Fundamentals of Tao Print

Yin Yang is perhaps the most known and documented concept used within Taoism. They are the two halves that together complete wholeness. Yin and yang are also the starting point for change. When something is whole, by definition it is unchanging and complete. So when you split something into two halves – yin / yang, it upsets the equilibrium of wholeness. This starts both halves chasing after each other as they seek a new balance with each other. The word Yin comes out to mean “shady side” and Yang “sunny side”. Yin Yang is the concept of duality forming a whole. We encounter examples of Yin and Yang every day. As examples: night (Yin) and day (Yang), female (Yin) and male (Yang). Over thousands of years, quite a bit has been sorted and grouped under various Yin Yang classification systems. The symbol for Yin Yang is called the Taijitu. Most people just call it the yin-yang symbol in the west. The Taijitu symbol has been found in more than one culture and over the years has come to represent Taoism. The painting depicts a duality. Something to understand in Taoism is that the two halves, black and white, are not opposites, even though we seem to think so. Instead of being opposite, they are complimentary. Red and Black in this painting are complementary. They create the patterns of shadow and light. An entity emerges out of a pattern, and a pattern emerges out of entity. This parallel between two states is not just known in Buddhism and Taoism, but also in the Banach–Tarski paradox. The paradox poses a question if a ball can be decomposed into a finite number of its elements, and then be reassembled into two balls identical to the original? It also answers, yes. The red and black in this painting start with simple strokes and lines, forming a pattern in themselves, making it hard to accurately predict if it is black on red, or red on black, depicting the fundamental question of ‘conscious-will’. Rephrasing it would sound like, ‘am I a product of circumstances, or I am the one creating it?’ The patterns on left and right, embark into bold figures, giving rise to two separate entities, identifiable as ego and yet a part of the whole pattern. It is the same as the yin and yang of the Tao representation. Yin gives rise to Yang, and vice versa. In tao, we see it as the opposite colored inception in the form of circles in the two halves. In this painting, if you can see the pattern in the center, it is again a humanoid figure similar to what can be said exists on the left as well as on the right, and yet, it is not the same. The pattern, on a broader level, remains the same, but it becomes a new entity. The female figure, shape, waist, hands, torso, shoulders, everything can be mapped to the same features in the figures on the left and the right. It is made out of the same pattern what the figures on the left and right are made of and has now assumed its own identity, inception of another form of Ego, another form of consciousness that we as humans can comprehend. And this pattern continues, on and on, the more you delve micro or the more you zoom out. It would be equivalent to chasing infinity, and infinity is something we humans can’t understand because of one basic problem, our consciousness is bound by two finite ends of birth and death. It is the pattern which gives rise to the form and it is the form which gives rise to the pattern, generating the fundamental question of will as mentioned before, ‘Am I a result of the circumstances or I am the one creating it’ The Fundamental of Tao as a painting unfolds the whole process of creation as an equation, and at the same time, shows as visualization of two variables, in form of colors ‘Red and Black’ --------------------------- Gallery mount, edges sealed, toxin free colors.  Protective coating applied. Signed at the bottom. Ready to hang.

Print:Giclee on Canvas

Size:21 W x 14 H x 1.25 D in

Size with Frame:22.75 W x 15.75 H x 1.25 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.