About the Balance Design
If I remember right it was New Years Day, or very close to it, when Kit DesLauriers and PJ Patton called to say they wanted to use my Balance design as the logo for Pursue Balance. I loved hearing their vision and was thrilled that they thought this Balance design was a match for them. I was thrilled especially since they also mentioned creating a Balance sculpture.
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I created the Balance design while on an artist retreat in the Florida Keys. I was spending the week in a small cottage at Sugarloaf Women’s Village along with my sketchbook and some of my carving tools. Often I draw the infinity symbol or the hourglass figure and try to feel them in my body. Both symbols inspire me and I feel like they are almost as fundamental as the circle, spiral, triangle, square and cross. Trying to put on paper what infinity feels like is certainly something that one cannot really put on paper. But one day I decided to go at it with focus and determination. So, with wild abandon I drew a series of spontaneous scribbles flipping page after page. I was dancing wildly on paper transferring my feelings through my hand, into the pencil and onto the page. After a while I got the big ‘aha’. There it is! It came to be known as ‘Balance’ also knows as ‘Infinity Come Undone’.
It was the quickest design I ever did on paper. Completing work with it is a whole other story as I can not seem to be done with it. I have carved and sculpted several small pieces and now find myself planning one 6 to 20 feet tall.
In the ‘dance of balance’ I feel two forces energetically connected to each other. They need each other, they adore each other, and they repel each other. This force may be the very tension that creates life itself. The Natural Law of Duality or law of attraction and repulsion seems to govern the whole of creation. It manifests as yin and yang, sadness and joy, male and female, light and dark. If these forces are not held in balance in our own life, or in the world, life can be very uneasy, painful and diseased. Like the pause between the ’in’ breath and the ‘out’ breath or feeling at the top of a ferries wheel, all things are in equilibrium when there is balance. Maintaining this sense of balance seems to take constant precision, effort, attention and grace.
“Hold all the pain and suffering of samsara (suffering) in your heart and at the same time the power and vision of the great Eastern Sun (nirvana, joy), and then you can make a proper bowl of tea”. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
About K Robins, the Artist
K, a native Virginian who lives and works in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, has devoted her life’s work to exploring the language and deeper meanings of symbols. ”Passed reverently from generation to generation, symbols that cross cultures and timelines, surround us and carry us steadily through life’s interwoven cycles of birth, life, death and rebirth." K.
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Twenty-two years ago, in her home basement shop where she normally made furniture and cooking utensils while her three children played upstairs, she began carving a series of small female sculptures that have evolved into the K Robins Symbolic Jewelry Collection. This work came at "a time of extreme upheaval. I changed from making art that was functional to art that was very personal and symbolic. I found these new creations gave me comfort, strength and insight, helping me deal with overwhelming experiences occurring at that time. As my life continued to challenge me, I began the practice of going to Symbolic Art for healing, much as one goes to prayer, goes to meditation or goes to the mat."
Family, deep friendships and an array of teachers have been a steady source of inspiration. This outpouring of talent, courage, and wisdom has profoundly affected K's work. "Some pieces, such as Aphrodite, Shakti and Changer are visionary, that is, I see them in my mind first. They work as affirmations or visualizations. Others, like Raven, Cerridwen and Vrksasana are attempts to capture qualities that amaze me in people I know and love. As a visual artist I have come to know that I communicate my feelings best through art."
To find out more about K Robins, her jewelry and sculpture, please visit her website at www.krobinsdesigns.com.