Seeing the Music

"If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes." - Pablo Picasso

The way I conceive it, art only happens when we do what Picasso is talking about. When we flow in the moment without our brain filtering and simply allow whatever is supposed to come out to do so.

When you lose track of time, you've found your art. When you find what enables that loss, you've found your connection to your art.

For me, music is my connection. It's sort of like meditation, not thinking about each dab of the brush, simply seeing the light and dark. Seeing the music.

Peace.

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creating art on the artifacts of creativity

http://danieledlen.com

No Light Without Shadow

I was standing next to my John Coltrane portrait at the Open Studios event at http://santamonicaartstudios.com last weekend and a thought struck me. Following that show I sold the above Freddie Mercury, which reminded me of that thought.

Both pieces have black on the label because they're white. It's a challenge to paint pieces like that with just white on the record and black on the label. I have to make sure the light on the record is balanced by the shadows on the label, otherwise the portrait is broken.

I've been sharing Zen and Taoist quotes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dedlen recently. A lot of them are about recognizing the yin and yang of life, the two sides of things when distinction is made. I don't particularly like adjectives because they require and create categorization and differentiation, but they exist in our lives. So one has to find balance between the two sides, between the light and the dark.

Like I do when I paint shadows on the label and the light on the record.

Peace.

____________________________

creating art on the artifacts of creativity

http://danieledlen.com