September 2013

	"One who seeks delight in the eye seeks delight in suffering." The Buddah said this? No wonder making art is such a struggle.
9.1.2013

9.2.2013

	Not separate from the tree.
9.3.2013

9.4.2013

	poems liberating words meanings recast ricochet past infinity emotion rising never knowing
9.5.2013

	In the midst of it...
9.6.2013

9.7.2013

9.8.2013

9.9.2013

9.10.2013

I got an email today from my great-aunt in Houston who pointed out to me that my recent drawings did not seem as happy as they used to be. It was a really terrific note and I answered her right away. After re-reading my response to her I thought that I owed the same reasoning to those on the email list who might have similar feelings. I don't think she'll mind me sharing that particular part of my email reply. Dear Aunt M---, ------------ I tried to write online about this shift you've noticed but my writing can be cryptic, I know. Recently I realized that I use the term 'creativity' synonymously with 'art'; or at least use it to refer to 'making things'. But I see now that the term 'creativity' is much broader - the connotations seem deeper - and I have been trying to adjust my view to accommodate the idea that not only 'making', but 'taking apart', is creative. It was not intuitive for me but I can appreciate now that destruction and construction are equally creative. For example, if a building is torn down, a vacant lot is 'created'. So being open to this has brought in some darkness but at no cost to my personal happiness - thank you for your concern. I am happy. At least as happy as before and probably more so because there is so much new territory to explore. And what has really shifted is that while being just as happy, I have a broader sense of contentment that understanding can bring. I can allow the negative space to have a voice and I can still remain an observer, not caught up in it, knowing all changes are creative. ----------- All my love, JFSjr

9.11.2013

9.12.2013

	Remaining in stillness, resting in place, right in the present moment, even while thoughts come and go.
9.13.2013

	Physical brain Subtle mind Awareness Rigpa
9.14.2013

	A question that has always baffled me is, "how do so many different energies give rise to anything at all?" --and recently it has been suggested to me that these things that arise, for example: universes, love, children, and iPads; are only as separate as waves are separate from an ocean.
9.15.2013

	...as separate as waves are separate from an ocean.
9.16.2013

9.17.2013

	Noting change And asking, What is creative about this anxiety? A useful challenge to see the repetition forming and factor it out.
9.18.2013

	Mind only No subject No object Content arises Aware of itself
9.19.2013

	Nothing simple about transmitting. Sources of distortion include: dimensional reduction, latency, and physical limitations. I persist because I know that resonance spans barriers.
9.20.2013

	Returning to the line in drawing feels like returning to my breath in meditation.
9.21.2013

9.22.2013

When I was an art student I was assigned to draw from life; to look closely and render the world outside. I always found this kind of rendering tedious and could never find an engaging thing to draw until one day in art history class, while studying the etchings of Rembrandt, I realized he saw a deeper subject. He was rendering the light itself, specifically the way light reveals, by gradient and by shadow, whatever it touches. Many years later I still draw from life but I turn around and look at the world that is inside, and I realize that my subject is not my thoughts, ideas, or imagination but the light of consciousness that reveals them.

9.23.2013

	All the birds and creatures of the world are unutterably themselves. -- David Whyte from "Everything is Waiting for You"
9.24.2013

	I was trying to wake up in my dreams until one day a dreamer woke up in me.
9.25.2013

	Breaths like children Allow for them They rise on their own Give them attention as they grow Release them as they go away Wait patiently for their return
9.26.2013

	Searching for the story.
9.27.2013

	Gathering
9.28.2013

	Many opportunities to practice on a long ride home.
9.29.2013

	...when the gentle breeze returns...
9.30.2013