Tattoo number 2!

This has been a whirlwind year and I can't believe the first year of graduate school is over. I have really enjoyed being up in the North...most of the time anyway. It's when there is tons of snow on the ground that it starts getting a bit too me. 

Weather aside, I've really enjoyed school here, the professors are great and I've made some great friends.

There is the update here is the meaning behind my latest tattoo...

As of late I have been drawn more and more to using the circles in my work. Sometimes they are straight up and down, sometimes they shift to one side or the other, but they are always there.  I'm still trying to grasp the full meaning of what they mean to me.

Mainly, they represent the circle that is life, how things change all the time, yet you find yourself still the same in some ways.  These circles aren't perfect, just as life is not perfect.  A friend of mine introduced me a little to what the circles represent with Zen Buddhism and what the circle or the enso  meant within that Zen culture.  I have researched a little into this concept and have found:

...ensō symbolizes a moment when the mind is free to simply let the body/spirit create.  ...it shows the expressive movement of the spirit at that time. Zen Buddhists "believe that the character of the artist is fully exposed in how she or he draws an ensō. Only a person who is mentally and spiritually complete can draw a true ensō.

 I'm not necessarily trying to draw a true ensō, but I love that they believe that the true nature of the artist is shown through the attempt at making one.  The artist's process is so important to me it is our diary, our vulnerability. We don't usually like for people to watch how we work.The circles have become me, no matter which form they take, they are me and my true nature and the cycles my life has taken.

I tend to be a little obsessive compulsive and detail oriented about certain things. I notice cycles, circular moments in time, noticing when things are turning out they way they have before.  When printing I count the times I ink the roller, the times I roll up the plate, the number of revolutions to roll the press to print...these things all become the rhythm with me, my zone. These cycles just in printing relate themselves to the circles in my life. These cycles are alive, ever changing yet so many of the elements are the same. I get alot of personal satisfaction in creating these circles both emotionally and physically.

The physical fluid movement of painting these circles over and over again on paper is therapeutic for me as is the circular cycles of pulling a lithograph. These circles have become my "thing" so to speak.

...soooooo there is the reason for the circles tattoo...