Robert Genn's Jems - The Zen of Art

I subscribe to Robert Jenn's twice weekly "Painter's Keys". They are full of inspirational stuff to help get the creative juices flowing. The following email below I particularly like. I notice I zen out while I am creating in all the ways he describes below, and he just made me more aware of that. I think it's so therapeutic, and that's why I keep creating more and more. If you haven't signed up for painter's keys, you absolutely should!


The Zen of Art

Dear Cindy,

Recent activities have helped with an understanding of what goes on in the art-making brain. The encouragement of Zen-like lapses can be useful both in the studio and the great outdoors. We start with the understanding that a relaxed brain more easily accesses natural creative tendencies.

In the preparation phase, minimal anxieties, few regrets and a state of well-being preheat the oven. Shuffling of the recipe cards is also valuable. Here are a few ideas:

Have an attitude of low expectations and nothing to lose.
Try to make deliberate, thoughtful, rhythmic movements.
While not necessarily alone, be solitary.
Allow yourself to dream, flow and indulge your fancies.
Be philosophic about your weaknesses and creative faults.
Let your tools and your media do the talking.
Let your work tell you what it needs.
Let yourself yin and yang between thought and no thought.
Accept imperfection. Try for the spirit of attaining.
Teach yourself to teach yourself as you go.
Be in the now, but look gently ahead.
Be not lazy in your relaxation.

In the mystery we call life, certain work can be certain joy, and it has something to do with surrender to the more primitive, playful and automatic parts of our brain.

It's like the convention of retirement, only in shorter and more frequent increments. The idea is to calculate and bend a sense of leisure into specific creative times. Like retirement activities such as golf, boating or woodworking, work is required. In the Zen-like mode, work is not so onerous, but it is still work. Persons of any age with a desire for independence, who are disposed to squeeze and produce, can access this mode.

I'm not trying to be funny here, but artists need to develop a feeling of privilege and a sense of good fortune, even if the feeling has to be artificially induced. This self-foolery, a sort of mental levitation, brings on a state of mind that facilitates easy-going exploration. The active seduction of one's own mind is a significant key to creative progress.

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "We must take situations as they are. We must only change our mental attitudes towards them." (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi)

Esoterica: I'm painting on the forward deck of M.V. Mareva on the west coast of British Columbia. This morning's bay was full of eagles. Laboured flyers, they fly in a "flap, flap, flap--glide" manner. I interpret the flaps as the purposeful, thinking mode, and the glide as a period of less commitment but continued progress. Later in the morning, the eagles are at great altitude, soaring effortlessly.