Musicians Who Paint - Herb Alpert

Once upon a lo-ong time ago I was a musician. Once upon a time yet to come ... I will be an abstract painter. (As for "why abstract painting" ... it's a lo-ong story ... all to do with acknowledging that the universe that we 'see' is painted by biological perceptive organs and in its 'isness' it bears no relation to what we 'see' ... 'abstract' painting is one way to honor this Divine fact.)

This weekend just past there was a fascinating piece in the Wall Street Journal on Herb Alpert, who started painting in 1970, and his art.

Just fascinating ... and there was a gorgeous photo of his studio, by Annie Tritt, showing some of his paintings using organic coffee on gesso. You can read more on Herb Alpert's website here.

The Artist At Work - Honesty

Albert talks about his work on this video featured on Vimeo. (permissions don't let me embed it here - you will have to click to Vimeo to view.)

"There's a running thread to all good artists and it's 'honesty'. ... I don't have a goal in mind apart from form. I'm looking for that form that touches me. It's a real mystical art form. There's someting that feeds me internally. ... This sounds a little mysterious. There's a voice in me that tells me what to do. It definitely tells me when to stop and when to keep going."

For those who love watching artists actually at work there is a wonderful scene of him making one of his organic coffee on gesso paintings, pouring coffee on the canvas (beginning 5.23).

Oneness vs. Poverty Consciousness

Creation is a oneness thing. Music ... painting ... writing. All art forms aim and intend to manifest into our world something that was not manifest before. And the only thing worth creating is that which is from your own truth. Forcing yourself to copy or emulate - "otherwise I won't make it!" - is poverty consciousness. Honesty ... to the life that life that we have been Given.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Enjoying Robert Graves (Again): On 'Being' a 'Poet'

I cannot say that Robert Graves influenced or inspired by writing, both stories and poems. I can say, with complete knowingness, that reading this kind of knowledge of his inspired me to trust and then follow my own inspiration - the touchCallingWhisperTug of the Source - in my writing.

This interview with Leslie Norris, also a great 'British' poet (acknowledging that poetry is universal), was published in The Listener 28 May 1970.

Here are a couple of questions from Norris and Graves' response.

Dharma

Do you consider yourself fortunate inhaving been a poet?

There's no alternative. If you're born that way, that's your fate - and you've got to do your best. It's a way of life. You have to be in the world, but not of the world, as the Sufis say. You can't cheat and you must only say what you have to say and not what people would like you to say.

I love this! No 'cheating'. Be true to 'you'. And ... Thy will be Done.

And ... a Poet is ...?

You've written that you write poems for poets. Do you mean you write poems exclusively for poets, or for people who live as poets do?

A poet is a person who lives and thinks in a certain way. A poet doesn't necessarily write poems. It is simply an attitude, and there are a great many more poets around than meet the eve. I think about one person in 20 is perhaps a poet. The ones who are not poets expect something of what they think is poetry, which I don't propose to give them. What I write is for people to understand who are on the same, as they say, wavelength as myself. I don't write for an audience at all really: I write for myself. But the audience is presumably there.

The Source (of 'Inspiration')

The Bridge is always open from meYouMe to the Source. The Source that touchesCallsWhispersTugs at us to write this ... paint this ... dance this.

Tending to our side of the Bridge is our Duty, our Dharma. The other side of the Bridge and what lies there takes care of Itself quite perfectly, thank you. Once we do our work on our side of the Bridge then Inspiration is AlwaysOn.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Sirens Calling: Junk Phone Calls, Junkmail and Junk Stories

I get a small number of junk calls to my cell. I never answer them since I never answer a caller that is not in my address book. (It's simple to get into my address book - just leave me a message that appeals.) I get a lot of snailmail junkmail - I sort my mail in the garage so that junkmail goes straight into the recycle and never gets carried by me into the house. I work to keep my home a sanctuary of only the highest intentions. My two email providers do a fine job of filtering, and so I see little junk spam.

Odysseus on the journey home from the ravaging of Troy devised a way to hear the Sirens' songs and survive. Their songs were believed to be irrestistably 'beautiful'.

I get glanced by junk advertising from the ranks of TVs at my fitness center. I watch little television at home - it is a sanctuary of the highest intentions - so don't get tugged at by them. Little advertising seems beautiful to me. Much of it is apparently irresistable ... to many. Ho hum ...

... and then there are junk stories. SirenSinging into the individuals and the collective of our 'culture'. Few are 'beautiful', and so they are opposite to the beauty of the mythic Sirens. Thus ... their collective sirenSong is hideous ... and tsunamiaic. Oh well ... who cares about that?

You Become What You Read

Which almost certainly ensures that you become like what you write. The cause is to write the opposite of junk stories. Which is what many of us do. And ... I know with complete confidence, that there are so many who want, and seek out, stories that are not junk.

Since stories teach ... and inspire ... and remind ... and hearken ... and lead ... then ... you become in mindfulness what you read. The SirenSongs of stories that heal are beautiful. And are worth being touched by.

"We writers share in the godlike power of the shaman. We not only travel to other worlds but create them out of space and time ... Our stories have the power to heal, to make the world new again, to give people metaphors by which they can better understand their own lives." - The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler

The Audience is There

The audience is there. They are those who want human beings to treat each other, animals and the whole Divine Creation 'better'. That is a wonderful audience to have ready to be written to.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!