March, 2024
Double-Page
Illuminations
for
An Imaginary Book
The photographs in this project are part of my "2023-24 Inkjet Prints Project." Each of
the images now exist as high quality inkjet prints, image size 21x18" (including
the surrounding black toned mattes) on 24x20"size paper base.
Introduction
The 17 images presented in this blog project are new versions of selected images from two blog project "chapters" I published back in 2013 under the larger project title "An Imaginary Book" which consists of 10 "chapters," the Preface and an Epilogue, plus several peripheral but important blog links. The project as a whole was inspired by a two week tour my wife Gloria and I took throughout Turkey in the spring of 2011. I experienced many "mystical" or "visionary" experiences in response to multiple forms of Islamic Sacred Art I encountered in various locations in Turkey during the tour. It was a breath-taking, heart-opening series of experiences that made me aware--for the first time, really--about the transforming power of True, authentic creations of Sacred Art.
Those experiences felt to me like a destined series of blessings. I left Turkey with a great longing to know more about Islamic Sacred Art, Qur'an Illuminations, and Sacred Art in more general terms and within other Traditions. As soon as I returned home I began a two year study of these deeply felt interests, and at the same time I worked slowly, diligently on the ever expanding Imaginary Book project.
Here are the links to the two original versions of the "Imaginary Book" chapters I published in 2013; the images in these links provided me with the digital files I used for the images you will be seeing in this project in varying (often subtle) transformed versions:
and
Infinite Beauty: Images of never-ending continuity . . . (plus its companion link Text Page)
(Note: All of the important conceptual and philosophical ideas associated with these two particular projects are available in the links above.)
I encourage you to visit the Preface to "An Imaginary Book" which provides a broad introduction to the project as a whole, and Prayer Stones, the Book's first "chapter" in which I describe in detail the series of epiphanic encounters with Sacred Art I experienced in Turkey.
The "visionary" experience that relates directly to the inkjet print images presented here in this project occurred while I was viewing an amazing exhibition of ancient, hand painted Illuminated Quran's at the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art in Istanbul. As I was looking down at the many books that had been carefully placed in glass cases and opened to extraordinarily exquisite, infinitely beautiful examples of hand painted double-page illuminations* which in most cases included text excerpts from the Qur'an presented in an astonishing array of elegant calligraphic forms . . . I began to notice in one particular book an inner radiance emerging from its two mirroring pages of gold-painted graphic images. The images seemed to come alive! as if they were being illuminated by their own internal light. I was experiencing, I believe, the light of what I would call "the divine Presence" within the double-page image.
This is a double-page Illumination for a Qur'an dated 1028,
from the book "The Art of the Qur'an" Treasures from
The Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, 2016
(*Note: The Illuminations which appear in the ancient hand made versions of the Qur'an, are intended to still the minds, inspire and prepare the one who is about to read or recite aloud the Holy Text which is considered to be the very words of God.)
I had gone to Turkey to see examples of the rugs that American composer Morton Feldman had so often referred to as an inspiration for his music, and as it turned out, it was this particular experience of the Qur'an Illuminations that initiated me--opened my Heart--to the true meaning of Sacred Art and as a result became the inspiration for what evolved into the very large project "An Imaginary Book."
There is however a direct relationship to the Qur'an Illumination inspired images I presented in my Imaginary Book (and the images I have presented here) to photographs I had made earlier which were inspired by Morton Feldman's music. Visit my 2003-2007 multi-chaptered project, Triadic Memories Project and in particular the following collection of images: the Repetition Triads, the Chromatic Fields, the Abstract Photographs, and the Triangulated, the Circled and the Gridline Photographs. ("Triadic Memories" is the title of one of Feldman's compositions.)
*
Martin Lings published a wonderful book, Splendours of Qur'an Calligraphy & Illumination which I highly recommend. And among many other books he authored, he wrote the following words in his book What is Sufism?:
The doctrine of the Oneness of Being means that what the eye sees and the mind records is an illusion, and that every apparently separate and finite thing is in Truth the Presence of the One Infinite: "Wheresoever ye turn, there is the Face of God. Verily God is the Infinitely Vast, the Infinitely Knowing." (Qur'an II: 115)
*
Gloria and I had decided to go to Turkey in the spring of 2011 for several reasons. At that time I had just finished several blog projects inspired by the music of Morton Feldman. He had often written about how his music was inspired by the Turkish rugs he had collected. I had hoped I would learn something about the rugs by visiting the Turkish and Islamic Art Museum in Istanbul which I had learned had assembled a remarkable collection of the very best ancient and modern rugs made in Turkey. Another reason we wanted to go to Turkey was to visit the shrine of the great Sufi poet named Rumi.
