A Glimmer of Light

 Donna Watson, Glimpse of Light, acrylic, collage, 20"x20"

NOTE:  There are a few openings left in my upcoming 4 day workshop in Coupeville, WA.

May 20-23.  PERSONAL EXPRESSION:  A Design Approach.  Coupeville is a small, beautiful town on the Puget Sound on Whidbey Island.  The workshop is for all mediums and styles of painting as the focus is on composition, design elements and principles and personal content and expression.

You will begin your search for your true self.  Go here for more information and to register.   

I am starting to see a glimmer of light in my studio.  I decided that the work BLOCK is such a negative word.  I am trying to look at what I am going through as a rebirth, a new opening, a

different new exciting path.

I want to unfold.

I don't want to stay folded

Anywhere, because where I am folded,

There I am a lie.

And I want my grasp of things 

True before you.  I want to

Describe myself 

Like a painting that I

Looked at closely for a 

Long time, like a saying that 

I finally understood,

Like the pitcher I use every day,

Like the face of my mother

Like a ship

That took me safely through

The wildest storm of all.

-- Rainer Maria Wilke

   

The Dark Side of Light

Donna Watson, SILENCE, 10"x10", collage

I have taken a longer than usual hiatus from my blog.  I have been dealing with a larger art issue.

I have been coming to terms with the truth that I am deep in what is called artist's BLOCK.  I have been in this dark place for over a year.  Until recently,  I always denied that piece of reality and I think overcoming denial is the first step forward.

I have been struggling with health issues for 2 years.  I have gone from doctor to doctor, many blood tests, MRIs, bone scans, x-rays.  The chronic pain and chronic fatigue almost defeated me and took over my life style and art.  During this period, I became bored with my art work.  I wanted to search for a new series, a new content... something deeper and more meaningful.  But my brain was busy firing off pain pulses and I could not focus or concentrate on anything else.  Black. dark, empty.

 2 months ago I went to a new doctor.  I finally got a diagnosis and I decided to do everything I could to get my life and health back.  I went on a strict diet eliminating all white and processed foods, alcohol and chocolate.  I started a daily regimen of meditation, tai chi and yoga.

I am feeling so much better.  It turns out diet, exercise and meditation can have a huge impact on your health.  But I am still facing the devastating and all-consuming thing called BLOCK.  I thought that once I felt better my art would come back to me like magic.  Not so.

"Your creativity is folded into your life in a way that can not be quantified or qualified.  It is a simple premise, yet profound."  Susanne Carmack.  She wrote an inspirational essay on artist's block you can find here.     Her website is here.

Inside each of us

there awaits a wonder

full

spirit of freedom

she waits

to dance 

in the rooms

of our heart

that are closed

dark and cluttered

she waits

to dance

in the spaces

where negative feelings

have build barricades

and stock-piled weapons

she waits 

to dance 

in the corners

where we still

do not believe in our goodness

inside each of us

there awaits

a wonder

full

spirit of freedom

she will lift light feet

and make glad songs

within us

on the day we open our door of ego

and let the enemies stomp out

Joyce Rupp,  The Stair in my heart

Life Threads

Detail from the collage COMPLETION by Donna Watson

NOTE:  4 Day workshop, May 20-23.  At Coupeville, on Beautiful Whidbey WA.

PERSONAL EXPRESSION:  A Design Approach.  This workshop is open to all mediums and all styles of painting, including collage.  For more information and to register go to the website:

www.pacificnorthwestartschool.org.    

some letters I have received from art buddies in 2012

"At the center of your being

you have the answer;

you know who you are and 

you know what you want."

--- Lao Tzu

some tags I have received from art buddies in 2012

"In the end, only three things matter;

how much you loved, how

gently you lived, and how gracefully

you let go of things

not meant for you."

--- Buddhist saying

image by Donna Watson

image by Donna Watson

The hands know, 

the materials too, 

quite apart from your imaginings,

less or more than your intentions - 

following the pattern that emerges,

the story as it tells.  -- Jane Whitely

image by Donna Watson

image by Donna Watson

You see, I want a lot.

Perhaps I want everything:

the darkness that comes with every infinite fall

and the shivering blaze of every step up.

-- Rainer Maria Rilke

image by Donna Watson, fabrics, fibers, waiting for inspiration

recent purchases from Habu - website found here  

 

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening 

That is translated through you into action,

And because there is only one of you in all time,

This expression is unique.

--- Martha Graham  

 

    

   

     

   

The Way

Donna Watson, The Ancient Way, 20"x20"

Creativity is an integral part of being human, as basic as walking, talking and thinking.  The creative process is intuitive.  It points us towards our essential nature.  Zen teachings can help us understand and cultivate our creativity.

Donna Watson, page from handmade book, MEMORY LANDSCAPE

Zen is about experience and activity and not about words and ideas that try to describe it.  THE TAO OF PAINTING, a book written around 500 C.E. is a classic canon on the art of painting as a spiritual path.  In the action of no-action (wu-wei) the mind is silenced and the work is allowed to express itself.  

Donna Watson, image of tools and journal pages

Zen masters began to use art as a way of teaching enlightenment.  Zen arts, creativity and realized spirituality are seen as inseparable.  Zen aesthetic developed to express eternal truths about the nature of reality and our place in the universe.

