As the founder of the new art theory of UnGraven Image, which paints with 22 symbol strokes that represent what elementary physicists' call branes --- the smallest elemental pre-particles in the physical universe, I get email from collectors and fans asking questions.

A recent one inquired about the binary nature of my chosen set of symbol-strokes, the Hebrew letters in Torah font. I was asked for an explanation of this by someone who knew Hebrew.

The Abrahamic faiths hold that when the Creator speaks in Genesis Chapter 1, saying, “Let there be light, “ the universe is created --- and the theology of all Christian and Jewish denominations and branches (and this is referred to in the Koran) asserts that the letters (all three faiths agree it was Hebrew) represent, or are, the smallest most essential stuff that our physical universe is made of – which science says are these branes( M theory), also called strings (String theory).

Since the Torah font is binary, it means that selecting this font – or rather painting with strokes that are comprised of one or two forms, means that a painting's strokes always also references binary concepts in science and religion and mathematics. Binary concepts are important in Buddhism, Hinduism and the Tao is binary. Aside from physics, computers are binary in code, and important new scientific discoveries are finding binary encoding in biology, including for our brains and DNA.

I had been told that Torah font Hebrew is binary so many times, I cannot recall the actual sources, but a rabbi and some other learned people had reiterated this about the time I first began to experiment with using the letters as strokes. Essentially, all of the letters (in Torah font) are made of combinations of two letters, the yud and vav.

The yud is really a bit more like a comma. For other examples see my signature/logo name self portrait, which is comprised of the letters of my Hebrew name. I use the two yuds in my Hebrew name for the eyes in my signature/logo. The vav is a bit more like a spear. I use the vav in my name as my nose.  My Hebrew name is Yehudi Rachel - yud-hey-vay-dalet-yud  resh-chet-lamed, for those who know Hebrew.

I did some searches online to find and provide some quick and easy links to the binary nature of Hebrew for the person who emailed me. I easily found references to the first letter Aleph ( ? ) , which is a vav, with two yuds one attached at ether side. I did not turn up anything that showed all of the letters as binary, even the ones that had been demonstrated to me as being so previously. However, I was searching in English, not Hebrew, because I still do not speak Hebrew.

So, during some down time on a recent trip, scribbling on lined notebook paper, I wrote out the letters using only yuds and vavs in a Torah font. There were times when I could figure several ways to go with a letter, depending on whether I made the yud extra large, or just made the C shape boxy by using all straight lines. One day I hope to find the “official” or agreed upon rabbinic way of combining the yuds and vavs to make all of the letters.

However, I definitely, and fairly easily, can create Torah font letters using the shapes of yuds and vavs only.

While doing this I realized there was another binary way to write or paint Torah fontish Hebrew.

When I am painting I make every letter by making only one or two strokes. If one counts a stroke as a unit (that is scientific) then my way is fully binary also. Yet my way is different. For instance the Aleph, which is one vav and two yuds, I usually paint with two strokes. The first stroke is a kind of a hook that extends from the left bottom leg to the right, thus encompassing into one stroke the bottom yud and the vav. Then I add the yud on the top side.

Mathematically, every Hebrew letter represents a number. Aleph is one, beit is two and so forth. So every UnGraven Image painting or drawing inherently has a mathematical value (meaning) but I use so many of them that I have not yet had the patience (or ability to focus on this extra detail while working) to fully keep track of every letter used.

So, I suppose one could say that paintings made using the Theory of UnGraven Image have a lot of value!

Note: This is Part I of this article. Link to : Part 2 .

September 9, 2007