Layers & Levels Punto 3: Vortexography

The vortex logo above is made with a Japanese calligraphy brush and ink. If you look at the center area you can see a little depression at the top of the inner ring. The stroke starts at the right of that depression then dips down and circles back up and around and then down again to the outer ring, draws that outer ring and then loops back into the center to the starting point where the little depression is formed by the brushstrokes not quite matching up perfectly.

This little Puntito is just an observation: there is one line, continuously drawn which starts off going forward, keeps going forward but forming a continuous curve and then returns to the starting point. In so doing, several things happen: it creates a new form as it proceeds; then it doubles back over its old form; then makes a new form all the way around the outer ring and then doubles back over that outer ring and an earlier inner ring. Also, sometimes it is ascending and other times descending; and sometimes it is outside and sometimes it is inside. Also, it creates three separate white space zones, each with a very different shape albeit all formed by the same one, curving line.

The point being there are lots of different layers and levels even on this one-dimensional plane of a continuous, curved line on paper. There’s a lot going on in this one simple thing; as is true of all things.