WINTER~SUMMER: Buddhafull

 

 

 

same center in all seasons
the comforting winter stillness
the light touch of summer's
dragonfly



2 views, 1 vantage

write, draw, paint: MEDITATION-IN-ACTION

zen drawingII
after writing the post below last week,
gesso and brushes found their way
off the shelf, at last! it's been
six months since i played like this.
memories of the rio grande's waters quietly
keeping the pace ..
i got back to that by writing.

words work for me.
a bridge forms,
and a movement begins.
lines and dots flow~
and i lose myself and self-consciousness.
not quite "the FLOW", but perhaps
more of what is described here:

"Meditation-in-action:.. is to stop the mind's confused obsession with little Me.
In seeing/drawing the entire concentraion--for a change--happens to be what is not-Me...
It is not only meditation, it is meditation-in-action, by eye and hand in unison."
Frederick Franck

"TO KNOW THE EGO IS TO FORGET THE EGO, TO FORGET THE EGO IS TO BE ILLUMINATED BY ALL THINGS" Dogen

'ZEN SEEING, ZEN DRAWING' as Haiku

 

 

 

 

ZEN SEEING, ZEN DRAWING Meditation in Action by Frederick Franck has been an ally in diminishing the voices that formerly told me 'you must learn to draw realistically'.
as a long lover of Haiku and Tanka and eastern sense, grasping the idea proported by the author was a comfort.
Some excerpts from Franck:

looking at one of his drawings, he began:
" 'Ah! But this is a haiku, a wordless haiku written in lines and dots!' Since in Japanese the same verb can mean to draw and to write, I was drawing haiku-legitimately....
In Japanese, haiku are...the rediscovery of seeing, of celebrating the sensitivity of the eye. It converts deadly looking-at into living seeing!

The poet Masaoka Shiki wrote:
'I had a flowering branch placed by my pillow. A I draw faithfully, I feel I am gradually coming to grasp the secrets of creation.'

Basho, the father of haiku, warned his students:
'Jot down your haiku before the heat of perception cools!' "

"An AUTHENTIC HAIKU must, in one breath,
GRASP THE JOY AS IT FLIES,
THE TEAR AS IT TRICKLES DOWN THE CHEEK.
In its seventeen syllables it must catch the unsayable, the mystery of being and non-being: timeless mini-satori in fleeting time:

this dewdrop universe
just a dewdrop
and yet,
and yet...

Issa

A haiku is:

a flash of illumination in which we enter into things...

a minimum of words that grasp a moment of grace,
joyous or heartrending...

an expression of inner feeling totally devoid of ego...

the eye-heart-hand reflex of seeing/drawing the intellect...Seeing and feeling condence themselves into the ink marks a hand jots down.

TO FORGET THE EGO IS TO BE ILLUMINATED BY ALL THINGS."

and above are my 'haiku marks':
*sitting alone at the rio grande's edge and letting my pencil move to the sound of the water you see in the photos,
*sumi ink markings,
*and a page from a book of tanka that i have been altering (tanka has 31 syllables in 5,7,5,7,7 pattern).

WINTER BLUES, and painting too

 

 

 

 

the new year called me
out into the blue crystal
light and shadow play

brought me in to finish
the tiny winter twilight
painting begun so

long ago



(pretend you're squinting your eyes at the painting,
it just won't come into focus with my camera...it's spirit
is protecting itself, i guess, and i think it looks better
this way .. hmmmm, and grin)

AND PLEASE CHECK OUT MY FASHIONISTA WINTER GARB IN THE LAST POST. so many comments about my HOOD!

solstice greetings (12/21)

 

THE LIGHT OF FRIENDSHIP

 

perusing the file
thinking of new friends found
and you all came to mind



i was thinking about new "art" world friends while pondering my title "openings connecting" after reading the latest from leslie avon miller's blog TEXTURES SHAPES AND COLOR. she always inspires us with her postings about art: the process, the people, and most recently~ friendships formed in that process.

which brought to mind one of my best friendships that has grown during one-week summer workshops over the last 4 years, and although renee and i live too far apart to visit, we continue to communciate in the most supportive of ways. i'd found this quote from c.s. lewis and added it to the photo collage above, in honor of those sparks shared across a studio table, or through our blogging, all in the ART SPIRIT!!

'FRIENDSHIP IS BORN AT THAT MOMENT WHEN ONE PERSON SAYS TO ANOTHER, WHAT? YOU TOO? I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE!'

BITTERSWEET BLUESKY

 

 

 

 

BITTERSWEET BLUESKY
(yesterday's walk)

Bittersweet orange
against the bluest of skies~
forgotting summer's petals
of deep purple splatterings
with sharp sunmarked centers~

the heron waits to fly