Today, this last day of 2008 AD, and before the year ends, I’d like to share with you something that’s been incubating since September.
Artistic Incubation
As I’ve often hinted at in the past, when creating something non-urgent I often start a project, complete more than half of it, and then forget about it for a few months. This kind of artistic incubation can be beneficial because when I return to the project, I return to it with fresh eyes, and see problems and possibilities that I didn’t see when I first created it. This process is also recommended for authors, that they should write an entire first draft without looking back and then let the first draft sit without looking at it for a few months.
Continual First Draft
Often, new authors will continually, some might say obsessively, revise the first chapter of their book only to never complete a first draft at all. This kind of resistance is something that all creators tackle. Once a first draft is complete, I tend to stow it away and forget about it for a while. It’s possible that this forgetting allows my unconscious mind to work on the problem in the background for months. However it works, I know that it does work.
After I’d created the logo for this website in July, I decided that, as a design element, it might work well as the central focus in a piece of visual art. So in September, I started experimenting. And today, I’m happy to present the fruits of my efforts.
What’s Not in a Name?
See that white symbol in the top center of this page? That’s the Charamandala—the unique logo for Byteful Travel. The name is a conjugation of two words that are quite old. Chara means joy in Greek, and mandala is from the Sanskrit word mandalam, which means circle. (Note to the seeker, there is much to learn about mandalas. Recommended research.)
I’ve dubbed this wallpaper Charamandala 1, because I suspect this won’t be the last desktop wallpaper to feature the charamandala. Charamandala 1 comes in aglow and deep versions and is available in various widescreen sizes.
And feel free to let me know what you think.