Ensō
The zen circle— enso— is wonderfully simple: an immediately brushed circle, no thinking, no planning, no trying to make it good, and presto— you yourself and the whole of reality is expressed. Circle: endless journey: every step away from the beginning is a step toward the beginning. Every step the start and the finish. In this wondrous book of photographic ensos, (including appreciations by the famed calligrapher Kazuaki Tanahashi and poet and zen monk Ninso John High) David Scheinbaum expresses a lifetime of photographic expertise— as well as a lifetime of wondrous looking, thinking, and living. Effortlessly moving in rich variety, these luminous images express the whole of the truth. You will love contemplating them again and again.
—Norman Fischer, Soto Zen priest and poet.
Brush drawn circles and some without the use of a brush, all created in the darkroom. Chemical reactions add up or even produce their own artistic expressions.
An ensō, or Zen circle, originally came from the image of a full moon, which symbolizes enlightenment or complete awakening. Chan (Chinese Zen) masters drew circles in many ways, by walking around, turning somersaults, or drawing with a whisk in the air. Some of them must have been drawn on paper, but I am not aware of any artworks left from ancient China. The earliest ensō I know of was done by the painter Sesshū in fourteenth-century Japan. There have been a great number of ensōs done by Zen masters in Japan and elsewhere, all black ink on paper.
As I am from Japan but live in the United States, I want ensōs to represent diversity. That’s how I started drawing multicolored Zen circles on paper and canvas about thirty years ago. I am delighted that David Scheinbaum is joining us with an astonishingly different medium and new sensibility. Welcome to the world of diversity, joy, and miracles of each moment!
—Kazuaki Tanahashi
To read more about Ensō click here
