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As a writer, it took me a long (LOOOONG) time to realize that an author's printed page is not the same as the first draft. This expectation had been a major obstacle to my creativity. I credit Natalie Goldberg with getting me over it (she is a student of Katagiri Roshi and has written many great books about the writing life).
I see my writing as a practice now, in every sense of the word. It is something I do for myself, but it has very unexpected ways to reach out to other people, almost in a life of its own. I can make a decision what to share, but I cannot control how it will be received. That is quite wonderful. Maybe it is a little like metta practice - you just do it, and how it will blossom, you don't know. Actually, responses are often quite surprising to me!
Some writing I have shared with just one person, some here on the forum, some with a church full of Unitarians, some with an unknown audience of readers. It feels great to speak into the mic, to get good feedback, to see it in print, to win a prize. I will accept challenges like poetry contests, but basically I am just doing my thing, whether it is going to be "out there" one day or not. (And without constant practice, I would not be ready for contests, anyway.)
Hi. Here are four examples of "artists" (people making art stuff) who had a fascination, an interest, and developed their own vision. Some of it might look like "my kid can do that" but then I invite you look closer, cut and paste these names onto google, and look into their lives, and you can see what has gone into their work....
The first is one of my favorites, Agnes Martin.. a woman of the prairies. agnes-martin-031.jpg
These are not "Buddhist artists" dealing with Buddhist subjects (though there can be an influence) , but they are good examples of creative people leaving behind restrictive ideas of "realism" (..an interesting subject, what is a "realistic" work of art?). They pursued a vision with dedication and developed the skills needed, they trusted their vision and took leaps. We can do that when moved by our practice and tradition.
hello,
Wanted to add a few names to the list of artists that Daizan started.
Robert Irwin, a conceptual minimalist works with light. A wonderful biography of Irwin by Lawrence Weschler "Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees". By the title you can deduce his influences.
On a gray morning early last week, the artist Robert Irwin sat at one end of the cavernous Pace gallery in Chelsea and gazed out at his latest exhibition. The only things in it are three thin, 16-f…
Wolfgang Laib, German artist that works with pollen and bees wax, stone, milk. Taoist influence. The pollen pieces in particular are stunning.
This is getting into land artists, which is appropriate in thinking about earth and art...
Robert Smithson, early land artist whose piece the spiral jetty is on the far north edge of The Great Salt Lake in Utah. An amazing piece which disappears and reappears depending on rain and lade level
To name a couple. Land art has been around for 40-50 years, many of the pioneers are dead. The early artists tore the earth up with heavy equipment. Thankfully those days are over. The more contemporary work is more a celebration of earth.
I see my writing as a practice now, in every sense of the word. It is something I do for myself, but it has very unexpected ways to reach out to other people, almost in a life of its own. I can make a decision what to share, but I cannot control how it will be received. That is quite wonderful. Maybe it is a little like metta practice - you just do it, and how it will blossom, you don't know. Actually, responses are often quite surprising to me!
Some writing I have shared with just one person, some here on the forum, some with a church full of Unitarians, some with an unknown audience of readers. It feels great to speak into the mic, to get good feedback, to see it in print, to win a prize. I will accept challenges like poetry contests, but basically I am just doing my thing, whether it is going to be "out there" one day or not. (And without constant practice, I would not be ready for contests, anyway.
Does that make any sense?
Gassho
Nindo
Makes sense to me. Art, to me, is not about external validation, being paid/displayed. I have had both, in small ways. Art is about the realization of the internal need to create and to express what moves the artist in a visceral way.
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