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Consisting of over 14,000 circles is Zen. The work, when viewed somewhat close, dazzles. Taken from an aerial view of a river in the Amazon basin, with study it becomes more metaphoric. For instance, look for patterns and the mind will play games, pareidolia. Sometimes words seem to form, other times, different zones of light and dark, large and small, and  near and far are apparent, but the patterns shift around. Are the circles trees, or atoms, or globular molecules? The river arrangement is representative of Tao, of wabi-sabi. Thus, the relatively simple composition, like an Asian one-stroke ink brush drawing, opens psychologically and philosophically.

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Perceive the wind, perceive the dance comprises 1,500 circles, and it is influenced by New England tree hues in autumn. The contrast of blue/orange can be perceived dimensionally, with the lake seen as a hole in the above planar tree array. Op effects may lead to awareness of mind and mindfulness.

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Wildflowers is derived from photos of California wildflowers (orange poppies, yellow buttercups, purple asters) after spring rains. It consists entirely of 4,200 circles.

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A winter of rains, two months labor, and 6,000 circles characterize Rainstorm. It is a dazzling, energetic array that has the hazard under the influence of trippy mesmerization. A raindrop's view in a heavy shower of the approaching pond, perhaps?

The opposite of rains is drought. Desert, of 11,100 circles, reflects the cracked ponds, river beds and wadis with homogenous array of cacti, blooming sage, and succulents as based on photographs of desert lands in Nevada and Arizona.

Another environmental painting is Ocean, of 4,800 circles. The work is derived from computerized images of NASA & NOAA data of currents and of satellite views of spiral plankton concentrations.

Lava Fields, of 11,000 circles, is based on aerial photographs during an eruption of Mauna Loa in Hawai‘i.

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The final work of 2023 has a philosophical intent. Everything Consists of Organized Atoms: Canyon. Derived from a snapshot taken of the Grand Canyon from an airplane, the painting can be viewed three ways depending on distance and thereby gain appreciation of its title. Up- close, only the abstraction of circles in zones of a limited palette of browns and purples is noted; further back the appearance of a canyon is discerned and the atomized effect is superimposed; at a greater distance, when circles are blended into the soil and rock, only the commonly regarded terrain dominates. The viewer can either approach from afar or begin near across the three distinct perceptive distances.  Consists of 13,850 circles.

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For March 2024 is an environmental work, Global Climate Change. Trees in the Sierra Nevada (King's Canyon) are dying, unable to adapt to rising average annual temperatures and cumulative drought. The trees also become more susceptible to pathogens and insect infestation. The painting is based directly on a cropped governmental photograph and consists of about 1,525 circles.

 

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A follow-up work, Global Climate Change II, is of a hurricane seen from space. Hurricanes/typhoons are trending toward intensity and more frequency. Close inspection of the source photograph shows the effects of thermals on cloud formation. Thermals are rising heat bubbles from the ground that allow birds to glide and soar upwards without flapping their wings and help form globular clouds. At the macro scale, even hurricane cloud groupings take on a globular forms, which here are reduced to elemental circles. Besides the clear small circles, some 3,500, the canvas fabric itself contributes to the art, providing myriad mini circles, individual puffs within groupings.

 

Debra Jan Bibel

MORPHOLOGIES:
An Exploration, An Evolution

Fresh Paint

This page features the latest visual compositions, completed in 2022 (selected) to 2024. Because the page will change with each new opus, monitor the page periodically. The images may also be found among the galleries.

NOTE: All reduced and overly processed images fail utterly in even hinting at the quality and the true colors of the actual paintings and their effect on the viewer.

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Mind Tunnel began as a 'what-if' doodle (or the influence of a 2-day precognition of encountering Georgia O'Keeffe's painting Light Coming on the Plains No. 1). After a series of studies using 3 colors for the inner circles, the simple 2 proved more dramatic.

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The quadriptych The Seasons consists of a display of 4 diamond rhomboid works. A previous set, Four Kakemono for a Teahouse, is a take with square elements on four 'portrait' rectangles; and Chinese calligraphy of the four seasons was created on one sheet by brush-ink and also stylized in acrylic on a single canvas. The intended linear arrangement is designed to allow both focused appreciation of each season and the yearly change. The square arrangement is an approved alternative.

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Following up the minimalistic circle and arc forms of The Seasons is Other Worlds. The painting has remarkable harmony and balance, perhaps instilling a feeling of movement The astronomical aspects may come to mind. The work is reminiscent of previous paintings with swirls and orbs: Ether (1979) and Winter's Harbinger (2012).

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Composed of 12,700 circles, Global Climate Change III — Dying coral reef, is derived from a cropped photograph. Corals vary in shape and develop bold colors, as lime green, rust red, cobalt blue. The source image was red violet. Dying coral are 'bleached' white as their exposed skeleton is calcium carbonate, chalk. As with the 'atoms/canyon' painting, this work should first be seen from afar and then zoomed closer, allowing shifting cognition and feelings in response.

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34,200 circles are found on Iguazu.The right bottom corner of Bibel's own photograph of Iguazu Falls between Argentina and Brazil, where she visited in 2012, is the basis of this painting. The visual pizzicato is a combination of idealized trees and bushes but also the natural form of falling water. Rain drops are actually globular, and the coherent fluid of rivers, when falling long distances, is subject to turbulence and surface tension effects, leading to disintegration into a flow of spheroid globules. Again, the distance when viewing the painting is influential in emotional effect. As conveyed by the enlargement, the hundreds of falls produced a roar and a saturated atmosphere of microdrops such that despite rain clothing, the skin became wet.

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After the marathon painting of Iguazu is the small, whimsical painting of merely some 500 circles, Ideal Weather, Whether Ideal. Despite its simplicity, the clash of visual perspectives — if assuming the trees are of the same size — plays on the mind as two-dimensional trees and balloon inches in front of the three-dimensional plain.

Link to enlargement  

Link to enlargement  

Link to enlargement  

The Seasons: Autumn  (2024), 16 × 16 in.

The painting was designed akin to a NASA planetary flyby with a more interesting pattern. Psychological oddity: flipping the image 90° provides a more familiar astronaut perspective where the planet feels closer with a sense of movement toward the horizon.  Turn this image upside down and the pattern suggests Antarctica.

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All images are copyright by Debra Jan Bibel.  Permission for use in electronic media or for printed reproduction is required. 

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