Archive for artisans
a celebration of Being
Albert Irvin, Druid 11
Albert Irvin’s encounters with nondual awareness are entirely somatic. His aim is to find a way to make explicit the ineffable human spirit … his subject is the question: how can the INNER experience of being alive be laid on canvas in visual language?
“Can I make a painting about human experience
without having to depict appearances?
Can I paint the human spirit
rather than noses and feet?
Can I reveal the splendours and agonies of life
through space, colour, light, shape, line,
confrontation, rhythm and inflections
in the paint?” asks Irvin.
source – Paul Moorhouse, Albert Irvin: life to painting
Paul Moorhouse, Tate curator and author of the book ‘Albert Irvin: life to painting’, wrote of him: ‘even to those familiar with his work, seeing a new painting by Irvin can be an extraordinary experience akin to discovering a young, energetic artist in the first flush of ambition. Given the force of its restless energy, its freshness and the sense it communicates of an artist in love with his chosen activity, it is even more surprising to realise that this is the work of an artist in his late seventies.’
source – royal academy of art
vale Daido, Roshi
John Daido Loori, Roshi, has left us. He died on Friday morning.
Gratitude for this extraordinary being and all that he gave to us.
“Tears like falling petals …”
Deep within wild flowers,
Partridges cry out.
Tears like falling petals
Blow in the Wind.
Eternally and Everlastingly,
It is Revealing Itself.
Above the Bare Branches,
Whistling at the Moon, Playing in the Clouds,
The Golden Phoenix Soars hand in hand with
Dharma Brother Daido.
~ Bernie Glassman
source – Zen Peacemakers
closer than close
Is there an eternal part of ourselves? What has lasting meaning? Where do we find certainty? Rather than philosophical discussion, this film explores the possibility of living a life devoted to a search for answers, and the radical possibility that answers exist, closer than we can imagine, within our selves.
“Closer Than Close is a deftly crafted and poignant tale that weaves the stories of a handful of seekers bivouacked at various stages along the spiritual path with the straight-talk wisdom of three extraordinary individuals who have seemingly put an end to seeking. This juxtaposition creates a compelling resonance in which we can see (if the angle of light is just so) that the seekers and those that have stopped seeking are closer than we think. These are real stories of struggle and despair, friendship and hope, but above all, insight. Put this video on your list, better yet put it in your player and see what happens.”
~ John Kain
source – poetry in motion films
Film maker Shawn Nevins works full-time as a naturalist with the Louisville Metro Parks system. His creative endeavors include poetry which has appeared in several publications, co-editing a collection of spiritual essays, poems, and photographs, and a growing interest in photography.
Shawn also has a helpful and informative website which offers “Ratings of spiritual teachers, guidelines for choosing a teacher, reviews of spiritual movies and books, discussion boards, and links to other spiritual sites.” http://www.spiritualteachers.org/
hearing with the eye
How can we hear with the eye and see with the ear? We must first set down ‘the pack’ – the ideas, notions and positions that separate us from reality. We must take off the blinkers that limit our vision, and see for ourselves that originally there are no seams, flaws or gaps between us and the whole phenomenal universe. The 10,000 things are in reality neither sentient nor insentient; the selfish neither sentient nor insentient. Because of this, the teachings of the insentient cannot be perceived by the senses.
John Daido Loori, Male Stone
16 x 20cms
Fujix Print
~ rock and water
ceaselessly
practice together ~
Many people think the teachings of the insentient are similar if not equivalent to the teachings we receive from sentient beings. But hearing the teachings of the insentient is not a matter of ordinary consciousness. How then can they be heard? When body and mind have fallen away, in the stillness that follows, the teachings are intimately manifested in great profusion. Whether we are aware of it or not, they are always taking place. The teachings of the insentient are about intimacy, not words.
~ John Daido Loori, Sensei. From his book “Making Love with Light”
Text and image copyright John Daido Loori.
Find more wisdom and photography from John Daido Loori at the awakened eye website.
consciousness, contemplation and creativity
The artist has to re-present our world of conceptualised objects, separated and extended in space and time, as it really is. He has to reinterpret our model of reality in line with direct experience and to convey this ‘taste of eternity’. We could call this twofold activity contemplation and creativity. Contemplation is the passive aspect; creativity is the dynamic aspect. These are two inseparable aspects of consciousness.
~ Rupert Spira
ceramic bowl by Rupert Spira
I reasoned that if these two elements – the presence of an object in itself and the consciousness to which it appears – are essential ingredients of every object, there must be a relationship between them. So I began to explore the relationship between consciousness and its object, between that which sees, hears, feels and thinks and that which is seen, heard, felt and thought about. I reasoned that if there is a distinction between the two, there must be some perceivable interface or border between them. I looked for such a border between the subject and its object, but could not find one.
~ Rupert Spira
Source – Rupert Spira’s website
See more of Rupert’s ceramics and read more of his writing at the awakened eye website
meditative process made visible
How does one define meditative process or practice? In the context of the awakened eye website, meditative artisanship (drawing, painting, crafting, sculpting …) is taken to mean working in way that stills the mind and disappears the self. The artisan-identity melts and is one with a creative rhythm referred to as flow.
For some, this occurs almost automatically when they begin work – in this case it would seem that they are creating from an already-still mind. zen calligraphy would be a good example.
For other artisans however, intention and application are required, hence the term ‘practice’.
For some artisans their work/practice becomes obsessive and addictive – with or without negative implications. (yayoi kusama, for example.)
For others ‘flow’ is quickly recognized as one’s natural state – the “way things are meant to be,” to quote rollo may.
Meditative process and engagement with flow is a common experience among artisans, although they might not refer to the experience in those terms. And many artists who practice meditation proceed to create ‘visionary’ or ‘mystical’ artworks – making images rather than paintings. In the context of this site these artists are not included.
The reason for this is simple: true meditation is a journey which leaves the self, its thoughts, ideas and opinions behind. The ego-artist-self doesn’t like this at first, and when anthropomorphic images arise in the imagination, it very quickly recognizes them and is comforted. The next step is an incredibly subtle projection of one’s identity into the image.
This is where the meditative artisan’s practice departs quite radically from that of the visionary artist – they don’t settle for the infinite array of images the brain is capable of generating. They wait for the end of thought. They wait for the silent mind. It takes a certain complex combination of personal experience and disposition – coupled with curiosity and courage – to enter into this no-thing-ness and await the clarity of action that inevitably emerges.
Action, not idea or design.
This is not to say that all meditative art will be non-figurative or entirely abstract. (Still Life can open a window onto the infinite: see amanda robins.) What it does imply is that there will be no accompanying narrative. The meditative artist doesn’t have things to say. He or she simply has things to make.
source – the awakened eye website
“I” is just a swinging door
breathscribe contributed a little prayer for Miriam (scribbler’s mum)
and some words from Shunryu Suzuki on breathing in and breathing out
gratitude!
acrylic light-reflective pigments, gold leaf,
silk paper, textured ground, dragonfly wing
When we practice zazen our mind always follows our breathing. When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say “inner world” or “outer world,” but actually there is just one whole world. In this limitless world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think, “I breathe,” the “I” is extra. There is no you to say “I.” What we call “I” is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no “I,” no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door.
~ Shunryu Suzuki
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
