Welcome
My name is Janine Ibbotson, and I am a student of the Zen arts who has drawn the Enso Circle for many years as a contemplative practice. The word Enso means “circle symbol,” and it is another term for the Zen Circle. This website chronicles my discoveries and experiences working with this calligraphic form. It is set up in a blog format, organized by topics, and discusses subjects related to the brush and Zen arts.
My journey with the brush arts has provided me with joy, energy, peace, and inspiration. It is my hope that you will experience a taste of this by reading this blog. Should you be inspired by reading, I encourage you to take up the brush! Drawing the enso can be a truly rewarding practice.
My Path
The first time that I drew a circle with an East Asian calligraphy brush, I was immediately captivated by the ink that flows through the veins of this three-thousand-year-old art form. The Enso Circle represents many things, including awakening, nothing (Mu), everything, and the infinite. Drawing them is a way to meditate with ink and paper. Lately, my practice has moved into a new phase I am beginning to explore.
An enso circle is typically drawn in one circular brush stroke, although freeform ensos may break this rule. Multicolored circles are created by dipping a single brush into different colors. Ink mixes on the brush and on the paper. I often sign my art with personal seals or chops. Each seal is intimately connected with my excursion in working with the brush arts. In a way, I feel that my journey has been akin to a classic seeker’s trek, traveling great distances through jungles filled with tigers and snakes to meet a genuine spiritual teacher. The teacher shares information, and then the student works with it, often for years, to gain some level of insight and attainment. My experience feels like this, searching for, receiving, and applying guidance from the teachers I have encountered. I have taken those teachings and worked with them diligently for years. In working with them, the journey, the practice, has been the reward. And it continues to be so.
My Practice
I create Enso art in practice sessions, drawing one mindful circle after another in a single sitting. This process is like a form of moving meditation. As my brush traces each open circle, awareness is as much a component of the art as is ink and paper.
Sessions of drawing in this way produce a surprising range of unique and distinctive Enso Circle art. Some circles are bold and dynamic, others have a Wabi-Sabi quality, and others are ethereal, subtle, and delicate, as if conveying the essence of light-filled rainbows. Zen Circles have an unmistakable presence which is why they have been collected for centuries. Many are considered to be pieces of sacred, fine art.
I have taught the enso practice at the university level, and my art is in private collections throughout the United States and Canada. Born in Chicago, I now live and paint in Boulder, CO, USA.
Zen Enso 