Zen, The Sword, The Brush and David Lynch

I have taken a break from writing for a bit so that I could do a little bit of research, reading, making art, playing music and celebrating Christmas.  But now I am back and want to spend a little time making some connections between what I have been reading and making art.  This is slightly off of the normal creative thinking topic that I normally write about, but it’s related and worth an examination.

I recently changed schools and classrooms and I share a very large space with two other teachers.  They have made a point of collecting old books that are heading for the recycle bin, particularly if they have an art slant to them.  The book I picked up is entitled Zen and Japanese Culture by Daisetz T. Suzuki published in 1973.  I have, in the past read several text about Zen, some I’ve retained, others I haven’t and this one I am hoping I retain for a while to come, this is in part why I am writing this article.  To date I have only finished the first four chapters, the nature of what Zen is and its relation to sword play.  If possible I will attempt summarize nearly three hundred pages of material into a short paragraph.  The sword is an instrument of life.  It administers justice but puts its bearer the in the position where if not executed properly will result in death.  The swordsman trains the techniques, learns them by heart, puts himself to the utmost physical challenge.  Why?  because the swordsman must get to the point where no mind is used to execute his maneuvers.  When the mind stops to rest on a thought during a fight it will hesitate, it will not flow it will think and that brief pause of thinking is enough gap for an opponent to strike one down.  Beyond just knowing the maneuvers a swordsman must learn to let go of his thoughts and allow his subconscious to make the right moves, to be aware of the body’s actions but not allow the conscious mind to control them.  To say that the swordsman needs to be fearless is not stating the situation strongly enough.  He must have no concept of death, he must be beyond life and death so as to not interrupt the subconscious mind at work.

Aside from physical training the mind needs to be trained to access the subconscious.  Practice in not thinking while employing simple daily tasks is important.  Meditation is also of great importance.  By sitting and quieting the conscious mind one reaches into the areas of the subconscious, it creates a stronger link to the waking life we live everyday.  Through this conduit one can live one’s life beyond life and death.

If we are to substitute the sword for the brush I believe we will see that the same correct actions will come about.  The arm and the hand will move in correct, precise order.  The need to make decisions will be unnecessary because the subconscious knows what to do.  But to reach this state the same physical and mental training needs to be put into action.  The artist must train, push through strain and mental hardship.  I hate to use the word hardship because it sounds cliché, however, I believe we are all aware of the suffering artist stereotype and in this situation there is a valid connection.  Exactly what manner of hardship is difficult to say.  My opinion is that the artist push their skills far beyond what they believe is capable.  She must work tirelessly on things that are difficult, challenging, incomprehensible.  Also she must lean to reach into that subconscious, to lose herself in the painting, or sculpting or whichever art  form is being executed.  I believe not only the correct actions will come about, but also new ideas, ideas that cannot be accessed in the conscious state.

David Lynch talks about this, he describes it as “The real big fish”.  The great ideas/big fish are in deep water and to get one fishing line into deep water one needs to still the shallow.  I really like this metaphor and whether you like his movies or not I think most will agree that his ideas, stories and imagery are among the finest examples of creativity in the last fifty years.  I wrote an article a while back about the graffiti artist and movement and I still believe that this connection between movement and art is there.  The graffiti artist must know his art because it is executed on a grand scale.  The movements must be correct and precise and the body must not hesitate lest the line or the fill has a hitch in it that disturbs the entire work.

I will leave you with a verbal painting, something I have been meaning to work out visually.  One rectangle on top of two squares and another rectangle below the squares.  In the top rectangle a scene from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon where the two heroines are discussing the relationship between swordplay and calligraphy.  In the square to the left a graffiti artist at work, the square to the right a photo of Chinese brushes and a calligraphy workbook and in the rectangle at the bottom the following quote: “Therefore do not get your mind stopped with the sword you raise; forget what you are doing, and strike the enemy.  Do not keep your mind on the person who stands before you.  They are all of emptiness, but beware of your mind being caught up with emptiness itself.” Suzuki 1973

Daniel Pink, Autobiography and a Little More

At school today (I'm a teacher) Daniel Pink came to give the keynote address.  I watched his TED previous to watching him speak and I was a bit turned off because he seemed to spout the same thing a lot of people talk about regarding the right brain and creativity and the need to change schools.  The first issue here - right brain - I find annoying because recent research that I have encountered says that the brain is dynamic, not just hemisphere and I feel this description is just simplifying the complex issue of teaching.  However, his keynote address made up for what I expected to be a mediocre performance.  What I appreciated most is the data he presented us with concerning what the science and technology industries are looking for in education and how the policy makers in education are defining the system.  I will allow you to review what he said, since he said it and the information is readily available and my point here is to expand upon it from my point of view.

