Iso-mandala: Ovid Void (12)

Here is the closing image of the OVID VOID series, photographed with its original base sketch. The whole series is a little homage to Thomas Merton, using words from his anagram poem on the Void..

Iso-mandala: Ovid Void (11)

Here is Iso-mandala No. 267, the eleventh of the 1 works in the OVID VOID series, photographed with its original base sketch. The series is a little homage to Thomas Merton, whose words take over the mandala. Quote: “You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.”

Iso-mandala: Ovid Void (10)

Here is Iso-mandala No. 266, tenth of the 12 works in the OVID VOID series, photographed here with its original base sketch. The series is a little homage to Thomas Merton, inspired by his anagram concrete poem of the Void.

Iso-mandala: Ovid Void (9)

Iso-mandala No. 265

Act III of OVID VOID, in which vain efforts are made by the main characters to reduce things to geometric exactness, almost everything turns to water, and what looks like an explosion might be only a minor after effect. All very Chekhov. Performance notes for Iso-mandala No. 265, herewith. While the audience are led to believe that the explosion is the main event of the Christmas Cracker, your job is to show that the main events are the telling of a series of bad jokes, fitting of paper hats onto large craniums, and how to fix a plastic moustache to your nostrils without pain.

Iso-mandala: Ovid Void (8)

Iso-mandala No. 264

Act III of OVID VOID, in which vain efforts are made by the main characters to reduce things to geometric exactness, almost everything turns to water, and what looks like an explosion might be only a minor after effect. All very Chekhov. Here are the performance notes for Iso-mandala No. 264. While half the cast is going through mood swings that are Ocean Vapour Ice and Downpour, the other half are doing Vapour Ocean Ice Downpour. This gives the audience the impression that everything has coalesced, or even reached harmony. Your job is basically to keep to the script and not burst into tears.

Iso-mandala: Ovid Void (7)

 Iso-mandala No. 263

Act III of OVID VOID, in which vain efforts are made by the main characters to reduce things to geometric exactness, almost everything turns to water, and what looks like an explosion might be only a minor after effect. All very Chekhov. Performance notes for Iso-mandala No. 263: The void produces Ovid, or the other way round. Depending on which way you hold it up, there is a celestial dome, a chalice and paten, Pinocchio in truthful mode, directions to the supermarket exit.

Iso-mandala: Ovid Void (6)

 Iso-mandala No. 262

Like the forms themselves, our letters emerge from formlessness into the well-known streetscapes we described in Vana exercise books at primary school. Why one letter rather than another, one sound than another, is a subject of perennial fascination to all of us. Staring into a bottle of ink can be quite arresting: what's going to come out next?

Iso-mandala: Ovid Void (5)

 Iso-mandala No. 261 

Amanda Witt 

advises that black cats are called voids because they are there but we cannot always see them. This is certainly the case with our cat Obsidian, who kindly modelled for the part of Ovid's cat, Void. Homework reveals that Ovid himself is partly responsible for the black cat superstition. He wrote a short poem about the Egyptian cat goddess Bast, which cast aspersions and got him into hot water. Ovid was good at that.

Iso-mandala: Ovid Void (4)

 Iso-mandala No. 260

A valley closely resembling the Delatite has a road that could be a black snake curving through it. Such valleys are ideal for pondering the Void, especially at night with its millions of stars. A badger reminds us of the protean nature of language.

Iso-mandala: Ovid Void (3)

 Iso-mandala No. 259, a third attempt at describing the void using the simple shapes available to people like you and me and Ovid.

Iso-mandala: Ovid Void (2)

 Iso-mandala No. 258

Thomas Merton’s concrete poem employs permutations of VOID and OVID, not all of them actual Latin or English. The many non-standard words in the verses remind us of the fecundity and liveliness of language. In this mandala I have copied Ovid's description of Chaos in The Metamorphoses, paralleling it with an English translation in red.

Ante mare et terras et quod tegit omnia caelum

unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe,

quem dixere chaos: rudis indigestaque moles

nec quicquam nisi pondus iners congestaque eodem

non bene iunctarum discordia semina rerum.

Before the ocean and the earth appeared— before the skies had overspread them all—

the face of Nature in a vast expanse was naught but Chaos uniformly waste.

It was a rude and undeveloped mass, that nothing made except a ponderous weight;

and all discordant elements confused, were there congested in a shapeless heap.

Iso-Mandala: Ovid Void (1)

 

Iso-mandala No. 257

In February I give a seminar on Thomas Merton’s art. This includes his poetry and I may open with a concrete poem of his that has fascinated me for years in which he plays with the fact that Ovid is an anagram of Void. I meditate by making mandalas of OVID VOID and will be making more. Here is a description of Chaos in The Metamorphoses, followed by a sloppy English translation.

Ante mare et terras et quod tegit omnia caelum

unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe,

quem dixere chaos: rudis indigestaque moles

nec quicquam nisi pondus iners congestaque eodem

non bene iunctarum discordia semina rerum.

Before the ocean and the earth appeared— before the skies had overspread them all—

the face of Nature in a vast expanse was naught but Chaos uniformly waste.

It was a rude and undeveloped mass, that nothing made except a ponderous weight;

and all discordant elements confused, were there congested in a shapeless heap.