1. Balance & Imbalance Symmetry and Asymmetry

2. Size – As you would expect larger elements carry more weight
Visual elements don’t have a physical weight. They do however, have visual weight.
Size – As you would expect larger elements carry more weight
Color – It’s not fully understood why, but some colors are perceived as weighing more than others. Red seems to be heaviest while yellow seems to be lightest.
Density – Packing more elements into a given space, gives more weight to that space
Value – A darker object will have more weight than a lighter object
Whitespace – Positive space weighs more than negative space or background space

3. Symmetry

4. Symmetrical Balance
Parthenon in Athens, Greece

5. Buddha Amoghasiddhi with Eight Bodhisattvas
ca. 1200–1250
Tibet (Central regions)
Distemper on cloth
27 1/8 x 21 1/4 in.

6. The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, Tempera on gesso, pitch & mastic, 1495 – 98,
Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan

7. Face Mask (Kpeliye'e)
19th–mid-20th century
Côte d'Ivoire
Senufo Wood, horns, raffia fiber, cotton cloth, feather, metal, sacrificial material
H. 30 1/4 in.
Throughout the twentieth century, members of poro, a Senufo initiation association, wore small, finely carved face masks as insignia. Considered feminine, the masks honor deceased Senufo elders with their grace and beauty.

8. Contemporary totem Pole at Namgis Burial Ground in British Columbia, Canada
Rattle
19th century
Queen Charlotte Islands
British Columbia
Skittagetan or Haida Wood, pigment
Overall: 3 x 8 in. 

This rattle depicts a grinning mountain spirit, potentially that of a bear. The spirit would act as the intercessor for the human figure found between the ears. The rattle represents the relationship between the two and how the owner would depend on the spirit for strength and guidance.

9. Taj Mahal, masoleum, Agra, India, 1632 - 53

10. Little Faith by Jimmy Joe Roche, painted paper sculpture, 106 x 2 x 78” 2011
Deity is thought to reside in the making of an within final mandala

11. Prototype For New Understanding by Brian Jungen, Nike Shoe Sculpture,
Brian Jungen “ I wanted to address commercialism and the fetishization of trainers & aboriginal art. I also wantead to address between the First & Third Worlds. There is a developing world within the First World on the First Nation reserves.”
Prototype For New Understanding by Brian Jungen, Nike Shoe Sculpture,
ranging in size from 2 x 2 to igloo-size, 2010

12. Brian Jungen

13. Brian Jungen

14. Artwork from Brian Jungen’s show at National Museum of the American Indian in DC, 2009
RIGHT: Blanket no.7 Professional Sports Jerseys, 69 x 53.5” 2008
LEFT: Collection of Prototype For New Understanding

15. Balance: Radial Symmetry

16. 17th Century Reticella Lace Crochet Design

17. Namgyal monks completing a sand mandala, Cleveland, Ohio, museum.
Traditional Tibetan tantric practice. --”acting as cultural ambassadors for the exiled personal monastery of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Daramsala, India – monks of Mamjyal Monastery Institute of Buddhist Studies” share their work, dedication & designs across the globe – museums, yoga & meditation studios etc.
Includes geometric & Buddhist spiritual symbols.
Some mandala take days even weeks to complete. Composed of powered color.
Upon dismantling, the dissemination is intended as a Tibetan blessing to all sentient beings.
Namgyal monks completing a sand mandala, Cleveland, Ohio, museum.

18. Example of completed Sand Mandala
Deity is thought to reside in the making of an within final mandala
Example of completed Sand Mandala

19. Radial Symmetry Mandala of Jnanadakini
Detail of the mandala
Mandala of Jnanadakini
late 14th century
Tibet (a Sakya monastery)
Distemper on cloth
33 1/4 x 28 7/8 in.
This mandala is in the form of an extraordinary palace seen from above. It is presided over by a female Buddha, Jnanadakini, who is the feminine aspect of Jnanadaka, a fierce manifestation of the Buddha Vajrasattva. Jnanadakini has six arms and three heads and sits on a lion throne surrounded by the eight goddesses of her inner circle. Four female guardians are seated in the doorways of the palace's gates.

20. Basic Structure of the Mandala

21. Circle Limit IV, woodcut in black and ocre, 2 block prints 1960 by M. C. Escher

22. Asymmetrical Balance
ecnalaB lacirtemmysA

23. Metamorphosis III by M. C. Escher
woodcut, second state in red, green & reddish-brown,

24. Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VIII, 1923, Oil on canvas, 55 1/8 x 79 1/8 inches

25. Vincent Van Gogh, The Starry Night, Saint Rémy, June 1889
Vincent Van Gogh, The Starry Night, Saint Rémy, June Oil on canvas, 29 x 36 1/4"

26. Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s World, 1948, Tempera on gessoed panel, 32 1/4 x 47 3/4"
The woman crawling through the tawny grass was the artist's neighbor in Maine, who, crippled by polio, "was limited physically but by no means spiritually."

27. Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VII, 1913, Oil on canvas, (6' 6 3/4" x 9' 11 1/8”)

28. Mark di Suvero, Are Years What? (for Marianne Moore), 1967
Painted steel, 480 x 480 x 360 in

30. George Bellows
Between Rounds, 1923
Lithograph
18 1/4 x 14 3/4 inches

31. Scott Hunt
Donut
1999