#zen brushwork

[doranedwardsmajorproject]

Tanchu - Many applications and cultural transcendence of Zen brushwork

‘The person who can brush one stroke that is truly “alive” will find it has many applications. It can be used in calligraphy or, perhaps, for an image of an orchid [...] Although someone with an eye for art may have a slight advantage, Zen brushwork, like painting, transcends culture. It can be appreciated and practiced by anyone with a desire to approach it. Begin by brushing the Zen line and simple shapes. and with time you will capture the spirit of your subject.’ (Tanshu, Zen Brushwork)

[doranedwardsmajorproject]

Tanchu - Line

‘A line that manifests clarity cannot be drawn if the heart is clouded by worldly concerns; a stroke cannot be brushed with resolution if the heart is agitated; and calligraphy that reveals depth cannot be produced if cultivation and experience are shallow.’ Tanshu, Zen Brushwork. p. 10

[doranedwardsmajorproject]

Tanchu, Zen Brushwork - Mu-shin > Klee, “Form-giving” as action and movement

‘According to the Japanese philosopher Nishida Kataro (1870-1945) true creativity is not the product of conscious effort but rather the “phenomenon of life itself.” True creation must arise from mu-shin, or the state of “no mind,” a state beyond thought, emotions, and expectations. Work that is produced through conscious effort is ultimately devoid of life.’ (Tanshu, Zen Brushwork. p. 10)

‘In his notebooks the painter Paul Klee repeatedly insisted, and demonstrated by example, that the processes of genesis and growth that give rise to forms in the world we inhabit are more important than the forms themselves. ‘Form is the end, death’, he wrote. ‘Form-giving is movement, action. Form-giving is life’ (Klee 1973: 269 In Ingold 2010: 2)

The danger of the term “giving” is the conscious effort of how that may manifest. While I find Ingold’s use of Klee’s acknowledgment of artistic production as a mode of being in the ‘fluxes and flows’ of materiality useful, it is also from Tanchu’s assertion, and from my own experience through meditation and energetic movement work, that life must be flowing through one unblocked by the division of thought.

[doranedwardsmajorproject]

“Inner-necessity”

‘In painting it means casting aside the illusion that to see a painting is to see what it is a painting of. If anything is empty of content, it is the image that serves only to represent an external object but that lacks any life of its own. Such an image depends for its existence on the world of objects. But painting, properly speaking, does not. Nor does music. Together, they open the mind to inner truths that are ontologically prior to the outward forms of things. By a principle that Kandinsky called ‘inner necessity’ (ibid.: 160), these truths – the ‘abstract content’ of the work of art – directly touch the soul and set it in motion. 

This “inner-necessity” is a close counterpoint to the objective of Zen brushwork whereby the spirit of the maker is revealed through the lines, rather than an attempt to reproduce nature perfectly. Although this video doesn’t give an example of “inner-necessity”, it draws Kandincky to the theme of the trace. 

(Ingold, Being Alive. p. 206)

[doranedwardsmajorproject]

Zen Brushwork Workshop 20.11.19

I attended my second Zen brushwork class for two reasons - the first being that my encounters with Noriko at the Zenways dojo have motivated me to want to learn from her way of being and sincere way of teaching. Secondly, the process is an expression of a moment as it was. There is no editing, no reconsideration… any hesitation, anger… everything is documented in the qualities of each stroke. I have always created music, even illustrations, as a meticulous re-editing of lines and melodies to try to hide the imperfection, or hide behind the reworking to avoid criticism etc… that perfectionism does not demonstrate the truth of me, and that is the only fundamental truth that I’m able to demonstrate as it shifts and changes, develops and disappears.

When I heard of this class talked about at Zenways, my initial concerns were partaking in orientalist practices (for a westerner). In fact, what I am learning is that the most important thing is who you are learning from and what you do with it. I have begun this as a daily practice, but will never use the form in my own work. It is a practice of confidence in one’s own truth.