I took Maryjo Koch's Botanical Illustration Workshop in Bonny Doon, CA.

 

Maryjo demonstrating painting a thistle.

 Me painting.

 

Beginning my thistle with a graphite watercolor pencil.

 

Adding gouache.

 

My finished thistle.

 

Final project was painting a stick covered in lichen.

Evolving Art

I have recently been reading a group of inspiring books that I've chosen as a means to awaken or recharge a new level of creativity.  As part of my art practice, at my mentor Andie Thrames' suggestion, I have found it is necessary to review my mission as an artist every six months or so.   This is not only for my own awareness and growth, but so that I can communicate about my art and process in art statements and in sharing creative enthusiasm with others.  To keep myself engaged and charged I have to participate in my education by reading, attending workshops with artists that I want to emulate, and by interacting with art to discover what speaks to me. 

There are four books I'm loving right now in which each author is talking about our interconnectedness.  David Abrams, ecologist and philosopher, speaks magically in Spell of the Sensuous about the history of our disconnect from nature and our inner nature due to the refinement of language and written communication.  Through Abrams mystical descriptions of feeling nature and the ways indigenous cultures view themselves in nature (which is express it via storytelling), one is reintroduced to a once common communion with nature.  This book has philosophical depth that I can sometimes only digest a paragraph at a time.  It is rewiring my mind's concepts about perception.

Meditation is been part of my way of becoming more perceptive and aware my interconnection and inter-dependence with nature.  The nature of our minds is nature.  We are nature.  This isn't new to Buddhism.  The Harmony of Emptiness and Dependent-Arising: Tsong Khapa by Ven. Lobsang Gyatso elaborates on cause and effect in relation to emptiness.  Once again I am reminded of the fault of ignorance and how ignorance of the ultimate nature of phenomena leads to every choice we make.

As I continue absorb the teaching-words in these books I find that something is slipping or softening in how I perceive phenomena.  I listen for the ways nature talks to me and I look for the eyes that are seeing and perceiving me.  I wonder how it is that we humans think we are bigger than and dominant over nature.  Poet Gary Snyder writes so captivatingly in The Practice of the Wild on the wild that we are.  In Snyder's introduction he writes, "A key term is practice:  meaning a deliberate sustained and conscious effort to be more finely tuned to ourselves and to the way the actual existing world is.  'The World,' with the exception of a tiny bit of human intervention, is ultimately a wild place." (p. viii)

It is in this wild place that we live and create.  I have recently been introduced (by Sue West) to the art work of Enrique Martinez Celaya.  A well established and visionary California artist who paints, writes, lectures, educates and inspires others to delve deep and reconnect.  His work is profoundly spiritual from a scientific and globally philosophical view.  In Collected Writings & Interviews, 1990-2010, Enrique Martinez Celaya, taken from Celaya's manifesto, he writes, "It seems more sad than ironic that in the process of mastering our destiny through technology and global reach, we have lost our respect for nature and our sense of belonging to something larger than ourselves."  Celaya sees the artist role to be that of a prophet.  It is with that inspiring idea that I explore and contemplate his work and the works of others engaged in nurturing our awakened minds.

The image above is from my series of painting on California butterflies.  There are over 120 species of butterflies that live in the Sierras according to Dr. Art Shapiro, professor of Evolution and Ecology, and his UC Davis research team.  They have a fantastic website http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/ with images of each butterfly.  The butterfly represents for me the ability to transform.  My mixed media pieces evolve in an intuitive process of cooperating with the art materials, the subject matter, patterns, and contemplative mind frame.

May you be well and inspired!

Susan

Art of Illusion

Recently I have been contemplating the illusory nature of the phenomenal world and what is authentic artistic expression? My mind goes blank when I think on these things. I've been wondering how to depict that in my art – with imagery that is authentic to my experience. I can easily be inspired by or borrow ideas from Kandinsky, Duchamp, or O'Keeffe; but how does one find their own original visual voice in the midst of so many creators today? Chogyam Trungpa says in Dharma Art that it requires a lot of meditating.

The idea that meditation is somehow separate from art seems like a mind-emptying, Zen question in itself. Many artists find that art is liberation. Ad Reinhardt is noted in asserting in Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art, that "art was not a practice leading to enlightenment; art is enlightenment." This is indeed an esoteric approach to being a "fine artist," which Reinhardt defines as having "a fine mind, 'free of all passion, ill-will, and delusion.'" (Smile, p. 131)

Reinhardt's description of an artist's mind correlates with the last verse of The Eight Verses of Mind Training. The long version (Rigpa translation) states:

I will learn to keep all these practices

Untainted by thoughts of the eight worldly concerns.

