Been thinking a lot about inspiration lately, and where it comes from.
When I was about five years old, my parents let me have a tiny corner of their extensive vegetable garden in which I could grow whatever I wanted, because it was a good way for me to learn more about nature, and how to care for things.
The arragement of seeds in a sunflower
One of the things I always wanted to grow was giant sunflowers, in part because I was fascinated by the idea of a tiny sunflower seed tuning into a plant twice my height but also because I thought it was really cool how the seeds formed in geometric patterns.
In retrospect, I probably liked the geometric patterns because I was actually able to draw "something like that," while drawing anything life-like that was curvy and shadowy was always far beyond my ability.
But I was good at straight lines... along with the strange art of using only straight lines to draw what appeared to be a curve.
Detail from one of my own designs
When we lived in the southern parts of Spain (when I was a teenager) there were lots of remnants of buildings with mosaics from the Moorish era (pre-1492) most of which were intricate geometrics... and those were definitely considered art.
I still couldn't draw a horse to save my life, but my "doodles" grew more and more complex... and also necessary as something to do when teachers would drone on endlessly on topics I could care less about.
I also befriended a man at the local Artesania who worked with intricate geometrics applied in gold to a blackened steel base that was evidently part of a traditional form of art also dating back 1000 years or so.
Detail from a plate like the ones the artist at the Artesania would work on (own collection)
I still couldn't draw a horse. Or a flower. Or a human face...
Personally, I never really considered my drawings art, as such... it was actually my wife who first declared my doodles to be more than "just doodles" and encouraged me to take what I was doing a little more seriously.
Still, making a bunch of bookmarkish things... what's that really good for?
Of course there are lots of people who would argue that "being good for" is an utterly irrelevant idea in the context of art. Maybe it is. But I like things to have more meaning than merely taking up space and consuming resources.
Spirals within spirals
I still see geometric patterns everywhere... be it in sea shells, or the way a pine cone is structured. It never gts old!
They even show up in television and film. The other day we were watching the final spisode of season 2 of the series "The Rig," and the "Ancestor" protrayed communicated in geometric designs in the water.
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2025.06.24 AS-TXT-331/301