Portrait From The Show In National City

 

Here I am with the piece "El Puente Del Corazón"

El Puente Del Corazon (The Bridge of Heart)

 

The piece that I chose to submit to the show titled — “Kinetics Art that Moves You” is a mathematical visual poem titled: El Puente Del Corazón (The Bridge of Heart) 56"x 56" polyester digital print

The piece involves bridging two historic traditions from opposite sides of the world. (Central America and East Asia) The concept of emptiness is found in the Mayan creation story described by the Popol Vuh yet, emptiness is also a fundamental concept of the Heart Sutra, an important tenet in the tradition of Zen Buddhism.
In the context of mathematics, the piece uses a "Similar Triangles Poems" mapping across two sets of corresponding legs found in similar triangles (a/b = c/d) to express the statement: "Emptiness is to Form as Form is to Emptiness." In mathematical form: (Emptiness divided by Form is equal to Form divided by Emptiness) Algebra is then used to simplify the expression in order to point at the concept of "Oneness" or atonement. Atonement is generally thought of in a Christian context and relates to sin. In this context we can think about karma and how it can be burnt away by enlightenment. I would like to use a quote from Sam Harris to help us understand the phrase used in the mathematical poem.

In the Prajna Paramita Sutra (Heart Sutra) it is written that form is emptiness and emptiness is form. Form is not other than emptiness and emptiness is not other than form. Emptiness in this context, refers to what experience is like prior to conceptualization. Everything is simply appearing and at the level of experience everything is inseparable from consciousness itself - or what ever you want to call this condition of appearance. So there are no things, really - there is just this display of appearances. And consciousness is not one thing either - nor is it many - it is merely open and without definition and yet it allows for everything to appear without impediment. It’s no mere vacancy. Rather it is vividly aware of itself - as itself. Ceasing to overlook this condition where ever you are whatever is apparently happening - is meditation.

Within the imagery of the work a circular shaped 'Il won sang', (enso) Zen Buddhist symbol of emptiness, appears as the Mayan creator God reaches for it. A quote from the Popol Vuh follows
(English Translation):

Now it still ripples
Now it still ripples
Now it still murmurs
Ripples
It still sighs
Still hums
And it is empty under the sky

Here is the English translation of the left side of the work:

For a deep dive into the cognitive linguistic view of Similar Triangles Poems read this paper: A Cognitive View of Pandemic Meditations.

Label information

Title: El Puente Del Corazon (The Bridge of Heart)

The Piece is 56" x 56" Polyester weave / sealed acrylic digital print

The show opens Thursday April 14th 2022
5 PM to 8 PM

The Art Center
200 E 12th St, National City, CA 91950

What Is Wet?

Here is another similar triangles poem titled "What Is Wet?"

A Quote From Mool Kae On The Nature Of Descriptions.

Descriptions always describe something else.

Quote From Mool Kae On What Is Real.

Sunset Sutra

Much of my recent work is inspired by my studies and practice of Korean Zen. Living in the present moment takes practice and the sunset is a perfect tool to notice the power of the present moment - for if not living in the moment you will miss the sunset. The most spectacular sunset that I have ever seen was from the window of an airplane. This photographic image was shot during that sunset. The mathematical poem is in the form of what I call an ‘orthogonal space’ poem - which is always in the form of a = bc (or its syntactical equivalent e.g. b = a/c or c = a/b ). One may notice that the sunset is not as important when the time approaches zero and the phenomena of Dharma approaches infinity. One aesthetic process that excites me most comes from pondering how math functions within the mind and its particular relationship to the spectrum of all mental phenomena. I see math illuminating the logical structure of the mind and poetic metaphor being a wind blowing through that structure.

Mathematical Zen Poems By Karl Kempton

Here Are A Couple Of Mathematical Zen Poems By Karl Kempton

Don't Think About This

Here is a proportional poem titled "Don't Think About This"

Bathing Ghosts

Here is a Proportional Poem titled "Salvation". This was inspired by my recent visit to the Korean Zen Temple Songgwangsa

The image above is a detail from the image below