May I recognize all things as like illusions,

And, without attachment, gain freedom from bondage.

HH Dalai Lama divides this verse into two sections (Transforming the Mind, pp 128-132). The first two lines relate to the Eight Worldly Concerns that effect our attitudes. HHDL describes them as "becoming elated when someone praises you, becoming depressed when someone insults or belittles you, feeling happy when you experience success, being depressed when you experience failure, being joyful when you acquire wealth, feeling dispirited when you become poor, being pleased when you have fame, and feeling depressed when you lack recognition." A practitioner (artist) cultivating altruism is warned about these "concerns" muddying our minds. If we agree with Reinhardt's depiction of a "fine artist" then contemplation on the hopes and fears revealed in the Eight Worldly Concerns would certainly assist in refining one's "passion, ill-will, and delusion."

Yet, the teaching that form is emptiness and emptiness is form is also apparent in Verse 8. The last two lines speak specifically of the illusory nature of reality, our phenomenal world. If we take Reinhardt's statement that "art is enlightenment" and situate the nouns thusly art=form and enlightenment=emptiness the teaching on form and emptiness is restated as "art is enlightenment and enlightenment is art." Since Reinhardt was a master at reinterpreting Buddhist teachings into art terms, it is possible that he found a truth in the subtle connection of words to pronounce "art is enlightenment." It would appear that art, then, would be the depicted form of the phenomenal world as it is, which in itself is empty.

The questions I started this note with are still intriguing. I am interested to see how it will influence my paintings. I have a few sketches I'm working on, playing with the flow if ideas that come up.

The illustration that I created a few years ago for Verse 8 is of a peacock. The peacock is a unique bird that can eat poisonous snakes without being harmed. I see Verse 8 as transformation from suffering to liberation; as it is with the peacock that transforms poison into nutrition. This is the altruistic mission of art.

Thank you for journeying through the Eight Verses of Mind Training with me. May these musing be of benefit in creating compassion and wisdom.

Until next week and a new series . . .

Be well,

Susan

Painting Compassion

This summer my friend, Sue Hammond West, suggested I read Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today written by Jacquelynn Baas. I love Baas' perspective on art history. She shows how Buddhist philosophy was introduced to European art culture and the influence it had on how and what artists perceived and painted.

Since today's blog is on Verse 7 of the Eight Verses of Mind Training, I am excited to dovetail one of the artists from Smile of the Buddha into my musings: Vincent van Gogh! Most of what I remember of van Gogh is his beautiful paintings and his tortured spirit. I knew he had a strong Evangelical background, but I didn't know the extent of Japanese Buddhism's influence on his and other 19^th century European artists. Baas writes, "Art was more effective than religion in conveying his deeply felt compassion for humankind." Van Gogh was a sensitive, generous, reflective, deeply caring man who wanted to alleviate suffering. Buddhism was very inspiring to his work. He "had come to see the ideal artist's life as that of a kind of bodhisattva, dwelling austerely and serenely . . . and devoting himself to the expression of compassion through the creation of works of art that evoke the connections between all levels of existence." (p31-32 Smile)

As I read this essay on van Gogh I kept thinking of Verse 7. Geshe Langri Thangpa's core version states, "Give help and happiness to others, and take on their harm and suffering." In his paintings, van Gogh was giving his supreme joy of feeling spiritually inspired and interconnected . . . Moving brush stokes and color reveals a world that is alive and magical. Van Gogh's paintings visually give a teaching on the Buddhist philosophy.

While Baas and other art historians have documented the Buddhist texts, philosophers, and art forms that van Gogh was aware of I can't help wondering what direction his life would have taken had he had the support of a lineage teacher and a sangha. It is apparent that van Gogh longed for monastic life and tried to create such in Arles with Gauguin. However, without a lineage master and supportive community to study and practice with, it is obvious that van Gogh fell into deep confusion and loneliness. His angst may have included confusion about martyrdom, perhaps leading to his unhappy choice of suicide; which is not what is meant by the Buddhist philosophy of "taking on the suffering of others."

