"Superficially there is negligence, but deep down in people there is love and craving for the beautiful. There is a past, present and future in the fall of a dress. Don’t arrange it.Keep up the work. Try to reduce everything you see to the utmost simplicity. It is harder to see a landscape than [...]
"Do not require of your work the finish that anyone may demand of you, but insist on the finish which you demand. It will not do to have your fine thought yesterday, and paint your picture today. Good painting is a result of effort to obtain order, and the order must go to all the [...]
"It is not too much to say that art is the noting of the existence of order throughout the world, and so, order stirs imagination and inspires one to reproduce this beautiful relationship existing in the universe, as best one can. Technique is to me merely a language, and as I see life more and [...]
... continued from More Art Spirit I was searching for inspiration today to work on some drawing or painting – as a newbie art student – and I was resisting working on my blog. All I had to do was pick up this book and I got inspired to do both. First this, to [...]
The holidays, the election, and the uncertainty ahead have many of us worried and out of sorts: I know no better way to return to the center and maintain serenity than meditation. In my case it takes the form of Zazen – “sitting meditation” – and below is a beautiful paean for this practice [...]
Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing. Dennis Waitley Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security. John Allen Paulos The future is completely open, and [...]
Since moving to the country a year and a half ago, I’ve been engaged and busy with so many exciting new things that I put teaching my meditation classes and workshops on the shelf as I adjusted to my new lifestyle. On Monday this week I led my first meditation workshop up here in Hudson. [...]
I’ve been reading this wonderful book by Robert Henri – an artist and teacher of art almost a century ago. It not only has great advice and suggestions for artists, but it strikes me that everything in this book can be applied to all aspects of life. To me it’s all about paying attention, being [...]
Georgia O'Keeffe When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they [...]
Being in a summer state of mind, with all the fresh farm produce being harvested around me, I went to one of my favorite Zen poetry books for this month’s quotes, appropriately titled A Zen Harvest. Enjoy the rich bounty! On my way to you A thousand miles become one: Across the wide rice [...]
