Painting

“A Name for My Artwork”

I have been looking for a word to use for all my pictorial endeavors: painting, photography, and the placing – or throwing – of objects to then be photographed. I cannot find one in English. So I am led to the Chinese shih hua.

“The Perfect Gift”

For his departing student, the Buddhist Master painted a perfect circle.

“The Purpose of Art”

The purpose of Art should not be to shock, to confuse – but to reassure.

“Writing is So Much Easier When I am Free”

Every day I write whatever comes to me to write about. And I love doing it. But if I am asked to write about a particular topic – even one I know well, and may of my own volition have written about previously, I don't enjoy the writing experience nearly as much.

“The Wind that Blows Through Me”

For me, a major – perhaps the major – criterion of any work of art is whether the viewer believes not that the artist has painted it, but that it has been painted through him.

“The Three Levels to a Work of Art”

There are three levels to a work of art, to a photograph.

“Zen (and Not)”

Lucien Stryk says of Zen: "to use the fewest … strokes of the brush to express their feelings."

In that case, my paintings – now – are certainly Zen: very few strokes, so many only one.

But, to go further: what feeling to express?

“An Artist’s Manifesto”

Dr. Diamond's short manifesto on art as egoless devotion, by those who feel so impelled by the Spirit: Altruistic, Soul-enriching, Bhakti-yoga, a union.

“Filling the Blank Space with Chi”

An unpainted space that represents the sky is not blank, is not empty.

“No-Mind Before”

There is a Japanese saying about calligraphy and painting: Izen hitsugo, “Mind before, brush after.”