making my mark

last Sunday morning, whilst sitting at my writing table I noticed the sun was reflecting something onto the wall at my right

after watching it for a while I decided it reminded me some kind of letter form

not one in a written language I was familiar with, more of an Asemic version of what a letter/word mark might look like

I started trying to write it but was afraid the light show might disappear before I had it so I ran and grabbed my phone to take a picture

because the reflection was down low and there was a cabinet blocking my access I had to take the photo from an odd angle so it doesn't look quite like what I saw from my desk but it's close

the lines on the left weren't there and faint lines at the bottom centre weren't visible either, just the stronger, bolder ones

the two small marks on the scrap of graph paper in the image below are what I first drew - as I shifted side to side in my chair I could see both of those marks

then I edited them, simplifying, striving for something cleaner, less intricate

I did many of the small versions and when I was satisfied with what I was doing I thought about what I might use the mark for

it feels rather personal, the way it happened to show up on my wall, just where I could see it as I wrote... perhaps I could use it a "maker's mark"?

maybe I should go back and read what I was writing when I noticed it...

I remembered the writing exercise I did a while back, where I had to write about something painful, burn the paper, make ink from the ashes and then use that to write or draw

as I had enjoyed that very much I decided to do it again though this time I didn't write about anything specific, more the pain inflicted on us and the pain we can sometimes cause others

the ash ink was a soft pale grey so I went over it a few times on each of these larger, simpler versions of the mark

another very interesting process 

not what I had thought I would be doing when I sat down to do my morning writing 

but once I notice something that intrigues me in such a way I usually want to get right at it 

and I'm so glad I did