6/11/2022 #67
6/11/2022 #67
Here and Now, Art, Heidi Lau, Hilma af Klint, a "Temple Family," Bharti Kher, Try Guys on Disability & Covid, Roomful of Teeth, and Loki the Raven.
HERE AND NOW
Someone absconded with the catalytic converter on our Prius, reminding me that I’m lucky to be more or less mobile (i.e., I can walk or bike), even though I use a trekking pole to take some of the weight off my “bad” knee when walking.
I’m meeting with a writing group again, and it’s great to talk with these very creative and supportive women about writing issues. I’d love to move past the scribbling-notes stage of my writing project (working with my parents’ letters), but I realize this is going to take some research and time; I just have to be patient and go at my own pace.
Lately I’ve been dogged by an inner questioning about why I make art. I don’t think I’d be having this inner dialogue if it hadn’t been for social media. There has to be something intrinsic within the process of the making the art that is meaningful—otherwise, why am I doing it? Doing it for likes (social media), and even doing it for the approval of a community and buyers is not enough, and is probably even counter-productive. The process of making art is where the real value has to be (for me). I made a list of five things about making art that are compelling to me, personally:
1) When done on a regular-ish basis, making art is meditative and focusing. It habituates me to focus (vs. my usual state of distraction)
2) The art-making process seems to open a “portal” to deeper understanding of the creative “language” of art and way of being.
3) From the depths of that process, something emerges in the form of “art,” seemingly out of nothing—though perhaps it’s out of the accumulation of my experience, and even the flow of experience arising out of (in the Buddhist sense) interdependence.
4) Making art feels like it changes me for the better.
5) Making art is both discipline and practice—“spiritual” in the sense that it connects me to something larger than myself and my own ego—some mystery of creation/creativity.
ART
Some recent “bedtime” drawings, keeping it minimal:
This last one was drawn in an accordion-fold book (ink on Indigo handmade paper) in the “secret garden” at Larkin House in Monterey. It was an experiment in getting beyond the historical, touristy sense of historical location and to some essence. The lines were based on the play of shadow and light in one spot.
Check out this section next Saturday (June 18) when artist LindaLay answers the SIX QUESTIONS.
LINKS
I guess I’ll just go along with the “spiritual” theme (from #5 in my list above):
Heidi Lau’s Spirit Vessels:
Hilma af Klint’s “radically abstract paintings”:
The short documentary, “Monk by Blood,” introduces us to a “temple family” who have inherited traditional responsibilities to manage the Shingon Horin-ji Temple in Kyoto. But—raised in Berkeley, CA, with a strong interest in the arts, the younger family members are bringing a non-traditional outlook and feminism to Japanese temple life:
I wondered what the outcome would be for both Scion Sasaki and his siblings, and found a follow-up documentary on the family a few years later, in “Temple Family” (NHK): [Note: this video is only available until July 23rd, 2022]
Bharti Kher breaks things to know them. She talks about her exhibit, “The Unexpected Freedom of Chaos”:
While this video doesn’t deal with art, specifically, this Try Guys video on the experience of being disabled during COVID-19 ended up being unexpectedly moving, and has an important message for everyone, abled or disabled:
SOUNDINGS
Roomful of Teeth perform Caroline Shaw's “Partita for 8 Voices” | Music on Main. Thanks to @Shuffler (on Mastodon) for this:
Loki the raven makes some cool sounds.
Until next Saturday night . . .
Roomful of Teeth performance was sublime. Thanks for the link.
I appreciate that list- and love the bedtime drawings!