zen drawing: 2012

tisdag 30 oktober 2012

Michelle.

Michelle Dujardin is an artist, an author and a zen drawing practitioner. She has written and published the only book I know about zen drawing other than the ones written by Frederick Franck.

Visit her blog: http://all-about-zendrawing.blogspot.nl/

My teacher

Frederick Franck is my most important teacher in seeing and drawing. I have had other teachers, but none as clear, generous, enlighted, wise and humble as Frederick. This drawing is from his home in Warwick, NY 1988 where I was invited to stay after a workshop in zen-drawing.

About zen drawing

Zen drawing is a practice of meditation with a pen and paper in hand. It often takes a while before the meditative state shows up, but when it does, thoughts fade away, the present moment Is and what is seen is yourself.

After a workshop, my students tells me that they've got "new eyes to see with, and appreciate the beauty of life" or that they "feel 20 years younger". And yes, Marcel Proust wrote about this: "The only true voyage, the only Fountain of Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to see the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to see the hundred universes that each of them sees, that each of them is...."

those "other eyes" doesn't need to be another artists eyes, it could be your own eyes, seeing what you really are... In a workshop we have of course many more eyes to see through. This meditation leaves traces on paper and sometimes looking at them can give you a scent of that moment. My intention with publishing some drawings here is to give you that scent.

tisdag 30 oktober 2012

Michelle.

My teacher

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About zen drawing