Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Mystery Solved: Enigmatic Graphic

   Update: Since writing this in February, both my father-in-law and my mother-in-law have passed away.  One in March and one earlier this month.  I have been helping my wife go through their belongings.  The mystery symbol that I was trying to identify has appeared twice.  Once on a pair of earrings and once on a homemade bookmark.  On the bookmark was a poem by Edward Markham.


“He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic , rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him In !"


   Coincidentally the last line of the poem was inscribed on my father-in-law's stone.  Mystery solved.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~


   I was scanning some artwork from my father-in-law this past weekend (remember the mantra – digitize, digitize, digitize) and I came across some graphic designs that I recognized and one that I didn’t.

   Warren Francis Clark was an Artist, an Art Professor, an Art Director, a Humanist and a Unitarian Universalist.  I describe him that way because all the graphics that I scanned were his versions of religious symbols.  I also tend to talk about Warren in the past tense because he has Alzheimer’s and is not the same person that I am writing about.  He also can’t tell me the meaning of one of the symbols that I scanned.

   Google has a feature that they released in the last year or so in their Images section.  If you upload a copy of the image you have then Google will search for similar images.


   Now this worked great for the symbols of Taoism and Buddhism that looked familiar but I couldn’t place the names.  The last symbol is a mystery to me and Google couldn’t find anything similar.

   Does anybody out in the Blogosphere recognize this graphic?  I don’t even know the correct orientation.

3 comments:

  1. The graphic used to be a symbol from the Unitarian-Universalist religion representing their principle that everyones faith journey should be encouraged, with no doctrine that would exclude a particular faith. Whereas, other faiths may have doctrine that would exclude certain beliefs.

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    Replies
    1. Kevin, do you have any details on the history of the symbol.

      Thanks,
      Mike

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  2. Hi Kevin,that makes sense. My in-laws were UU. In my research of the graphic I wasn't able to make that connection. I'm more familiar with the variety of chalice images.

    Thanks for your comment.

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