"All of man’s problems come from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone."
-- Blaise Pascal (17th century French philosopher)

The art I make comes out of a respect for nature, stillness, beauty, and solitude. Daily interaction with the California native garden my husband and I created taught me to listen, to feel the energy vibrating all around. It planted the seed to cultivate present-moment awareness. In December, 2008, my husband and I made a commitment to a twice-daily zazen practice. The practice of creating visual art coincided with this commitment.

As my meditation practice deepens, as I recognize that I am not in the garden, but of the garden, myself a part of nature, not separate from it, I sense the thing is to get out of the way and let the art make itself.

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The Way | Where you come from
The paintings (1) and works on paper (1|2) of both The Way and Where you come from series describe the subtle energy I sense around and within me. The lines and washes of color are an expression of this “something that flows through all things, inside and outside,” what Lao Tzu, the Taoist philosopher, describes as chi.

The titles of both series come from Lao Tzu’s Tao te Ching ("The Way and the Power of the Way"). Each piece is named for one of the chapters of the Tao. I don’t know which chapter I’m painting until after the piece is complete.

It is my desire to create a place where the mind of the viewer finds refuge from the noise and ceaseless activity prevalent in our culture. The square format emphasizes that the paintings and drawings function as both mirror and window. I’d like the viewer to stand before each one as she or he would stand before a mirror allowing the piece to reflect what’s inside, or before a window to see into another layer of reality.

the groundless ground
“The groundless ground” is a Zen term that describes the ever-shifting inner and outer landscape. The making of these drawings (1) complements my daily zazen practice. As in meditation, I must remain seated and immersed in the realization of the piece for a focused, uninterrupted period of time until the drawing is complete. Working with ink, water, dip pen and brush, each line drawn emulates the groundless ground, no sooner does it appear, than it disappears, renewing its shape then immediately breaking up and forming again. There is little time or space for the logical mind to intervene in an attempt to control the outcome. The pace of each line and the movement of the dip pen are guided by intuition and “no-mind”, accepting and trusting what presents itself in each fluid, changing moment.