I have decided to take a personal challenge…….that of keeping a blog.
Now, how does one blog, if one is running away from excessive words and is preoccupied most of the time in quieting the mind and trying to find that peaceful place within…..a place which puts one in touch with one’s soul? This place needs no words… just feelings.
I think my challenge ahead will be to bring out the essence of thoughts…just the essence… anything more would spoil me intent.
I went for a walk the other day and enjoyed being one with nature. My mind was quiet and peaceful. I started feeling the energy of individual trees and how they were different and powerful in their own way. It was a very unique sensation, something I have never felt or realized that I felt before. In the joy of the moment, I tried in my mind to find words to describe the feeling, but as soon as I started to formulate it, the connection left. It felt as logic, as useful as it is for our survival, failed me.
People place a lot of value on the story (the words) behind a painting. Sometimes it seems the stories are more important than the actual artwork. That is where the mind seems to want to be….in the past, in the future and in the drama.
I cannot provide story for any of my work, as there is none. It is how I connected to the subject, and the feeling that I had at that moment. My hope is that when people look at my art, they too will feel what I felt …without words…without explanations…
Dear Stephen,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and am pleased that my blog inspires you. Please let me know when you start yours.
Visited your website….amazing work….grounding, contemplative.
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Hello Lilith!
I am so glad I found your blog. I had some friends suggest I start a blog. They thought it might help enhance my visual work, but I fight against providing to much influence to the viewer's experience… But on reflection, I've decided it might have enough distance from the artwork itself. I've been hoping to do something similar to the way Jasper Johns pursues ideas/themes through other media, like prints and drawings. They all inform the rest of his work. So I've been considering writing. Its been great to read your blog, because I hope to do something minimal, yet thoughtful and full of questions, not answers. …Stillness amongst the text.
In response to your experience with the trees and their energy: This book has helped me 'think' about my felt experiences: Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology,
by David Abram.
Dear Edward,
Thank you for reading my blog and for the encouragement!
Writing a blog is not easy for me, as I have to verbalize feelings and they don't always translate. I find it keeps me on the ground though.
All the best
I have practiced Zen. It is a very profound philosophy, and enriches ones life. I have gotten through some very difficult periods in my life by approaching them with a Zen attitude. Zen gives me a clear vision of life and allows me to see beauty in everything "good and bad", the duality of life itself. Keep up the good work, Lilith.
Edward Jensen.
Dear Edward Jensen,
Thank you for sharing your thought and for your support.