Looking and Seeing on the Painter's Path

Seeing nothing one sees everything.

Paint less and less until you’re non-painting.When you’re non-painting there’s nothingyou can’t paint.

Whatever is gathered inMust first be stretched outWhatever is weakenedMust first be made strongWhatever is abandonedMust first be joinedWhatever is taken awayMust first be givenThis is what is called the subtle within what is evident. ––Laozi (36)

Ask yourself: What is obstructing my vision? What isthe difference between seeing and looking?

Painting is like swimming: in both you have tounderstand the medium.

Forget yourself like a fish in water forgets itself.

Rid yourself of a closed-view system of painting.Rigid model of painting = rigid consequences.

Students come to painting in two ways:as a “looker”: the painting as objectas a “seer”: the painting as process.

No process is privileged. The process (the “doing”) isnon-evaluative, non-cognitive, and non-coercive. It isthe master butcher’s unloosening of the ox.

Accept the myriad transformations a painting will gothrough without concern for loss or gain.

Follow the natural inclinations of brush, paint, andmedium. Hold in abeyance “like” and “dislike”.

Each painting has its own unique way of being – whichis natural to the process it undergoes – neither betternor worse than any other work.

Cultivating spontaneous energy in painting:what is native (authentic) to youwhat naturally draws you deeply into the work.

Understand the resolution of the painting as a comingtogether of factors:having been attentive to the entire creative situationhaving had a focus that roamed freely and unobstructedhaving had supreme confidence in what you have done(even though much of the time nothing “works out”).

Think “subtraction aesthetics.”

You will transcend your behavioral (painting)limitations when you understand the above.