Odd Thinking — It’s All In The Numbers
i’m an odd thinker.
That is to say, i’m a big fan of odd numbers — especially 1, 3, and 7.
It's a common artistic choice: Odd numbers of things tend to be more interesting and dynamic.
But mostly, i’m fascinated by the layers of symbolism behind everything in life — including numbers.
Layering meaning onto otherwise meaningless things is one of the most human of human acts, and it’s core to all artistic creation. It's why art is crucial to human progress and understanding.
Those symbolic layers are why these odd numbers are significant to me.
Sing a song of 7 prints:
i will ONLY ever make and sell 7 official, signed prints of my work. Why? Because in terms of both math and mythology, 7 is the most perfect number.
i won’t pretend to understand it all, but i gather that 7 is a magical math number — and that’s all i need to know on that score.
But symbolically, 7 is a massively important number in all kinds of religions and mythologies:
There are 7 virtues (and sins); the 7 liberal arts; 7 sacraments; 7 seals; 7 chakras; 7 archangels; 7 days in the week; 7 notes in the Western musical scale; 7 ages of man (according to Shakespeare); 7 stages in female life (in China); 7 continents; 7 seas; 7 summits; 7 wonders of the world; 7 sisters in the Pleiades; 7 layers of purgatory in some Christian beliefs; 7 paths to heaven in Egypt; 7 spheres a soul must pass through in the Mithra religion; 7 horses pull the Indian sun god’s chariot; and according to the Rigveda, there are 7 parts of the world and 7 seasons.
According to Numerological beliefs, 7 is considered a number of wisdom and insight — always seeking deeper, hidden meanings in things — in part because it’s made from the “holy” number 3 and the “grounded” number 4, meaning it’s the perfect child of our sensitive, emotional and reasoned, logical natures.
Even if i don’t believe in all the mythological and superstitious stuff generally, i like and appreciate the symbolism we humans have placed on this number. i decided that would be THE number for my print runs for all of my art because it aligns with my own goals of delving into the complexities of life from both the head and the heart, the left and right brain, the body and the soul.
Why a set of 3 is the way for me:
1 can be lonely. 2 is boring. There’s just something satisfying about the number 3.
Across cultures, 3 is considered a “holy” number. There are many “triune” dieties, including the Christian Trinity, the Wiccan Triple Goddess, the triple-bodied Greek goddess Hecate, the Three Pure Ones in Taoism, and the Hindu Trimurti. It’s played an important role in folktales, too: 3 blind mice; 3 wishes; 3 billy goats gruff; 3 little pigs; the 3 bears, etc. And today, it is an important comedic trope to offer a list in 3s.
Everything has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
And on a more macabre note: We believe celebrity deaths come in 3s — and there is real societal angst until that cycle is completed.
For me, the number 3 plays two major roles in my art: my love for triptychs and my primary color palette.
Solid as a triangle, 3s will always be my favorite.
All for 1 and 1 for all:
1 is such a mind trip. No other number is both a minimum AND the maximum at the same time. On the one hand, as the first full Integer, 1 is the smallest whole amount of anything. Yet it’s also the singularity, and as such, it contains everything.
It is the birth of existence, the moment when nothing becomes something, the original. And all of creation must pass through it.
In the age of quick AI and digital copy-paste, 1 picture or essay or recipe is unique, an originality we should value above all else.
There are countless postcards, mousepads, and mugs featuring Da Vinci's master portrait, but there is only 1 Mona Lisa — and should something happen to her, that's it, she's gone, and 1 becomes none.
That's why i place such a premium on original artworks — both mine and others' — and i think we should all have great respect for the O.G.s out there.
