I have been reading and listening to Alan Watts for 20 years now and I felt it was time to update my take on his likeness. His description of the Chinese principle of li was in the back of my mind while I worked this painting: "I have practiced Chinese calligraphy for many years, and am not yet a master of the art, which could be described as dancing with brush and ink on absorbent paper. Because ink is mostly water, Chinese calligraphy - controlling the flow of water with the soft brush as distinct from the hard pen - requires that you go with the flow. If you hesitate, hold the brush too long in one place, or hurry, or try to correct what you have written, the blemishes are all too obvious. But if you write well there is at the same time the sensation that the work is happening on it own, that the brush is writing all by itself - as a river, by following the line of least resistance, makes elegant curves. The beauty of Chinese calligraphy is thus the same beauty which we recognize in moving water, in foam, spray, eddies, and waves, as well as in clouds, flames and weavings of smoke in sunlight. The Chinese call this kind of beauty the following of li, an ideogram which referred originally to the grain in jade and wood, and which Needham translates as "organic pattern," although it is more generally understood as the "reason" or "principle" of things. Li is the pattern of behaviour which comes about when one is in accord with the Tao, the watercourse of nature. The patterns of moving air are of the same character, and so the Chinese idea of elegance is expressed as feng-liu, the flowing of wind." -excerpt from p.15 of Alan Watts' beautiful book Tao: The Watercourse Way (Pantheon, 1975) “Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.” -excerpt from Chapter 9 of the Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell’s translation #AlanWatts #Taoism #ProcreateArtwork #caricatureartist #texturedart #taoteching #Gouche #TrueGritTextureSupply #digitalcaricature #digitalportraitpainting #MaxPacks #AlanWattsQuotes #chinesephilosophy #painttexture #AlanWattsWisdom #cometoyoursenses #AlanWattsPhilosophy #MaxPacksBrushes #FireflyTattooCollective #workasplay #playforaliving (at Johnny B. Hazard Tattoo Art & Illustration) https://www.instagram.com/p/CL9l2u0C5Ex/?igshid=10ewjhk9is5w
