Symbol Study: windows
making the light a guest & other prompts
When light moves through the window panes in my studio, it moves right through them and onto the wood floors where I often sit to change my perspective. These windows are old, eight six-panes of thin glass, and beautiful. The light moves effortlessly through—the glow of an ordinary day. The interesting thing about windows, and why I chose them for this symbol study, is their inside/outside relationship—the both/and relationship—the way windows offer perspective and containment and a view in and a view out.
Windows have long been a symbol of perspective and possibility, appearing in literature, art, and architecture. In his book The Poetics of Space1, Gaston Bachelard wrote, “The window is a cosmic symbol; through it, we see both the world and our own smallness.” The window’s transformational power lies in this duality. The window connects us to something larger while grounding us in the immediacy of the present moment.
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