One Squared, aka Homage to the Weed

Title:  One Squared, Homage to the Weed      
Size:  34" Wide x 55" Tall
Medium:  Oil on Canvas

Date:  JUL 2010

No Longer Available


We have this bizarre concept that we're individuals.  We think of ourselves as separate.  See the man?  He's like the number 1....alone, singular, even vertical and narrow....and they both hide themselves.  The man (or statue) turns his back as if rejecting the rest of this overgrown world.
 
     The Weed, on the other hand, stakes its claim to this handful of dirt.  A lowly weed, but straight and bold...certain of its place, understanding of its oneness in a way the man cannot...the oneness of pure consciousness.  Without thought.  It has no concept of separateness and so is closer to what is real than all our thoughts added together.

     Plants frequently --- not always --- follow the Fibonacci series of numbers in their growth patterns and in their symmetry.  If you count the number of leaves on a plant, you'll find the Fibonacci numbers...1 - canna blossom, 2 - a pair of opposite leaves,  3 - a clover leaf, 5 - the pentagon shape in an apple core...or 55 seeds going in one direction & 89 seeds going in the opposite direction in a sunflower. 

     I call this painting ONE SQUARED because...well, you can't really turn a one into a square, but I already painted ONE painting called ONE....so, in contemplating calling it One, II, ONE TWO, ONE SECOND or ...well...ONE SQUARED came into my consciousness.  ONE times ONE is always ONE.  To square it is as insignificant as adding zeros.....as insignificant as a WEED.

This particular weed is Vicia grandiflora, commonly known as Vetch.

Available through Brunner Gallery at www.brunnergallery.com

One

Size: 36" Wide x 60" Tall
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
2007


No Longer Available


The most basic of all glyphs is the vertical line, originally a tally mark depicting a single unit. Since it also has connotations of God, a single vertical mark --- centered, bold and white --- was used as the first/original mark on this painting.

The sensuous Sanskrit glyph for one that overlays the white, vertical ONE mark means refined, consecrated and sanctified. Sanskrit (4,000 years + writing system), considered the "high, classical" Indian language, is used in religious and scientific applications, much as the romantic languages consider Latin to be classical and use it for religious and scientific applications. Sanskrit is the liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.

The Sanskrit word for one, (pronounced eka), in the upper left, has been filled with Sanskrit text, which is translated as:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards ONE another in a spirit of brotherhood.
This is Article ONE of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Other interesting facts:

• ONE is the only digit that, when pronounced in English, has the same number of syllables as its valueIn all monotheistic cultures, ONE is identified with God.
• ONE has an interesting double meaning: first/smallest and most whole/complete.
• ONE is also the:
• First odd number (and the smallest positive odd number)
• First ordinal number (FIRST, PRIMARY, PRINCIPAL, INITIAL, BEGINNING)
• Lowest cardinal number
  *has two cardinal values:
  SMALLEST, MOST BASIC UNIT (one, unit, unity, solo, single, mono, uni-)
  WHOLE, COMPLETE, TOTALITY (we are one---with the universe, nature
• Atomic Number for Hydrogen
• Aries is the first astrological sign of the Zodiac
• Ancient Greece: 1 was not a number, only a unit. Two was considered the first proper number.
• ONE is the square of ONE, and also the cube of ONE.