In 1961 Ad Reinhardt described his work in these words: “A square (neutral, shapeless) canvas, five feet wide, five feet high, as high as a man, as wide as a man’s outstretched arms (not large, not small, sizeless) trisected (no composition) one horizontal form negating one vertical form (formless, no top, no bottom, directionless). Three […]
Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to transform them. -From the Four Great Bodhisattva […]
Many could and are welcome to add to this. It is entirely out of the context of art making; then again – nothing is out of the context of art making. My most loved friends are at the point in their lives when they are touching the tip of the iceberg that is the end […]
In September I wrote about not writing or speaking publicly about my work for a year. More specifically what I was referring to was forms of abandonment. Abandoning complexities in a studio practice. The psychological and physical hoops that one puts themselves through to make work. Most, if not all, are of our own making. […]
Among the rules of our game is talking and writing about our work exhaustively. Proposals, exhibitions, talks, interviews, articles, the list goes on. It is an expectation of the field. Then there are historians, critics, theorists, who are writing as well. That is their role in the field – a form of translation. The practice […]
I looked at the work I was making and felt the need to sit down with my journal for a discussion about what was happening. The journal holds many spontaneous thoughts that at times become posts for my website. I wrote: As you can imagine the new work is responded to with; “Well, it is […]
5am, tea-water boiling, cats up. I am on sesshin time. As the water boils, I think about our need to make decisions about how we will live our lives. Some people never do make those decisions. Others are deliberate. My guess is that many – most- are not deliberate. They move through life – no […]
All of the minutes that pass while we think nothing is changing. Crickets, season after season, in a particular temperature make themselves heard. Months pass until the last cricket sounds and then it, he, she, they are gone. Perhaps the sound I love most here – that and thunder, rain and wind. The power of […]
So many things do not need to be said, to be examined, discussed – or attached to. Many spend their days gripped in verbal and mental discussions that are about everything outside of the self. This is a way of demanding attention. To focus on this moment and what can be done – what is […]
Revolutionary works of art are no strangers to scandal; this applies also to the makers of the work. Though the work and the artist are not the same thing –many have a difficulty separating the two especially if they are unable to understand and discuss aesthetics or art criticism. Art criticism in various forms dates […]