My art practice is an attempt to blend meditation, the felt-sense and the visual.
To wake up!
I trust that coming back to this basic practice, of being present, of allowing what is, will lead into a more engaged or farther-reaching practice one day. Someone once said that art should break habits. I love that. There are so many; great big global habits and tiny little prickly habits, issues that affect us all.
For now, I have undertaken to be part of an exhibition about 'doors' at the Refinery Gallery in Nelson this August. We've been asked to interpret 'doors' in whichever way we choose. Straight away I thought of 'The Gateless Barrier', a way perhaps of describing 'awakening' in the Zen tradition. It suggests a form of doorway, an entry point of sorts. Although there is nothing to enter, and nowhere to go. Right there lie a habit or two.
Over there is the gateless barrier.
Each step towards it is a barrier. Each step I take.
Letting go the need to think it through and going through nonetheless, even when I am stuck.
I am struggling to find the starting point for this work. Where do you start when there is nowhere to go, nothing to step through? The stepping through is the gate. So for now, just taking a step in any direction is the right direction.
It brings to mind a passage from one of my children's favourite books,"Stumble trip, stumble trip, stumble trip. We can't go over it, We can't go under it, Oh No! We've got to go through it!"
So here's to stumbling and tripping... and to painting doors that lead right back home.
To wake up!
I trust that coming back to this basic practice, of being present, of allowing what is, will lead into a more engaged or farther-reaching practice one day. Someone once said that art should break habits. I love that. There are so many; great big global habits and tiny little prickly habits, issues that affect us all.
For now, I have undertaken to be part of an exhibition about 'doors' at the Refinery Gallery in Nelson this August. We've been asked to interpret 'doors' in whichever way we choose. Straight away I thought of 'The Gateless Barrier', a way perhaps of describing 'awakening' in the Zen tradition. It suggests a form of doorway, an entry point of sorts. Although there is nothing to enter, and nowhere to go. Right there lie a habit or two.
Over there is the gateless barrier.
Each step towards it is a barrier. Each step I take.
Letting go the need to think it through and going through nonetheless, even when I am stuck.
I am struggling to find the starting point for this work. Where do you start when there is nowhere to go, nothing to step through? The stepping through is the gate. So for now, just taking a step in any direction is the right direction.
It brings to mind a passage from one of my children's favourite books,"Stumble trip, stumble trip, stumble trip. We can't go over it, We can't go under it, Oh No! We've got to go through it!"
So here's to stumbling and tripping... and to painting doors that lead right back home.
RSS Feed