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Meditative Art - Examples

These four ink paintings are to discuss the essence of meditative art. First of all it attempts to see directly and communicate something significant. Strong feelings, a sense of peaceful being, philosophy spring from ordinary reality and mundane objects. It is bare-bones, no excess, not ornamental, but reduces the communication to the simplest terms and forms. Rooted in the local, it seeks the universal. It is freely creative in the sense of not being bound by what existed before the moment, words or shades or lines can sing. The cats tell a story. The dancing man is expressive. The cup is existential, being. The painter's lament is philosophical meaning.

Story

The two cats could express aggression and frustration in a trivial moment of pet animal life. Is the small active aggressor merely playing by pawing at the tail of the older, stolid, fat cat? The inscription or rather writing says "the poor big chast chased cat". I must have meant chaste, since the cat in the window sill was fixed and I intended the double-entendre of two meanings of a similarly-sounding word. The ambiguity is in Kamir's tail. Is it bent with intention to react to the intrusion? Is it removed from Little Cat's claw? Or is it teasing or asking for trouble flicking back and forth. It has a tension and central focus, echoed in the window framing and little cat's features.

Expression

The man dancing is animated with several faces and arms, yet balanced on a single heel. The writing says "When they started playing music from the Andes my man went wild feeling all that music in him so it was so wonderful to see". I feel the dance in a few strokes.

Being

The cup is classic, a graspable object, 3D dimensional space, partly suggested by a second nearer object out of view. Two shadows imply two strong light sources and a flat surface under the cup the dark void within the cup is well-defined.

Meaning

The ink painting of the ink painter is a personal, journalistic way of pondering. "I wish sometimes what my brush and I do was more impressive, but in this world of super and super duper sensations we are like a whiff almost transparent so we remain mute but not lonely. They also serve who only stand and wait". I'm identifying with the ink bottle and water jar, the paper, brush and intention of my art that is in abeyance while I reflect on our present condition.

See using a broad brush and ink paintings. Back to Meditative Art - Zen Ink Painting.

See 12 solstices and equinoxes.