(I knew practically nothing about Islam, and its mystical aspect, Sufism, other than Rumi's amazing mystical poetry before I traveled to Turkey. I was at that time (and still am) very committed to my practice of Siddha Yoga Meditation. My wife and I had met Gurumayi Chivilasanada, a Siddha Guru, in August, 1987 and both of us were blessed with a direct experience of her grace in a two day meditation intensive. To this very day Gloria and I do many of the practices together daily. And, I consider my practice of photography a form of yoga meditation. See my multi-chaptered project Photography and Yoga-Seeing the Self Everywhere and in Everything.)
*
Regarding the Inkjet Prints
Each of the images in this blog project now exist as Inkjet Prints. This is an important issue for me at this time (February, 2024) because in the years after I initiated my photography blog, in November, 2010, I had decided to stop making prints of the images I published in my blog projects. Working exclusively with digital technology by that time, I saw no reason to make prints of blog published images for I doubted that I would ever exhibit my work again. Side-stepping the process of making prints allowed me to publish blog projects quickly, easily, and very inexpensively.
(Note: I did however take the time to prepare large digital file versions of most of my favorite published blog images so that I could make prints later of those images if need be.)
It has been quite exciting for me to see these images from "An Imaginary Book" in print form at last. The inkjet prints are without question the preferred way to see my work, especially in an intimate setting with good light, and when the prints with their matte surfaces are unobstructed by glass and reflections. ~ All of the prints share the same image size (21x18" --which includes the black space surrounding the image), and each image is printed on a white paper base sized 24x20".
(This blog link The 2023-24 Inkjet Prints Project contains all of the blog projects I have made since February, 2023 in an effort to create a print archive of some of my most favorite images from my blog projects. The collection includes all of my 12x12" inkjet prints and all of the LARGER inkjet prints, including the fourteen prints from the project before you here, the Double-page Illuminations for an Imaginary Book. ~ I will continue my introductory remarks and my Epilogue after the presentation of the photographs.)
The Photographs
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(Note: if you are viewing this blog project with a laptop or desktop computer I encourage you to view each image in an alternate viewing mode that can be accessed by clicking once and then once again upon an image. This will enable you to see the image in a dark viewing environment, plus the image will appear larger and with superior image definition compared to the blog's default mode of presentation (in which you see the images and texts surrounded by white space when you open the blog's project page). For a more technical explanation about this issue I invite you to Click here.)
#1 Double-page Illumination : Two Mirroring Pages of Light (Image size 21x18" on 24x20" white paper base)
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#2 Double-page Illumination : Green Grid Veiling a Pair of Moons %20copy.jpg){kind=spacer}
#3 Double-page Illumination : (Pair of optical grids, lines & dots)
#4 Double-page Illumination : Wooden ceiling, Alhambra palace, Granada (my symmetrical interpretation)
#5 Double-page Illumination : "Celestial Garden" %20IMG_2034%20T%20%20%2021x18%22%20%20%20%20%20copy.jpg){kind=spacer}
#6 Double-page Illumination : (Orange & Green Fall Leaves)
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#7 Double-page Illumination : (yellow church floor design improvisation)
#8 Double-page Illumination : (abstract photograph: dancing red, yellow, zig-zag blue lines and shapes)
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#9 Double-page Illumination : (Bushes's edge inversion)
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#10 Double-page Illumination : (tinted window)
#11 Double-page Illumination : (room corner inversion field)
#12 Double-page Illumination : (inversed-circled birds on lines)
#13 Double-page Illumination : (Diamond)
Double-page Illuminations
Part II
Infinite Beauty
Keith Critchlow, Islamic Patters
Islamic [Sacred] art is predominantly a balance between pure geometric form and what can be called fundamental biomorphic form . . . The one aspect reflects the facets of a jewel, the purity of the snowflake and the frozen flowers of radial symmetry; the other . . . the silent motion of fish winding their way through the water, the unfolding and unfurling of the leaves of the vine and rose. ~ The circle is the archetypal governing basis for all the geometric shapes that unfold within it . . . reflecting the unity of its original source, the point, the simple, self-evident origin of geometry and a subject grounded in mystery.
Lois Ibsen Al Faruqui
"Islamic art is based in the theory of transcendence. What would be a suitable aesthetic vehicle for this ideology? The creation of patterns which carry the implication of never-ending continuity . . . patterns that suggest infiniteness as a quality of transcendence."
Martin Lings, What is Sufism
The doctrine of the Oneness of Being means that what the eye sees and the mind records is an illusion, and that every apparently separate and finite thing is in Truth the Presence of the One Infinite:
"Wheresoever ye turn, there is the Face of God.
Verily God is the Infinitely Vast, the Infinitely Knowing."
