Why do I paint koru? A friend prompted me to write about this, when she asked me what the circles that I paint mean to me…
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been drawn to circles and spirals. As a child in school I used to create borders for my assignments that were continuous koru. I would watch nature’s many patterns and shapes and am still in awe of them today. So nature inspires me to create spirals…

I also feel relaxed when painting spirals on to rocks. I go into a meditative space where I’m fully present with the rock and as I paint I’m totally in the spiral going round and round with it. Sometimes the spiral can go on for a long time and other times it will stop soon after it started. But each time I draw or paint the spiral, it relaxes me and is very calming.
And the more I paint circles and spirals, the more I find out about them as a universal symbol. They are embedded in many cultures and symbolic of many things; life, new beginnings, growth, change, simplicity, balance… and everyday I find new meaning for the koru which inspires me to tell more stories through them.
And right now spirals and circles feel very much a part of me and who I am. They have messages that I want to share, often messages that aren’t revealed to me until further down the track and their simplicity and perfection draws people in, and this encourages me to continue to create them.
Arohanui,
Jo x