Art is

Art is made for its own sake. And for the sake of humanity.

The world needs art - the world must have art.

I must create art.

Art is

Art is that freedom which brings the most beauty.

Art is

Art is not to be forced nor coerced. It’s a process of submission and action which you can either fight and be frustrated with, or accept and abide in the pure joys that come from that form of discovery. My friend, Dan, said ‘Art is about the process. If your goal is to surprise and delight yourself, you will get there.’

Surprise and delight yourself. That is a wonderfully positive perspective.

I need to let go of the grasps I place on the end results of what will be on the wall. When I grip it, it only frustrates me and therefore my art. My ideas become a tangled mess of threads shedding off a raiment of fabric.

Do I create my art? Or is it waiting to be found. Not just discovered, but uncovered. I am not to be controlled by my art either. It cannot and does not tell me what to do. There is an equal relationship between my body and this body of work that is yet to come forth. Like a dance. Or maybe an adventure, or something reminiscent of that wild abandonment of childhood summer days and nights. That freedom which brings the most beauty.

Art Is

Art is the creation of something from nothing.

Finding My Way Forward

I've missed my old blog, Lorien Hall Everyday. I miss the simplicity - the pared-backness about it. I've missed having a dedicated space to write. And I've missed writing. Sometimes I find when I shift things around for the sake of improvement, I create a less productive situation. But how could I have known prior? Like when I moved my computer desk from the nook to the west wall and ever since then I have spent such little time on my computer. I moved it because I wanted to put a chair in the nook so I could sit there and read and write and enjoy the sunlight coming though the windows. I don't do that. Maybe it's the chair. I spent more time in the nook when I had my desk there.

Since combining my blog with my website, I find that I am less motivated to write.

So now I will move my computer desk back to the nook and I will separate out my blog from my website. I hope that by so doing I will move my work and my writing along in a more steady and consistent manner. I want to be a productive person, more so than I am today. And while I am becoming to believe less and less that there a magic trick to becoming productive, hopefully these changes will have an impact. 

These changes represent a larger picture of what I am going through right now. I am trying to find my way forward. 2017 has proved to be a very different year for me. In some ways it's been good and positive, but in other ways it has been my worst year yet. This is especially true financially. I have never been in a worse financial spot than I am now. Also I have never been in a more confusing spot as to my future than I am now...immediate and distant. I have ideas for the future and I am moving on those, but as an artist who is staying in the artist's vein, I am taking the less predictably stable route. I can't not do this. If I am not meant to be a full-time creative for life then I will have to be knocked over the head and dragged towards my new profession. And if that new direction is where my future happiness and success lies, then so be it as I know I can always lead a create life otherwise. But until then I will fight to pay the bills by what beats in my heart the most. 

So now I will wish myself the best of luck in this endeavor.

Open Studio Days for Workshop II

Workshop II participants will have access to my studio on Wednesday April the 12th and Wednesday April the 19th to work on their designs. This will allow you to:

  • Work on your design in the quiet of my studio so you don't have the distractions of home or work.
  • Have use of the studio's drafting boards, which is very useful especially if you don't have your own at home.
  • Have access to my books and magazines for design inspiration.
  • Receive additional one-on-one help from me.
  • Hang out and talk gardens and landscapes!

Open studio hours are from 4:00 pm - 10:00 pm. Come anytime and stay for as little or as long as you like.

Notes: Adam and Eve

The Japanese Garden can be thought of as Adam and Eve after they had eaten the fruit. Nature is as Adam and Eve who had not eaten.
Nature = Naked
Gardens = Clothed
Japanese gardens, unlike a completely nude beauty, is a beauty who has suitably clothed her body.

I am not sure where I read this. It is an interesting comparison to consider. 

Notes: Link Between Gardens and Poetry

I think these notes comes from "Magic of Trees and Stones" by Katsuo Saito.

...a means of self-expression using a variety of images drawn from nature. Rather than recreating nature as found in the real world, were distilled images and arranging these poetic fragments into an amalgam in the garden. 
Heian Gardens: not perceived as total compositions but rather as a collection of poetic images. But images were not always first-hand, but images from poetry.
The use of existing, commonly understood poetic images as a basis for garden design.
Much of Japanese poetry was given over to nature description.
"Pine Tree" and "Wait" both equals "Matsu". So the pine tree becomes a suggestion of waiting, in particular - yearning for a lover or the resolution of an impossible situation.
'Birds and Flowers of Spring and Summer', one of a pair of six-fold screens by Kano Eino (Edo Period) | Suntory Museum of Art.

'Birds and Flowers of Spring and Summer', one of a pair of six-fold screens by Kano Eino (Edo Period) | Suntory Museum of Art.