Donna Watson image, sunrise, view from my bedroom window

These Zen arts do not exist for the purpose of creating a work of art, but rather a method for opening the creative process.  They comprise means of training the mind and living our lives.  These arts were called ways because they were disciplines or paths to the artist's understanding of him or herself.  The suffix "do" means way.

Donna Watson, image of ways to create new art works from flea market finds

Chado, the way of tea.  The ritual of the tea ceremony (simplicity, purity) influences all of Japan's fine arts.  Creating harmony with opposites is an important aspect.  Inside the tea room, it is important to display a piece of calligraphy in harmony with the spirit of the tea and an ikebana (flower arrangement) in a pure and simple style.

image from Museum of Fine Arts Boston website

image via Flickr, fujijardins, Thierry Del Socorro

image via Flickr, fujijardins, Thierry Del Socorro

Shodo, the way of the brush.  Calligraphy is a striving for inner perfection, yet it is always incomplete, open like the enso (circle) of infinity.  Shodo is a discipline that takes many years to master.  It is a way to enlightenment.

  calligraphy tools

an ancient pond/ a frog jumps in/ the splash of water..  Matsuo Basho, 1686

Ginkaku-ji temple, Kyoto, Japan, by David M. Bryne

Kado, the way of the flower.  Ikebana or flower arranging is another art form that incorporates harmony and balance.

Toshiro Kawase

The emphasis is on the creative process--- not on technical skill.  The creative process is unique to each individual.  It is unique to YOU.  The creative process helps each of us discover our own way of expression.

image via Flickr, lightsongs, Kerry Singh

This process of discovery is the endless spring of creativity.  It is already present in each of us, waiting to be uncovered.  Ultimately, the experience of the arts helps us to see into one's own heart and mind and to bring to life that which is realized.

  

 

 

 

 

    

Peace on earth...

Image by Yuya Horikawa, Kinkaju-ji Temple, Kyoto

 

The evening bell, solemn and bronze, sounds dimly in the melted

snow... slow beat of the mountain's heart perhaps.  Bell, mountain,

tree... symbol of quiet strength.  All seeking in this place.

All finding in this place... hidden but open to all...

peace.

 

Here are some images of my Christmas decor in my home this year.  I love naturals -- and have been collecting Santas for years.

 

xmas naturals added to my rock collections

 

basket of naturals with wrapped boxes

 

 

more wrapped boxes with fossils and naturals

 

 

Father Christmas, hand made by me

 

Another Father Christmas, hand made by me

 

My 9 foot tree decorated with Santas, bird nests, birds, natural balls, wrapped boxes

 

A new addition-- birched wrapped candle- hand made by me

 

Another birch wrapped candle

 

More birch wrapped candles

 

Leslie Avon Miller came for a visit and brought me this wonderful box of hand made gifts and naturals

Thank you Leslie... a very good friend.

 

My fireplace mantel  

 

We are what we think.

All that we are arises with our thoughts.

With our thoughts we make the world.

Speak or act with a pure mind 

And happiness will follow you

My wish for you in the new year...  happiness, peace,

light   

 

The Poetics of Silence

Donna Watson, 8"x8" collage

"Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn?  Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends.... or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak..."  Norton Jester

uploaded by miichan at Flickr.com here

 

Behind all creation is silence.

Silence is the essential condition, 

the vital ingredient for all creation and all that is created.

It is power in its own right.

The artist starts with a blank canvas - silence.

The composer places it between and behind the notes.

The very ground of your being, 

Out of which comes all your thoughts 

is silence.  --- Theresa Lasichak

uploaded by Nora Louise at Pinterest.com here

 

The most wonderful silence is when snow is falling.  Sounds become muted.  Even the birds seem to be quietly waiting.  A moon-lit night is silent beauty.

October Moon, by Sarah Gillespie, more of her work found here

A wealth you cannot imagine 

flows through you.

Do not consider what strangers say.

Be secluded in your secret heart-house,

that bowl of silence.

Talking, no matter how humble-seeming,

is really a kind of bragging.

Let silence be the art you practice.

--- Rumi:  Bridge to the Soul

     Momoyama, uploaded by Michael Chandler, at Flickr found here  

It all happens in silence.  The way

light happens in the eye.

Love unites bodies.

They go on

filling each other with silence.

--- James Sabines, Pieces of Shadow

  Jo Van Rijckeghem

Sometimes a quiet piece of art can be achieved with subdued colors and minimal shapes.   Looking at art like this can be a place of refuge... of rest.

 uploaded by tokyo sanpopo at tumblr.com found here  

Elegance

All that is cared for.

Left alone in the stillness

in that pure silence married

to the stillness of nature.

--- Linda Gregg

   Akhra Ajinjal 

uploaded by Yubo Mojao at Flickr, here

The way to silence is through meditation.
When you arrive in your own silence
You will know true freedom and real power.
Stop, take a minute,
and listen to the silence within you today
Theresa Lasichak, found at Flickr here 

Quail eggs in a Japanese bowl by Sarah Gillespie

    
come to my quietness
I shall cover you with it, like
a white sheet that has blown all day in 
the sun, like a mountain lake
filled with spring, it shall slip over you.
--- Diane di Prima