I doodled this design while listening to a seminar one day. I often have trouble paying attention to seminars that don’t have a lot of images in the slides and need something to occupy my eyes so my ears and brain can pay attention. So, sometimes I doodle. The design is based on the symbol called “Taijitu” that is used to represent the Chinese concept of ‘yin yang’. Yin yang was proposed by Chinese philosophers sometime around 200 BC as way to understand everything about the Universe. Basically, it states that everything contains yin forces and yang forces that are the opposite of each other. Depending on conditions, yin may be dominant, or yang may be dominant, or the two could be in harmony and the two forces are constantly cycling back and forth within everything. So, yin and yang don’t just illustrate good and evil, but include all possible opposites, light and dark, health and illness, heat and cold, gravitational attraction and magnetic repulsion, etc. Because I am possibly a bit lopsided in my brain, my version of the taijitu is tilted at a 90o angle to that of the traditional form illustrated at left. 

Size = 9” x 9” (14 ct.) 

Size = 5” x 9” (14 ct.) 

The word “Maritime” refers to anything that deals with the sea, like sea dragons, for example. “Pelagic” (right) refers to the open water of the ocean, away from any shore and well above the bottom. It is a vast aquatic habitat and has many creatures adapted to a life of eternal swimming, things like whales, tuna, and jellyfish. “Benthic” (left) is used to describe organisms that live on the bottom of bodies of water, most commonly it refers to the ocean as well. Water plants, starfish, coral, and crabs are all benthic organisms. The ocean contains many different regions and we are discovering new wonders in it every day. Perhaps somewhere there are even sea dragons. 

These two dragons are made using what I call “medallions”, circles of various sizes that contain abstract designs. The medallions are creations of my imagination and have no meaning. Dragons in eastern mythology tend to be long, with small legs, long whiskers and horns. They are often associated with rivers and weather. I decided that these first two would be river spirits. I called them Yalong and Min, named for two of the larger upstream tributaries of the Yangtze, which is the largest river in China and the third largest river in the world.

Size = 22” x 10” (14 ct.) 

A second pair of eastern style dragons made from “medallions”, circles of various sizes that contain abstract designs. These two are steppe spirits. “Steppe” is another word for grassland or prairie, though it is most often used to refer to the large swath of grassland across northern Eurasia. The individual names of the designs are genera (a scientific category) of grasses that can be found in steppes. The common forage or ornamental fescue species are Festuca grasses. Stipa species are also used as forage for livestock and sometimes as ornamental grasses. 

Size = 22” x 10” (14 ct.) 

Size = 14“ x 14“ (14 ct.)  

This design is inspired by the solar winds constantly flowing toward us from the sun.  The sun is essentially a giant fusion reactor combining hydrogen atoms into helium.  This process gives off the heat and light that we are familiar with any time we go outside.  Now, think about how much hotter and brighter it is on the sun, given how far away it is from us and how hot it feels to us here on earth.  All that energy causes a lot of turbulence, which, combined with the spin of the star, slings protons and electrons (and a few other things) off to become solar wind.  The interaction of solar wind with the earth’s magnetic field is what causes the aurora borealis.  Solar winds and the sun’s magnetic field protect us from even more dangerous radiation from outside the solar system, but if a larger than normal ejection hits the earth, it could wipe out all our electronics (or even us). As with many things, the sun is both important for, and a danger to, the existence of life as we know it.