this were one thing we had in common.

My own paintings were also filled with spirals

Drawing a spiral gave my hand a way to begin a journey. The circular movement from a point outward to the left or the right felt like a swirling dance of expansion and focusing inward intensity, the way idea gathers energy and then form.

You can also start a spiral from the outside, and move in, in which case the feeling is as if you are closing in on a things essential core essence.

Lynda Barry instructs her students, when they pause, to keep their hand moving by either writing words or making a spiral, the idea being that the movement with our with direction allows you to remain receptive.

Perhaps that’s why I began so many doodles with spirals.

Movement was a way to begin with movement.

It’s walking the path before you know where you are going, trusting the path to take you where some part of you wants to go.

Since I was looking a lot at her paintings and tracing some of the figures that I was drawn to in her paintings, I might also try channeling paintings, as Hilma did.

November 3, 2020 was election day and as I began drawing, I heard very clearly a voice within me say, The First Series Begins.

What I had drawn, looked like a world being born, still in the distance coming through a cosmic birth canal.

The imagery seemed a little too on the nose to be a coincidence.

And so, starting that day, like Hilma, I began channeling paintings.