Magickal Table

I had this old wood table next to my bed for years. Then I had it next to my painting setup out in the garden for years. It started to deteriorate, so I decided to art it up. I sanded, gessoed, and started. I did not have a plan in mind. (Photos by Fabrice Florin).

I started on the top, with the black part. If you look back a couple posts, you will see tiny canvases in which I worked out the black border. The center of the top is an Islamic geometry pattern known as "the breath of the compassionate." "The name of the pattern refers to  the teaching of Ibn al-'Arabi (Sufi master), which expound the Divine  Breath as the basis of creation."

I like the  tiling and the close interplay between figure and ground. And this design in particular reminds me that the interaction of attention, vision, the brush (which is intimately connected to the breath) the figure, and the ground of a symbol is a psychospiritual exercise as well as a metacognitive practice: “Having a symbol to represent something is a very  powerful way to draw it to you. Symbols work on a deeper level of  consciousness than words and bypass belief systems.”

My friend Ilyse suggested switching the color grandients for the same design for the bottom:

And I arted up the sides. Each step followed the previous step, with no more plan than that.