QIAN

2009
30.5 x 38"
Silverpoint on zinc ground

I have used the ancient Chinese ideograph, Qian, for the composition of this drawing. Qian is translated as The Creative or Heaven. It is the first ideograph of the I Ching.

On the left side is the sun. Above the sun is a shoot of grass with leaves radiating on both sides. Under the sun are roots radiating downward. On the right side the chi, or light and energy, spreads out under the sky. In Chinese, Qian possesses the same sound as the word for health.

I have substituted a nest from my yard as the sun, a piece of driftwood from the beach as the radiating chi and images from my hikes in Oregon as roots, leaves and radiating light.