(Qur'an II: 115)
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#14 Double-page Illumination : Infinite Beauty (River Song, Falling Leaves)
#15 Double-page Illumination : Infinite Beauty (Mangrove Arabesque)
#16 Double-page Illumination : Infinite Beauty (Overlapping circled images of an Alhambra garden, Granada, Spain)
Introduction (continued)
It was during the trip to Turkey that I became interested in Symmetrical imagery. It took a lot experimenting to learn how to make this rich tradition--which existed in Islamic Sacred Art for so many many years-- "my own" photographically, but since the publication of "An Imaginary Book" in 2013, symmetrical imagery has continued to haunt my ongoing creative process with regular frequency because of it's magical transformational power, and because (I believe) the symmetrical image is the most direct and literal visual embodiment of what I consider to be the sacred Truth: The Oneness of Being.
(See my blog project regarding Symmetrical Photographs.)
"An Imaginary Book" became the first project in an every growing number of photography projects that consciously addressed the phenomenon I have referred to as Sacred Art: art which succeeds (or at least consciously longs to succeed) at unveiling the Divine Presence hidden within all the things of this world, including the Heart of every human being. ~ This blog link The Sacred Art Photography Projects contains quite a long list of my blog projects which I have identified as Sacred Art projects. The list could be much longer than it is, but I have found it increasingly difficult to determine the projects which are . . . and which are not . . . addressing the Sacred in a way worthy of the term. There were many factors which determined how I identified a project as Sacred Art: to some extent my conscious intent; how I wrote about a project; and most importantly the feeling I had about the photographs and what I perceived to be their transcendent power; in other words . . . if the images functioned for me as True living Symbols.
At the very center of my Creative Process there continues to be a strong desire, the need to create photographic images which function for me as True, living Symbols, images radiant with the inner light of what I prefer to call grace, or divine Presence.
(Note: In the yoga I practice the word shakti and grace are interchangeable, one and the same. The core yogic teachings address how God pervades everything; and the challenge for me as an artist, is to create images that still my mind and open my Heart. Only images pervaded by grace, shakti, the divine Presence can accomplish this essential transformative task. The willingness for me, or any other viewer, to engage the images with a contemplative openness is equally important, for True living visual symbols mean in ways very different than how the mind, the intellect, the ego function.)
In the last few years I have not found it so important to focus on the question of what is sacred and what is not in my work. I feel that grace is fairly consistently flowing through and guiding my creative process, and I am feeling the divine Presence in all aspects of my life, even when I don't "like" what I am seeing or hearing or feeling out in the world. My images will ofen challenge me, and change for me, from one viewing to the next--in terms of how I experience the image as "meaningful." How an image means for me, or what it seems to mean to me can certainly vacillate from one moment to the next. Staying in touch with the divine Presence in my life and within myself is the most important thing to me; it has become the prime motivation for why I make photographs now. And in this regard, making prints of my images from my past published blog projects has become yet another means for me to stay consciously connected and aware of grace as it flows through my Creative Process, and it many other transcendental gifts. Sometimes when I view a print I can feel--in a very palpable way-- the divine Presence that exists . . . not only within the image, but within myself as well.
*
Though the intention I hold generally in my Creative Process is to make True, living Symbols, which then elevates and qualifies an image to the status of Sacred Art, admittedly not all of my photographs succeed for me in this regard. Sometimes I will become fascinated with an image because of its visual power that somehow does not feel like its functioning as a symbol. I accept that, and look deeper into the image through other pictures I make and through the process of contemplation.
Thus, some of the images in this project may not be functioning at the highest level of intention or meaning for me (i.e., as True, living Symbols) and yet they radiate a certain sense of mystery or manifest a certain kind of visual energy that I find attractive, fascinating, stimulating . . . and perhaps confusing.
What I try to avoid at all costs is presenting an image that I understand. It is what is unknown in an image that offers the most meaning to me, though it usually requires of me a special effort to make "friends" with the image. The process of contemplating the image brings me deep into the image, and contemplation brings the image deep into myself where a non-verbal dialogue unfolds. Indeed, the "meaning" I get from the process of contemplation is usually beyond the ability for words to articulate.
(Note: I read many wonderful books about Islamic Sacred Art during the two years I was working on "An Imaginary Book" and this immersion in Islamic ideas about the Sacred allowed me to recognize the similarities between my yogic practices and especially the mystical (Sufic) aspects of Islam. This actually strengthened my commitment to my yogic practices. The two Traditions compliment each other in a way that has inspired my photographic practice. Since meeting Gurumayi and receiving her grace, making and contemplating photographs has become for me a form of yoga, a form of meditation, a form of worship. ~ I have created an extensive list of book recommendations regarding Sacred Art and Islamic Sacred Art in particular which I read while working on "An Imaginary Book." You will find the list at the end of the following blog page link: Sacred Art Sacred Knowledge.)