According to HH Dalai Lama in Transforming the Mind, Verse 7 specifically relates to the practice of tonglen - the practice of giving and receiving. Briefly this involves the deep understanding that we all wish to be happy; that we are all one / interconnected; that it is an act of egolessness to "exchange myself for another." It is an attitude we integrate so as to loosen the hold of the ego.

The tonglen practice can be applied to working with our own suffering, that of another's suffering, and the suffering of the world. In the art class I'm teaching on grieving we did a "giving and receiving loving kindness" exercise. First we drew a body scan of the suffering we felt. Then we drew an image of ourselves onto which we drew all the compassion and kindness we wished ourselves to have. The change in the students was palpable. The room's energy went from sadness to lightness with the experience of transforming the mind through compassion.

The image I've drawn for this verse is of a laughing dolphin (illustrated with gouache and color pencil). Dolphins have an amazing ability to heal. Much has been written on the gentleness of dolphins and how their keen sensitivity and awareness can transform our perceptions regarding human relations with nature. They are bodhisattva's of the sea.

May we all be well and inspired to act with compassion.

Susan

Courage of Artists and Spiritual Warriors

The core instruction to Verse 6 of the Eight Verses of Mind Training says to "Recognize one who harms you as more kind than one who helps you." I've been pondering this over the last few days trying to remember any art experiences I've had that would relate. My emotions, more than an individual person, have often been inspiration to create art. Difficult experiences in relationships have inspired some interesting imagery. Several of the pieces from my Understanding^ft series were part of my emotional process while caring for my late husband. (Click on "Art" on sidebar to see series.)

Exploring further, the full sixth verse (Rigpa translation) suggests:

Even when someone I have helped,

Or in whom I have placed great hopes

Mistreats me very unjustly,

I will view that person as a true spiritual teacher.

I am very fortunate to have never experienced war or extreme violence. However, I can feel another's pain acutely. I suspect this is empathy or maybe something more. Perhaps it is as current day ecologist and philosopher David Abram reveals in The Spell of the Sensuous that everything touches everything and that I feel the pain of others because "of the body's native capacity to resonate with other bodies and with the landscape as a whole." This would explain why I cringe at seeing violence or feel anger and sadness by reading of cruelty.

Artists throughout history have used art as a tool to express and process much unbearable pain, suffering, anger, and confusion. Images from ancient art of war to the art of Goya, Picasso, and Beckman, to present day artists such as Melvin Edwards, David Hammons, and Magdalena Abakanowicz (to name only a few of the very many).

This poem was written by Thich Nhat Hahn after he "heard about the bombing of Ben Tre and the comment make by and American military man, 'We had to destroy the town in order to save it.'"

"For Warmth

I hold my face in my two hands.

No, I am not crying.

I hold my face in my two hands

to keep the loneliness warm –

two hands protecting,

two hands nourishing,

two hands preventing

my soul from leaving me

in anger."*

So, how do we work with Verse 6? Clearly by reading Thich Nhat Hahn's poem we see he is a spiritual master. HH Dalai Lama, in Transforming the Mind, suggests studying Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life and Chandrarakirti's Entry to the Middle Way for inspiration and understanding regarding tolerance and patience, which are necessary when working with this verse.

I have also found Pema Chödrön's teaching on gratitude to be inspiring. In Awakening Loving-Kindness (pp 168-169) is a pertinent paragraph that relates to the idea of being grateful to everyone. Pema writes that if we can learn to be grateful for the preciousness of our lives, then we will be able to face anything.

My wish for myself and all beings is that we move toward more tolerance, patience, and gratitude. Some further inspiration comes by way of the documentary "I am", directed by Tom Shadyac. A portion of the documentary shows how herds or flocks of animals (nature) make decisions. It is when 51% of the group turns their attention to make a move, whether it is to go for a drink or change direction in flight. It is not dependent on the dominant male nor the smallest infant, it is based on the decision of just over half of the whole group to ensure the survival of the greatest number. "I am" refers to who the "problem" is and where the responsibility to change lies.

Perseverance: we keep on cultivating and practicing compassion and wisdom. And perhaps, like natural democracy, or the sensuous spell of our interconnectedness, we will move in the courageous direction of peace.

I humbly offer my illustration of a snake to represent Verse 6.

May we all be well and content,

Susan

*Found in Anger; Wisdom for Cooling the Flames by Thich Nhat Hahn.