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Untitled, 2008, tea and Sumi-e ink on canvas, 9 x 8 inches
"Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye that does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception…Imagine a world alive with incomprehensible objects and shimmering with an endless variety of movements, innumerable gradations of color…"
Untitled, 2008, tea and Sumi-e ink on canvas, 8 x 8 inches
Untitled, 2008, tea and Sumi-e ink on canvas, 9 x 8 inches
Stan Brakhage, 2003.
Untitled, 2008, tea and Sumi-e ink on canvas, 8 x 8 inches
Recently I have become interested in the art of Sumi-e, a process that requires that the artist first prepare the medium by grinding a solid ink stick against a stone base. This ancient Japanese art allows the artist time to first clear the mind and then engage in unconscious mark making and is a form of the Zen practice of “no-mind”. Suzuki-Roshi describes the state of “no-thought” or “no-mind” in the following terms:
“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”
Kevin Reay, 2008