Bow to your Chair

this piece was started by Candace and then went to Shelley.....3 more artists to go.

Candace:....this piece occurred to me at Tassajara Zen Center as I was going through the meditation introduction in the zendo there . Unable to sit on a cushion, I had to use a chair..and when the instructor told the group to bow to your seat, or your chair...I was amused. Having painted many a chair, and having a lot of thoughts/ideas about chairs, the notion of bowing to my chair seemed to have many implications for me..

As I worked, thoughts of my sister accompanied me and I found myself adding half of a Buddha diagram, which I soaked in lapsang souchong tea, from my morning cup. When I found that I had smudged and smeared some of the paint, I liked that occurrence., the mess of it. Expectations always create a mess, so I left them. I wanted the chair to resemble a stamp something about to travel, be received, so I added the ever appealing 5 as postage. It is hard to decide to send it off...as it isn’t finished! ...but then, that is the idea...to just strart...not to finish.

Long Trip

l o n g j o u r n e y
Started by Termeh, it went to Candace and on to Shelley...2 more artists to go.

Candace: The first piece Termeh passed on to me was a torture for me. It was very painful and difficult and brought up all sorts of things I was trying to not think about. A lesson in leaning in to the sharp points ensued as I stewed and circled the piece for days before I knew what to do with it. I e-mailed her that her piece was torturing me...she wrote back “heh, heh”. She also found my piece torturous so there was a just desert there.

Path of Least Resistance

Path of Least Resistance.........................................................................
Shelley was the last to add to this piece...now it goes to Maryam.
this piece was started by Mario then went to Termeh and on to Candace...

"Fire is the glue that hold heaven and earth together" Anselm Keifer

Candace comments:
My addition to this piece started by following Mario ‘s notion /:the path of least resistance /
which became /the bloodline /connecting heaven/ earth.mother / son/s ...a confused north /south/
a burning wandering/flowing red vein pumping blood/carrying smoking hope/s
upward moistening roots/new growth instigating the addition of the tea soaked /fragment
/of the poem I am /perpetually writing and so the path wanders through steep ravines
on and on/the journey/leaves the page.....

Gratitude

g r a t i t u d e g r a t i t u d e


















Started by Maryam, it then went to Shelley and then Candace, who comments:

It is very interesting to see where the pieces take us. In thinking of gratitude and acceptance of what is...as well as making a place to enter the piece....I intuitively burned a hole in it (Shelley for give me)...which to me represented the idea of things that occur that are not always welcome, but must be accepted, and all the turmoil that in on the earth these days. Beneath it I inserted froagments of perpetual poem that I am writing which became more abstract, more universal as I excerpted it, and became the healing element to the burn....the beginning of recovery....which resides in art/love/acceptance /gratitude/nature. I liked the affect visually after I soaked it in my tea, and then another fragment appeared as the abstract explanation. I then inserted a small gouache painting/seeds in the wind which often occur after a fire in nature...new growth cannot be stopped and regardless of the sharp points/the angst/the love, new growth keeps on coming, relentless as wars...and we can take solace/have gratitude for that.

Next it went to Mario who finished the piece.