Epilogue
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Tawil : Unveiling the "Hidden Treasure"
#17 Double-page Illumination : Ta'wil (pink & blue version of Alcazar cistern field)
Tom Cheetham: The World Turned Inside Out: Henry Corbin and Islamic Mysticism
By turning the world inside out, by giving birth in the world to that interiority which is characteristic of the things of the soul . . . we return the hidden dimension to the manifest and uncover the depths that lie just under the surface of the world. ~ For Henry Corbin the bridge between creature and Creator is ta’wil, the transformation of the sensory world into symbols, into open-ended mysteries that shatter, engage, and transform the entire being of the creature. ~ Ta’wil transmutes the world into symbols which by their very nature transcend the distinction between the outer and the inner, the subject and the object, and by interiorizing the cosmos, by revealing the Imago mundi [the Imaginal world], transform and lead the soul beyond the literal understanding of the world to its truth . . . its origin. (Note: visit my project Ta'wil, Unveiling the "Hidden Treasure" the eighth "chapter" of "An Imaginary Book)
Henry Corbin: Alone with the Alone
Imaginative vision becomes vision of the heart . . . the heart being the organ, the "eye" by which God sees Himself: the contemplant is the contemplated (my vision of Him is His vision of me). . . In its ultimate degree, the Image will be a vision of the "Form of God" corresponding to the innermost being of the contemplant, who experiences himself as the microcosm of the Divine Being; a limited Form, like every form, but a Form which as such . . . emanates an aura, a "field" which is always open to "recurrent creations." This presupposes of course a basic visionary Imagination, a "presence of the heart" in the intermediate world . . . an intermediate world which is the encounter (the conjunction, the "conspiration") of the spiritual and the physical . . .
(See this related textual blog link: Creative Imagination)
Titus Burckhardt: Art of Islam: Language and Meaning
Regarding Art and Contemplation: the object of art is beauty of form, whereas the object of contemplation is beauty beyond form, which unfolds the formal order qualitatively whilst infinitely surpassing it. To the extent that art is akin to contemplation, it is knowledge since beauty is an aspect of Reality in the absolute meaning of the world. Nor is it the least of its aspects, for it reveals the unity and infinity that are immanent in things. It is finally beauty--subtly linked to the very source of things--that will pass judgment on the worth or futility of a world.
*
I mentioned several times above that I consider my creative process in photographic picture-making a form of yogic practice, a means of staying connected to grace. In this regard I will conclude this project with two statements by Gurumayi and Rumi, both of whom are considered by people throughout the world as beings who know what it is to live in the supremely conscious, unbroken awareness of their Oneness of Being, their union with God, the atman . . . "the great Spirit." Gurumayi's words will be first:
A true seeker is one who never slackens in his efforts. An effort, a [yogic or spiritual] practice, is not a mere exercise . . . ~ When people ask, "Why must we perform the practices?" the only answer is: 'The practices are the body of God. They are His visible form; they are vibrant with Shakti [grace, creative, spiritual, transformative energy]. ~ If you hold on to this visible aspect of God, then you're able to receive the invisible aspect; you're able to experience the atman, the great Spirit. From the book Resonate with Stillness
*
There are guides
who can show you the way.
Use them.
But they will not satisfy your longing.
Keep wanting the connection with presence
with all your pulsing energy.
The throbbing vein
will take you further
than any thinking.
Muhammed said, Do not theorize
about essence. All speculations
are just more layers of covering.
Human beings love coverings.
They think the designs on the curtains
are what is being concealed.
Observe the wonders as they occur around you.
Do not claim them. Feel the artistry
moving through, and be silent.
Rumi
(From A Year With Rumi, translations by Coleman Barks )
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This project was announced on
my bog's Welcome Page
March 1, 2024
Related Blog Project Links
The 2023-24 Inkjet Prints Project this link includes hyperlink titles to all the 12x12" Books & Projects plus links to all of the LARGER sized inkjet prints I have made in 2023-24.
How to Best View My Online Blog Images with your desktop or laptop computer.
Triadic Memories Project (a multi-chaptered project; see in particular the Repetition Triads, the Chromatic Fields, the Abstract Photographs, and the Triangulated, Circled and Gridline Photographs all of which provided material which was adapted for "An Imaginary Book."
Please visit the Welcome Page to my blog The Departing Landscape. It includes the complete hyperlinked listing of my online photography projects dating from the most recent to those dating back to the 1960's. You will also find on the Welcome Page my resume, contact information . . . and much more.
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