If you have been following this blog for the last six months you will see that I am working at creating exercises that can be employed in any situation to allow one to develop new ideas.  This informal research started out to assist my art teaching, however, upon consideration I have determined that it is applicable in many situation and I just have not worked out the details.  In fact, part of the reason for me writing this blog is so that others can try some of these concepts out and see what results can be obtained.  In this respect I am a punk/communist/Buddhist e.g. no one owns a guitar chord or idea, this should be owned by all and try it for yourself to make the best out of it you can.  Some of the exercises I have written about in the past are brainstorming plus, writing from a point of view, motion as a creative thinking skill (this one is weak but kudos to Will Percy for turning me onto an article about a motion classroom that helps students think) and story mapping.

Last night I put my money where my mouth is so to speak by employing one of my techniques (mind you I did not invent these, they came about over the course of my experiences, some synthesized, some dreamed up and some just from conclusions I've drawn).  In an effort to make my own art work stronger I brainstormed two categories to make art about and ultimately would like to combine them.  The first autobiography the second what I fantasize or dream my life to be.  I forced myself to write non-stop for a given time period for each of these categories, even if I did get off topic, and then review the results.  What I found was some thoughts that pop up once and again but I never focus on and some ideas I think about have finally been put to paper.  From there I put titles at random on the top of sketch book pages and while I may have no visual vocabulary at present and am requiring of myself that I make two sketches of each title.  What has piqued me most is that I have a problem to solve and generally speaking it is a fun problem for me to solve.  Will it make my art stronger?  I hope so.  Something nice that did come of it was my affinity for art materials and then a collage from art supply flyers that will be a drawing or painting soon.

An implied charge in Daniel's address today was that it was up to us, the teachers, to figure out how to educate students to think creatively, holistically, recognize patterns and develop systems and things people need.  Hopefully this is what I am doing, at the very least, it is what I am attempting to do.  I am beginning to consider how this work can be made into a tangible and I am looking for people who would like to collaborate with me on this endeavor. My initial thought is to create tablet computer apps (I even have some hand-drawn interfaces for these) or to work with people in a variety of industries and have work sessions where we try out some of these exercises an see what results present themselves   If you yourself are interested or know someone who might also be, by all means get in touch and let's see what can become of it.  I am going to do something bold here, I will put both my phone number and email address. - 2167540879 - china.devin@gmail.com.  This is because I am not sure if you can get the info from my blog, but I hope it shows how sincere I am in this endeavor and how much I trust humans' good nature.  Waiting to hear from you

LIght in the Temple

The above photo was taken during the Buddha's birthday in Seoul about six years ago. It was quite a big deal that day and I am fond of this photo because it seems to capture the actual moment. Often times a photo captures a moment but it is not characteristic of what was happening when the photo was taken, take Cindy Sherman's movie stills as an example. However, this photo does, I feel it captures the event, there simultaneously solemnity and festivity. The temple was overcrowded with people but it was not the normal gawkers that turn up for a high holiday, it was an accumulation of all the people who go to the temple as a matter of lifestyle arriving on the same day. At that point of my life I was going to the temple several times a week to meditate, and my life, despite being totally out of control, had a simultaneous sense of peace. That is why I like this photo so much perhaps, the day it was taken, what is happening in the photo, and what my life was then are all the same.

Several time I attempted to make a painting of this photo, and it only worked once, then I tried to add black to my spheres and ruined it. So from here on in I will leave it a photo.

I went to a Lama temple today, in part because it is nearest to my home. In Northern China there are not so many temples and in China I have been somewhat turned off by the Buddhists. It is far more supersticious and most people are praying for things, normally money. I find the most devote Buddhists are old people (like any religion) followed by business men and then recent college grads looking for jobs. But I am bitching here and I really shouldn't, it is not my point.

Part of my reason for going to the Lama temple is because in meditation I felt I needed to go. Also Since I am ever on a quest for light I thought I might find some light, or enlight if I was really lucky. Sad to say I brought my distaste for Chinese Buddhism with me and in the end I didn't find any light, but I did find what I had been missing many times out of the year, and that was a sense of peace. Going through the inscense burning and kowtows quarantined my mind from distractions. I didn't notice the BMW's or the tourists or the college kids, I only noticed peace, my thoughts were quieted and to paraphrase David Lynch, the pool of my mind was deepened. And for the rest of the day I have been in a fine mood.

Seing as my visual art has been about light and its effects, I had the idea to look through the Bible, The Quran and other sacred texts for the word light, cut them out, and then paste them onto a canvas. My trip to the Lama temple today was a ploy to gather material and more ideas. However, God/Buddha or whoever it is calling the shots had thought otherwise.