The above photographs are from a Buddhist funeral I attended several weeks ago. It was a remarkable ceremony.
“ The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” Bartel Teisenni
Since my return from the United States, I’ve been as busy as a caterpillar shoe salesman—various and diverse projects seem to sprout endlessly—new ones and old ones continue to grow. The potential for a new and exciting documentary project lies on the horizon, and of that you’ll hear more about in the next blog.
One recent goal has been getting my painting studio back into a place of work, where the certainty of battles, potential art and beloved solitude beckon. At one point, last year, (Ok. More than once.) I had thought seriously of selling my home and studio here in Chiangmai and moving out into the country-side. However, with an eye to the world’s dark economy, prudence prevails. As Euripides sagely suggested,“Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.” I believe the expression to use is “Hunker down and ride out the storm.”
Of course, you might just as easily ask me what particle of logic dictates making more paintings when art in general is the first human endeavor to suffer from neglect in bad times, in spite of the fact it is perhaps the most important. (yes, I’m biased.) So, like the baker, in times of poverty, who makes more bread for the many with what little flour she has, so, too, does the artist help keep the creative lifeline well nourished.
New easels are built, tables set, paints purchased and the brushes are cleaned and stacked by the window.
The great dance has begun, the stalker
circles within his own shadows, waiting
for the perfect time to pounce upon
emptiness,
then wrest from that the illusion of the gift.
Blessings and panom,
Galen
