20190512_181246

i have been trying to Think.  To apply some pattern of logic to my making,  to have Thoughts about that that i can talk about at least to my Self*,  but i think i'm going to just go.   Which is what i do.   Having walked up the Hill from eating Vietnamese take out and strawberries from the Wall Garden at the picnic table down there,  i sat a minute and then walked over to the basket.  Right on top is this cloth.  I don't remember it,  don't "know" it,  and i had to think about how it might have gotten there and i remembered that i'd taken some pieces out of the drawer that i'd been collecting there as possible dyeing cloths…so it was  among them.  It's markings are vague and many.  Smudges.  Not what would be called Pretty.  But very what might be called evocative?   that's a little much,  but ok enough a word to convey something.    Things are happening in it.  Quiet things.  But a lot.  and i think this is It.     Its late in the day.  Dusk will come soon.  So, tomorrow.  I'll look again and then root around in the scraps and fragments to see what else shows up.   And that's how it goes.  

*  when cloth making,  i talk to my self with pictures,  in my head.  images that appear and fade and then  form images made of cloth and color and movement.

 

 

 

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16 responses to “just go”

  1. Mo Crow Avatar

    that’s what artists do, we visualize & make the nebulous real, this paragraph resonated deeply when I was 18 and now again at 64-
    “Goldmund interrupted. β€˜β€¦ Is it possible to think without visualizing something?’
    ‘A good question! But of course one can think without visualizing! Thinking has nothing whatever to do with mental images – the mind works not with the images but with concepts and formulas. At the very point where images cease, philosophy begins. This, you will recall, is what we so often argued about in our youth – for you the world consisted of images, for me of concepts. I kept telling you that you lacked the makings of a thinker, but I also told you that this was not a deficiency, since instead you were a master in the sphere of images. Let me explain. If, instead of taking off into the world, you had become a thinker, you might have caused great harm, for you would have become a mystic. Mystics, to put it briefly and somewhat bluntly, are those thinkers who cannot break free of images, in other words who are not thinkers at all. At heart they are artists – poets without verses, painters without brushes, musicians without tones. There are some highly gifted and noble spirits among them, but they are all, without exception unhappy people. You might have become one of those. Instead, thanks be to God, you became an artist and took possession of the world of images in which you can be a creator and a master instead of mired in your inadequacy as a thinker.’ ”
    from “Narziss and Goldmund” by Hermann Hesse pp 225-6, a book that I soaked up like a sponge when I was 18 and has influenced me throughout my life as an artist, it is so strange to read my deepest held beliefs all over again at this stage of the game!

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  2. Michelle Slater Avatar

    This ‘thinking’ is visual ruminating and Yes it is evocative. Love Mo’s Hesse quote.

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  3. liame4947 Avatar

    thank you!!!

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  4. grace Forrest Avatar

    Hello??
    And thank you back!!!

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  5. Peggy McG Avatar
    Peggy McG

    so as always a few days behind in reading blogs.. first this pic is what i see and read, not yet seeing yesterdays drawing.. i see beautiful mushroom on cloth it could have grown from, cloth that looks like earth. then I read, and look backwards… love the sketch and outstretched arms.. just going…I LOVE that way of it.. Your art always seems to convey so much more and if I dont know your thought processes behind it, I know my own brain will make up a story as I ENJOY the visual beauty.

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  6. Beth Avatar

    Thank you Mo. I devoured Hesse’s books in my youth. One after the other. I’ve reread Siddhartha a few times over the years but perhaps it is time to revisit others.
    And yes, a missing piece for me. I can’t really “think” my way through because my brain doesn’t work that way. But if I can visualize it…

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  7. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    🎡🎢 Dancing Queen 🎢🎡🎢 is what this brings to mind.

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  8. jude Avatar

    oh it’s all thinking to me, brain activity. whether or not or how to explain is personal to the process. Glad there is so much thinking about thinking going on!

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  9. grace Forrest Avatar

    not sure about the mystics

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  10. grace Forrest Avatar

    i love it too and the feel of it, then and now

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar

    that’s what i like. That i might say a little, some, but that anyone’s mind will make up the rest, can create
    a story for themselves. that there might be many stories
    in an image, yes.

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar

    and it’s Your story…as in above response to Peggy…

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar

    i enjoy it and enjoy letting it go

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  14. Mo Crow Avatar

    we have a very different understanding of the mystic in 2019 than Hesse had in Germany in 1930 & I have always turned a blind eye to his attitude towards women!

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  15. jude Avatar

    letting go is also a thought.

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  16. Β² Avatar
    Β²

    so it is jude !

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