"Hourglass" maggie toole  24" x 36", colored pencil on Clayboard

Life is like an hourglass.
Consciousness is the sand.

 

Imagine an hourglass.

Its shape is like the symbol for infinity.  Its form recalls the double helix of DNA.  Its two sections represent polarity.  The material on one side, the immaterial on the other.  The male on one side, and the female on the other.  Hot and cold, positive and negative, or any other duality.

The sand runs in a stream, the same stream as the course of energy that runs up your spine, the same stream that is the road of life.

The movement of that sand is what we call Tao.  Our consciousness alternates between the various states represented by the hourglass.  It is as difficult to grasp as a stream of sand.  Therefore, it is foolish to examine things minutely.  It is unwise to focus on the material.  It is wisdom to understand the movement.
 
 
 

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Circulism! Figurative realism using rings of color

The human form is fascinating to me-the flowing shapes that bend or stretch or fold or change simply because of a person's mood. Forms that may follow the same blueprint, but are not quite the same on any two people. I love catching the subtle differences in every person's different look-or in the same person for that matter-because they just woke up or because they are underwater or because they are sad, or  maybe they are thinking of something very wonderful. Each of those things changes them, and I can never get bored with a subject matter that is so constantly fluid.

Creating the technique I call Circulism! as a derivative of Pointillism was my way of incorporating a painting style that I loved with one of my favorite tools, the pencil. What happened next came more naturally than anything before it, and from the first piece I painted, there was a magic about it. Using colored pencils, I draw no lines...only varied, unending, overlapped and intertwined circles. Building seemingly transparent layers, incorporating all color. As in pointillism, the viewer's eye fuses these marks into a realistic image.

After creating Circulism! in 1992 and painting for a number of months to build a body of work, I  started showing my work and have enjoyed much attention from the very beginning. My work can be seen in museums and galleries and has its own chapter in the book "Creative Colored Pencil" written by Vera Curnow and published by Rockport Publishers.

Maggie Toole
Los Angeles, California

 

"It's Burning"          18" x 24", colored pencil on board

 
 
 
 

"Polished and Fancy"    21" x 30", colored pencil on walnut panel

 
SOURCE:
www.danielsmith.com/featured-artists-maggie-toole.html