I Ching #3: 'Difficulty' by Josh Hockensmith

I Ching #3: Difficulty is the second in a series of books responding to entries in the ancient Taoist Book of Change. For this expressionistic take on entry #3, Difficulty, I created a chaotic sumi-e painting using liquid washes, highlights drawn directly with a wet black ink stick, and a glowing red circle drawn with the ink usually reserved for a signature stamp. Each entry of the I Ching is a hexagram, a six-line symbol created by combining two trigrams. The two trigrams that make up entry #3 are the symbols for Water and Lightning. In my book, Water is represented by the wet medium of sumi ink; Lightning is in the electricity that powers the soldering iron used to burn designs into the covers, as well as in the fire used to smoke each copy's cover. The I Ching and Taoism in general is compelling precisely because of the way that it merges the sacred and profane, eliminating any distinction between the two. The mystical is purely practical, and vice versa.