Pisciform Spirits (version 1)

The Latin word pisces means fish. I titled this piece Pisciform Spirits because the forms in this illustration look like fish spirits. I have recently been exploring this idea with these designs as you will notice that they are the same ones used in Individuality Formations, the blogpost previous to this one.

A couple of the fish have what look like two eyes with smiling mouths, while most of them have single eyes. The largest figure in this piece has an ojo shape to it. Ojo means eye in Spanish. Indigenous peoples in the Americas developed a craft of what they call Ojo de Dios, which means “God’s Eye.” This craft involves weaving colored yarn around pieces of crossed wood. It is considered a spiritual practice of contemplation, much like Eastern mandalas are.

I knew I wanted to expand the sizes of the forms seen in Individuality Formations, and to make variations with that template. So I selected a prepared piece of paper I pasted together composing pages from an old science textbook from the 1990s. The surface of this medium was prepared with a wash of diluted primer. I did this so that the text on the pages would show through somewhat.

To build up the forms, I used, first, gouache, then, on top of that, I added water-based felt-tipped marker of the same colors. Basically, red, brown, and black were used. At the time of starting this piece, I had a fascination with the color combination of red and brown. Both are warm colors, red being the warmest. Red is such an eye catching color and I enjoy using it in various works of art of mine very much. I had started a series years ago when I lived in Nebraska that involved thick impasto applications of red to canvas that represented broad planes for backgrounds for abstract shapes of blue and yellow in the foreground.

The background in this piece however uses little pixels of diffuse blue. They are meant to compose a water-like medium in which the spirit fish are traveling through. I wanted to capture patterns of fish swimming in swirls, hence illustrating the theme of Ying Yang, conflict, movement, muscle, constriction, and power. I had tried to capture this idea in Individuality Formations with the swirling and traveling forms within that piece, but I wasn’t satisfied with it completely.

I should say that I was satisfied, but I knew there were so many more variations on this theme that I could explore. At the point of writing this, I have developed several more ideas related to this theme that involves using geometric structures as the foundations for swirling pisciform designs. I will keep you posted with this idea. I’ll just say right now that it is inspired somewhat by M.C. Escher’s usage of geometric patterns.