I have used enso as a daily meditative-art practice for nearly two years now. In my creation of A Gross Expression of Zen, I utilized this meditative practice to explore artistic zeugma.

My first thoughts were to just use the title as a play on words, in exploring this idea, however, I came to feel there was a deeper, more complex set of relationships that could be explored with the concept of “artistic zeugma” in which the title applies to many aspects of the art (e.g. process, form, and experience).

The ”expression of zen” is represented by the enso, each serving as a transcribed moment of zen. Here, the term “gross” in the piece’s title performs the zeugma. In form, with 144 ensos in the entire piece, there is literally a gross number. The piece is also gross in that it is large, not just physically large, but containing a near infinite number (~10^250) of display permutations. On display, it expands, bloated and gross beyond the confines of the gallery wall inset designed to display the piece. By process, the expression was also gross. Instead of patiently and meditatively performing each enso daily, these were done in a frenzy of activity, with between 10 and 30 ensos made each day in rapid succession. Finally, with such a riot of color, instead of the minimalist traditional black and white, the viewing experience is also gross, emphasized by the intentional discordant color arrangement of the enso backgrounds, producing both a vulgar and tranquil display.

Zeugma (n): a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses (e.g., John and his license expired last week) or to two others of which it semantically suits only one (e.g., with weeping eyes and hearts).

Enso: In Zen, an ensō is a circle that is hand-drawn in one uninhibited brushstrokes to express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create. Once the ensō is drawn, one does not change it. It evidences the character of its creator and the context of its creation in at a moment in time. Drawing ensō is a spiritual practice that one might perform as often as once per day.

Gross (n):  1) an amount equal to twelve dozen; 144

(Adj):  1) general or large-scale

2) unattractively large or bloated

3) very obvious and unacceptable; blatant