“The meaning of life is to see.” 

Rather than artist, sculptor, writer, or philosopher, Frederick Franck liked to call himself an image-maker. He was a true Renaissance Man, writing books and creating images until his death at 94. His first book –  The Zen of Seeing - was my introduction to drawing-as-meditation, as something much much more profound than the end product called an artwork. He went on to write over 30 books, including The Awakened Eye, to which the title of this blog pays homage.

Many years after that first introduction, I was blessed to attend a 4-day Easter Zen of Seeing retreat with Frederick Franck in Cornwall. Perhaps I’ll write about that in another posting. But here I wish to bow deeply in gratitude to a man who knew what it means to be fully human, and who was able to awaken me to authentic seeing and drawing.

It wasn’t just any old seeing that he referred to in his quote above; he knew what it meant to encounter non-dual awareness. For him it was a direct impulse from heart-seeing to hand-scribbling with no loop through the labeling and categorizing part of the brain. It was seeing without the shadows of conditioning, and marvelling at what turned up on the paper.

Dove

City: -5 degrees

Unkillable Human

Find more info about Frederick Franck here.