LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY (1)

Long ago and far away...or so it seems...I spent an entire day drawing.  Ahhhhhhhh...

In reality, it was recently and not that far away.  But I have traveled such a distance interior-ly between then and now. 

What I am referring to:  I had a chance to sit and tangle for an entire day a couple of weeks ago, and experienced all the benefits:  the inner silence, the lovely calm focus, the lack of worry about outcome, and the great sense of peace and timelessness. 

All these things can also come from meditation, although since meditation (vipassana) invites us to turn towards and become aware of whatever is present, there are frequent times when meditation asks us to sit with difficult feelings or sensations. A very wise process, though sometimes a turbulent one. 

The only difference I find between drawing/tangling and classical meditation is the incredible focus that drawing evokes, and how that focus prevents me from being aware of anything else.  Sometimes this is more useful than meditation.

Since that one lovely peaceful day of drawing, life has ramped up and things are, at the moment, confusing and unsettled.  I am sitting with this in meditation and just observing that.

But clearly there is a place for both practices in my life, meditation and drawing, during times like this.   Both feel as precious to me as breathing, and both lead me to clearer perspective and inner peace.  Each method works in its own way.

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Every day I meditate. 

But so far, I have not mastered the practice of daily drawing or tangling.  I see the benefits of both, and I always make time for meditation.  But too often I do not make time for drawing.  Instead I pay bills, or work, run irrelevant errands, or knit while watching television.  Or--although this is nearly as beneficial--I work on designing, dyeing for, or hooking my latest rug.  Rug hooking is incredibly meditative.  But it still doesn't have the effect on me that drawing does, and the past couple of weeks have proved to me how true that is.  I frequently feel I want to draw, but tell myself that other tasks are more important. 

But are they?

Life is complicated.  Drawing, breathing, seeing, following just that one line at a time, is so very simple.  Perspective in drawing...perspective in life.

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The viewer of art can go into a kind of meditation, a bit of a different sense or feeling.
- Dorthe Eisenhardt

I believe that painting should come through the avenues of meditation rather than the canals of action.
- Mark Tobey