1, Monad & Happy First Day of 2014

Thanks to my dear friend Kitty who said of The Mystery of Numbers, "I bet it would be fun to study these in depth discovering all kinds of hidden messages and mysteries of numbers." She started me thinking of how I could create details of this Multiple that is premiering tomorrow at Community Art Center in Danville. People often ask me about the Golden Rectangle and Golden Proportion I use in my art. So I thought I would break it down showing each one on the next 5 days.

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Monad, 12 x 7.5"

Monad is a Golden Rectangle. One relates to point.

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Monad, detail, square

"Nothing exists with out a center around which it revolves. The center is the source. The circle encloses the greatest area within the smallest perimeter."* Taking this square away, the next Golden Rectangle remains;

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Monad, detail, Golden Rectangle

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Monad, detail, square

"The first, the seed, the essence, the builder, the foundation, unity. Any number when multiplied by one remains itself."* Taking this square away, the next Golden Rectangle remains;

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Monad, detail, Golden Rectangle

From a hundred year old encyclopedia I chose botanicals, here a one petaled flower, above, one rose petal in the circle.

I would be interested  to hear what associations you have with the number one.

*Words in Quotes are from Divine Proportion by Priya Hemenway