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

The Caveat of Capitalism

This piece was done in the spring of 2020 and inspired by the politics of the day. It uses the similar triangles form.
In addition I spoke in detail about this piece published in Karie Ross's book, Artists, Art and Story. Purchase it here: clickhere

 

Shoebox Projects Call and Responce - Spring of 2020

 This work was a collaboration between myself and Coleman Griffith sponsored by Shoeboxprojects of Los Angeles California. The method we used was that Coleman provided me a photo and I manipulated it and provided a mathematical poem to accompany the new image.  I used the similar triangles form for all of the math poems.

The Heart Sutra in Similar Triangles

 This version executed in the spring of 2020

Disengendered

The mathematical visual poem titled “Disengendered” is a pencil drawing done around January 2020. While in Oklahoma, a state known for conservative views, I was inspired to make this piece during a discussion with an Oklahoma friend of mine who shared her experience with me about one of her close friends. For clarity, I will refer to her friend as “TJ”. My friend expressed that TJ was struggling with a gender transition. It was made known that TJ was born with both sets of genitalia and yet, was forced to grow up as a girl due to TJ's mother cutting off TJ's male genitalia while as a baby. When TJ became around thirty years old TJ was confused due to being convinced that TJ’s mother made a mistake and TJ is a man. Yet, TJ had all this experience as a girl and has female genitalia as well.

While viewing and trying to understand TJ from a distance one experiences this person as normal and well-adjusted yet, the closer one gets to TJ the more confused one gets concerning TJ’s gender struggle. This would not normally be a problem if not for also being empathetic to the pain and struggle that TJ is experiencing.

I have mapped this experience visually in my drawing, for at a distance, the drawing looks fine -- even to the point that you can tell TJ is wearing glasses. Yet, up close the drawing is confusing and hard to tell if it depicts a person at all. In this work, I was inspired to express my compassion for TJ in the struggle he is experiencing in his transition by creating visual and mathematical metaphors pointing to metamorphic hope.

The mathematical poetic form used is a "Similar Triangles Poem" and you can find tools to understand the mechanics of this form I have provided a link below that provides a deep analysis of how Similar Triangles Poem functions. A translation from mathematics to a lexical expression reveals the poem can be read as "The Lost Soul is to a Cosmic Nursery as Being On An Ocean Raft is to Times Square. (NYC) or it can be read as The Lost Soul is to Being On An Ocean Raft as the Cosmic Nursery is to Times Square.

 

Poem for Niels Bohr

 I have been really behind on my blog and am trying to catch up. This piece is a similar triangles poem done in December of 2019

What Is Wet?

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

The Delusions of Control

Afghanistan has a horrible history of not only bands of marauders trying to control this land but, empires trying to control it as well. The piece was inspired by an Afghanistan general who said that his country is the graveyard of empires. Even today it is in political turmoil with militants trying to seize control of this vast mountainous area.  This is a proportional poem that addresses the imperial struggles of control and the futility of such a quest. 

In the vernacular, the poem can be read many ways including the following: "The value of Afghanistan is to the value of Hope as the value of The Graveyard is to the value of an Empire. Or the Value of Afghanistan is to the value of a graveyard as the value of hope is to the value of an Empire.

Addition

Here is a proportional poem by Kaz Maslanka that points to the mechanics of commerce.

Singularity at Vulture Peak

This Similar Triangles Poem titled "Singularity at Vulture Peak"is a refinement from an earlier piece and is much more direct with what I want to express.  -Kaz

One vernacular translation for this mathematical expression is, "Enigma is to a flower dream as the truth is to the experience of a flower."

One may want to Google "Vulture Peak" to see what many say is the first transmission Zen from the Buddha.

Fog

Here is a Proportional Poem titled "FOG"

FOG - 2012

Don't Think About This

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

The Tao Of Campbell

Here is a polyaesthetic proportional poem titled "The Tao Of Campbell"
To understand how proportional poems work click here
Dreams are to personal myths as myth is to cultural dream.


Here is a detail of the image:

Singularity (Polyaesthetic)

Here is a polyaesthetic version of the proportional poem titled "Singularity"



Here is a detail view from the piece titled "Singularity"

New Singularity

This post is a new version of the proportional poem posted December 13, 2010.

Singularity by Kaz Maslanka

Here is a new proportional poem titled "Singularity".

If you are not familiar with how to read proportional poems please click here

Blood Manure Nature And The Despot

Here are three new proportional/similar triangles poems.

Iteration

Here is one of my new proportional poems titled "Iteration"

Afghanistan

Here is a new proportional poem titled “Afghanistan”

I find that you can switch Hope and Empire and get different results that still provide something interesting