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The symbolism of the piece:

The main idea behind creating this particular piece was to create a mandala of sorts - that is, a map of the cycle of creation as it occurs on all levels throughout reality. I did not choose to work with sacred geometric proportions when creating this mandala, but instead decided to simply use the treatment of the lines themselves to carry the intended symbolic meaning.

In the center of the design, we find a traditional celtic spiral pattern. This particular pattern contains three smaller spirals linked together into one central spiral. The spiral pattern as a whole is circular in form, and here is meant to represent primal, unmanifested unity. The swirls and eddies created by the various shapes within the overall pattern are intended to hint at the chaotic and flowing aspect of this primal unity, much as the swirling blue background represents in the Uroboros piece discussed previously. The reasoning behind the fact that the overall pattern is composed of three spirals linked into one will be returned to later in this commentary.

As we step out from the unified center, represented by the spiral motif, we find a weaving knot work design, wherein the main line of the weave is in fact split into two separate lines. As these two lines weave along the pattern's path, the pattern of their weaving always opposes each other. In other words, when one line is going over a line at a given intersection, it's parallel line is diving under. The idea here is to represent basic duality - the first major step out of the unified state - by splitting one line into two, and having those two smaller lines have opposing characteristics. It is important to note that although the two parallel lines have opposing weave patterns, together they still constitute one overall line. This hints at the unified aspect that hides behind the dualistic nature of this line pattern.

In the negative space between the duality pattern, we find eight small circles, each of which is divided in half by a reverse curving line. It is no coincidence that the shape resembles the Taoist Yin Yang, symbol of duality. The fact that the Yin Yang like symbols rotate gradually as they progress around the circle is intended to represent the cyclic nature that is introduced by the birth of duality. Once the basic duality is formed within unity, a continual alternation between the two extremes ensues in a cyclic fashion, and it is as if our eight circles are simply frozen moments within that cycle.

By finding unity within duality, we create the Trinity, and that is the next symbolic line pattern that we find surrounding the duality pattern. As with the duality pattern, this line hints at its inner meaning with the fact that the overall line is split into three sections. With the birth of the trinity, an exponential creative power is born - a sudden outward expansion from the point of origin - and we find that the pattern itself displays eight prominent outward jutting points. This explosion of growth is both the beginning and the end of the cycle that this mandala depicts, and as such we find trinity symbolism at the center of the piece (the three spirals tied into one) and at the outer edge of the piece.

In some ways there are two possible paths of progression from the point of the outer trinity. First, the energy being described can return to its unified state directly, thus creating another unified three spiral pattern such as we find at the center of the mandala. Second, the energy can begin to coalesce into material manifestation. These two paths of progression are in no way exclusive of one another, but instead occur concurrently.

The eight points of the outer trinity direct us toward the second path of progression, and also lead us to the edge of our defined cycle of creation. There are four major points and four minor, with the four major points indicating the four cardinal directions. Throughout many cultures, any symbol depicting four points such as these hints at material manifestation, or the creation of the actual three-dimensional universe. The four smaller points conjoined with the four larger give us a total of eight, with the eight-spoked wheel always being representative of the cyclic movement of nature in that material manifestation. Common examples of this cyclic nature would be the movement from midnight to dawn to day to dusk and back to midnight again, or the movement through the four seasons.

Beyond these points we find the edge of our defined mandala. Past this edge can only be seen an infinite repeating static field. The pattern of this field is complex, yet simple, and stable, yet seems to shimmer and move when our focus is on the central mandala. This field is intended to represent the realm of "the 10,000 things," or the infinite number of possible manifestations within the material realm. Once we have stepped beyond the basic cycle from unity to trinity, infinite forms are given birth to and destroyed in succession. In other words, this field could be taken to represent the realm of Maya, or illusion. The pattern is strictly dualistic in nature, showing only two opposing colors that interlock with one another through their mirror image aspect. Just as the interplay of dualistic forces creates our experience of the universe that surrounds us, so the dual interlocking right angle spirals creates this pattern.

The creative process of the piece:

The original knot work design for this piece was drawn in pen and ink on paper (the original artwork can be viewed by clicking the image icon above and then scrolling down). It was then scanned in to Adobe PhotoShop 5.0, and the negative space of the design was made transparent. The image was then cut into two separate pieces, and these were scaled appropriately. One piece consisted of the central unity spiral pattern and the duality weave pattern, and the other of the trinity pattern alone.

I then built the shape that the weaves are laid across using POV-Ray 3.0, and then image-mapped the two weave pattern images across the shapes. I created the key pattern that is seen in the background completely in PhotoShop 5.0, and then image-mapped that pattern across a plane in POV-Ray.

The final POV render for this image took approximately 1 hour for a 350 MHz processor to complete (rendered at 1024x768 pixels).