Insightful words to live by artist or otherwise. I made ten copies to pass out tonight. Your words come at a weak moment in my life. Thanks
"when the student is ready, the teacher will appear."

Zen? Zen-like? I remember a book title about motorcycles and Zen, but I didn't read it. I didn't get past this in your article today. I must go 'wikipedia' Zen and get an idea of this concept before I can finish what you wrote. Oh dear. http://coralreefpainter.blogspot.com/

There are many good things in todays letter Robert. I personally must have peace to create. I find nothing good comes from chaos.

Wonderful post. There's a great book on this topic--The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life, by John Daido Loori, about a Zen Mountain Monastery in the Catskill Mountains and a photographer who studied under Minor White.

What grabbed me about today's letter is "Laboured flyers, they fly in a "flap, flap, flap--glide" manner. I interpret the flaps as the purposeful, thinking mode, and the glide as a period of less commitment but continued progress. Later in the morning, the eagles are at great altitude, soaring effortlessly." What a perfect metaphor for us, the artists.

I get a kick out of how practices like this that I do intuitively are labeled 'Zen' -- as if they originated in the East. The other day I was stretching after a run and my girlfriend said 'that's yoga'. I guess if it helps you, you can label it that way. But why do we need these buzzwords from other cultures? Does it add legitimacy to categories of thought the Western mind doesn't know how to talk about? Goodness and creation is available in you and your response to nature. You can discover it anytime if you'll just see and hear. We label things we don't have words for.
At the same time, we shouldn't fool ourselves we're actually understanding an Eastern world view. We're still very much Americans. So I find it amusing that we have to say things like 'Zen' and 'Yoga' to give legitimacy to something that is imminent and has always been present and available to us. Are these suggestions really Zen? I'd find it easier to affirm if we just say 'getting in the zone' or something. That's something I have no reservations with agreeing. I feel like using the Eastern label implies mystery -- there's more to discover. Perhaps I should sign up with the guru or yogi to real more of things that in fact can be discovered with the artistic mind. We are the priests, we transcribe the visual hermeneutic of nature in paint! We channel revelation! We here and now are ministers to souls locked in the analytic serial mind set. Go paint!

Amen

Whilst I buy into the concept of Zen with that idea of providing the perfect and still environment both internally and externally to create Art I find it always eludes me. I hear that nagging little voice in my head, that annoying control freak who is so very very bossy. I can still myself to the outside but inside there is no peace whatsoever. How do I kill this critic ? Is one allowed to kill it ? Alcohol kind of works but the paintings are rubbish - Cidercolour painting as performance art might be convincing but probably not marketable.

Chris Everest and others,

To quiet that little yakking voice, called Ego, is an attainable goal. Discussion and suggestions in Eckhart Tolle's excellent book, A New Earth.

One exercise is to take a deep breath and focus on the breathing.

Re Roy's remark: "we label things we don't have words for". Maybe we create --or adopt- words for things we don't have words for. Like "Zen"!.

The last letter reminded me of a book that was required reading when I was working on my BFA Degree. The book was Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel. My Art books are in such a jumble I can't find it. Maybe I lent it to a Student or something. Anyway, I thought I would never get to the end, even tho' it was a small paperback. Then, at the end, I realized it was necessary to go through all the agony of the author when he tried and tried to hit the target. The point was to finally give up and relax. Then he hit the bulls eye of the target. Just relax, and let the attitude of low expectations take over.

How great it is when I go to the easel with the attitude of PLAYING!!

I had a fascinating kind of zen creative day last year. Several of us students sat, barefoot around a nude male model, with about 120 pieces of sugar paper in front of us and am array of different strength inks, pens, pencils, feather quills, pastels and conte crayon.
We were silent all day and obeying our teachers instructions drew the model who changed pose from two minutes to five seconds. Every so often we were stopped and had to take up the same pose as the model, close our eyes, hold it for one minute then continue.

Some of my pieces of paper nearly caught fire with speed. I tore many pieces, but by the end of the day, as the teacher had promised I had done a few of the most wonderful drawings ever. We had followed very complex instructions and had used both hands, our toes and our mouths as well. A truly self forgetting zen experience. I really loved 4 of the works I produced out of the 120.

Everything in life is like ebb and flow. All one needs to do is listen to their own breath. It flows like the ocean. All life is rhytmic and cyclical on this planet. I have noticed that many times after a seemingly non-productive session of painting the following time there is a breakthrough. We need to allow ourselves to step into the unknown in order to expand as humans and as artists. Living life fully takes a good deal of courage, risk taking and radical trust.

Well, I AM a Zen Buddhist, and I will have to say that I agree with Roy, who wrote on July 4, when he says he would rather see some kind of other term used, rather than "Zen", when we are "in the zone," or something like it. Most of the time when people talk of Zen, especially in reference to art or other activities, the thoughts get pretty garbled. There is a lot to what Robert is saying here, but it ought not be confused with Zen, nor have Zen practice further confused by the mixed bag of what is in this essay. For one instance alone, in Zen we do not "try for the spirit of attaining." Quite the opposite, we try for emptiness, and a non-attaining attitude. Sometimes a Zen aphorism might do, in which we can say, "Try without trying." With anything else, EGO enters in, and this is destructive to a creative and free attitude. There is also a large mixture of concept in the essay, from all kinds of ideologies, mostly oriental. Zen practice simply leads to a freedom from all these, especially through its basis in meditation. Nevertheless, if anyone finds these suggestions that Robert makes here helpful, in part or in whole, then they should be tried. Only one would hope that they will not be thought of as defining Zen practice, simply one way of art practice that is highly beneficial.

