Why I’ve concentrated on squares in so many artworks…
I am an artist of Jewish descent with a long-standing interest in spirituality. In 1986 I traveled to Israel to take part in sacred rituals in the city of Safed (Tzfat), the historic “City of Kabbalah” and a center of Jewish mysticism.
That journey left a lasting mark on my creative vision. Wandering Safed’s blue-painted alleyways, surrounded by mystics and artists, I felt a visceral shift. I suddenly saw an invisible cube-like scaffolding in everything, as if the world had been quietly built on this humble shape – and recognizing it became an endless source of inspiration.
Since 1996 I’ve also been deeply influenced by Buddhism, where the square, often found in mandala designs, symbolizes stability, the earth, and the four elements – earth, water, fire, and wind. It represents a grounded, fixed, and ordered space within the larger cosmic context, often depicted by a circle. The square’s four sides and right angles embody strength, completeness, and the potential for transformation – qualities that continue to shape my artistic language.
Since then, I have sought to create spaces for spiritual encounters in my work. I challenge the Cartesian grid… by softening its rigid logic, I let it become quietly chaotic, almost breathing. Within that loosened grid, mystery seeps through.
Why the Square Might Be the Most Important Shape in the Universe
From the earliest cave drawings to the glowing pixels lighting up your phone, the square has always been with us. It is simple, balanced, and unassuming, yet it underpins art, architecture, science, and even our ideas about reality.
The Square as a Foundation
Squares give us stability. In architecture, their perfect right angles make structures solid, predictable, and enduring. From ancient temples to sleek skyscrapers, squares form the quiet backbone holding everything together. City streets often follow square-based grids for the same reason, order, efficiency, and control over chaos.
The Cartesian Square and the Language of Space
One of history’s most important “squares” is not physical at all, it is an idea. René Descartes’ Cartesian coordinate system, a grid of perpendicular lines, gave humanity a way to measure and navigate space. It is the invisible square map beneath GPS, architectural plans, and even video games.
Artists use it to create perspective. Engineers use it for blueprints. Astronomers use it to map galaxies. Without it, we would lose one of our most precise tools for understanding the world.
Math, Science, and Nature Love Squares
Squaring a number is one of the first math lessons we learn, but it is also foundational in physics, engineering, and finance. The Pythagorean theorem is built on them. Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc², hinges on the square.
Nature uses squares too. Many crystals grow in square-based grids. On the quantum level, “squaring” helps determine the probability of where a particle might be found. From the smallest particles to the largest theories, squares keep showing up.
Squares in Art and Design
Artists have long turned to squares for beauty and structure. Piet Mondrian built entire compositions from them. Islamic tilework transforms them into mesmerizing patterns. The Bauhaus movement embraced them for their functional elegance.
Even your laptop and phone depend on them. Every photo, movie, and message is made of tiny square pixels. Without them, the digital world would literally fall apart.
The Sacred Side of Squares
In sacred geometry, the square represents stability, the physical world, and the grounding aspects of life. Many ancient cultures associated it with the Earth, while the circle symbolized the heavens. Together, they embody balance between the material and the spiritual, a theme at the heart of my own work.
A Metaphor for Living
To me, the square is a metaphor for life: solid and dependable, yet full of potential. You can divide it, rearrange it, stack it, and transform it into something entirely new. That is how ideas evolve, how careers shift, how relationships deepen.
Seeing the Square Again
So the next time you spot a square, whether in a sidewalk tile, a quilt, a painting, or a glowing screen, pause for a moment. That quiet little shape might be more than geometry. It might be the hidden blueprint of the universe, a reminder that structure and mystery can coexist.
And for me, it is a reminder of a winding street in Safed, where the grid loosened just enough to let the light in.