He said Zen-like. He didn't define Zen.

Reaction to the reactions! Some of my own original reactions to that letter are above (However, only part of the reply. I commented on all the "instructions"). Now I have to comment on the comments.
Chin up Rick. We all have ups and downs and you can dig yourself out by becoming the teacher yourself! Finding someone who needs your help is a wonderful way of escaping from one's own gloom - and there's always someone out there.

As for me, well, not being religious I can't wait for a superior power to grant me talent, inspiration, dig me out of my current hole, etc. I just have to go it alone. That's hard, sometimes, but I don't believe that the mystique of creativity starts anywhere but within ourselves and that is the reason I don't think that indolence and other artificial mechanisms are productive.
My old voice teacher was a terrible teacher, but now and again she said something useful. When I get embroiled with my own incapacity, I repeat to my self the words "Thoughts are things!" In singing that is particularly effective. The human voice only exists at the moment of production. It is ephemeral and must be totally under control if it is to function as an artistic expression. But if I can't "visualize" the tones I cannot make them. The imagination joins in with the inherent talent (of course, you have to have the prerequisites for making a pleasant noise otherwise nothing helps!) to produce something magical. Playing an instrument is not the same. In singing, you are the instrument. That is why I disagreed about letting the tools do it for you. Whatever our art form, we express ourselves through our tools. And we can only relax if we have the skills at our commend. That, in archery or whatever, comes with intensive practice. All summed up in the proverb "Practice makes perfect". The equivalent German saying is in translation :"No master ever fell from heaven."

For Chris Everest and Melissa Keyes - Chris, I find that annoying inner voice/critic you talk about needs to be occupied - I call it "the monkey mind" - and for me, I listen to books on tape. my "monkey mind" listens to the story, and is occupied, while my deeper self can get on with and enjoy my painting, undistracted. It's like finding an activity to occupy your child, so you can get on with what you need to do. works for me!

Melissa, I think the book you mention is called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I haven't read it, but heard about it long ago.

When we use an analogy such as Zen-like, we use it not so much to add importance or mystery or infuse out feeling and thoughts with more insight. It becomes a way universally to express what we are attempting to say and not try and attach our thoughts to any culture or philosophy. It’s called “analogy”. We do this every day. i.e. painting is so spiritual; soar like a bird; strong as a bull; healthy as a horse; paint like the wind. Nothing more. In a global multi-national world we are losing the ability to speak a cohesive language. Meaning is being confused and believers in one practice or another are being offended. This creates a complex barrier between people. In western culture waving a hand palm out is a sign of friendship. In another culture the same gesture is threatening. Bearing ones teeth in one culture is a smile, while in another is menacing.
The Internet has given us access to other worlds other peoples and we are still finding our way. If there is any Zen practice that applies it is to empty your mind of initial reactions to statements and fill yourself with compassion and understanding of what is being offered. If it’s off the mark consider that aspect and realize it was offered in good faith not to harm or misrepresent.

"If there is any Zen practice that applies it is to empty your mind of initial reactions to statements and fill yourself with compassion and understanding of what is being offered. If it’s off the mark consider that aspect and realize it was offered in good faith not to harm or misrepresent."
Ah so, Rick, thanks.

Noting that "zen" is Japanese and translates, imperfectly, to "spirit."

And the book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an important commentary on and refutation of parts of Western philosophical thought. It's quite a lot more entertaining than my description indicates, and much of it applies to art.

I know the creative process is a journey well worth making. The initial struggle, the striving, then the giving and the taking. The floating, soaring feeling when you finally 'hit the wave' and the peace and satisfaction of creation that we crave...

Rick Rotante, I just looooove the way you write! If you're not a pro writer, you ought to be. Thanks so much for your comments here.

There's a place in my mind from where the best paintings evolve. I suppose some people might call it a Zen-like state. Getting there means making every effort to tune out the everyday world.

The road map includes first finding the music to help me get going in choosing materials and general set-up, but with no particular subject in mind. That music might be the same as I want to have playing as I paint, but I reserve the right to let the materials change my mind.

Sometimes, as I'm selecting the day's limited palette or materials for multimedia, they will 'ask' for a different kind of music and I oblige.

One other thing is necessary to get to actually painting. While I don't mind and sometimes welcome painting in the same space as other painters, I get as far away from telephones as possible, often letting others think I am simply away from the phone for the day.

I have to turn off the intellectual side of my brain to do really good work. Thinking too much about the 'rules' of good art can really stunt creativity.

I do not throw away what I consider to be "failed" paintings. They have often taken a path that appears to have no value on their own. It is only later, when another painting is evolving that they find their proper place. One piece of art is five layers thick of "failed" paintings and scraps of materials. Each of them show their best and the whole piece of art needs every one of these previous "failures/misfits".

When you are stumped, go to a park with only paper/other ground, support, colours of one or more media, a blanket or other seat if you can't find a bench or picnic table. Do not bring brushes or any other tools. Use what you find in nature to apply your colours. You'll surprise yourself with what you can do with twigs, flowerheads, grasses and other materials.

Expect nothing; receive everything.

Dottie- you are very kind.