Seeing Truth

Back when I was a pre-schooler, my mom put me in a program in a lady's backyard called Monart. It was my first art instruction. Mona Brookes was apparently testing a new method of teaching children how to draw. What it taught me was seeing without prejudice.

I don't mean prejudice as in the racial or sexual types. Take that to the extreme, I mean seeing without any judgment or intepretation of what I'm perceiving. I was trained to turn off the normal filter through which we see things, no longer abstracting from my perception anything other than shapes and colors. While painting Taj Mahal, it isn't Taj Mahal I'm painting. It's a collection of shapes distinguished by their values and their boundaries.

This skill leads to the philosophical desire to avoid categorizations, to reject descriptions in words, and to cease assuming. I try to take in my perceptions without analysis and certainly without opinion. If you can do this, you can see without the voice in your head telling you lies, like Ruiz says in "The Voice of Knowledge", you can appreciate the perfect beauty of all this world presents you, and you can love without qualification.

Sounds corny, sounds like what I was objecting to in Ruiz's book yesterday, but I guess I mean "love" in the sense of accepting everything Life is. It's kind of a peaceful feeling, but also sort of disconnected. To be a part of humanity means communicating with language which inherently labels and categorizes with nouns and adjectives. If we could communicate without speaking normally, we'd be set.

Hey, wait a minute. Look at the painting of Taj Mahal above. 'Nuff said.

Peace.

GIFTED - Taj Mahal 05/30/08

Don't Believe Yourself

AND, don't believe anybody else! Great advice. It's all lies. I knew I liked this book.

Last post I started talking about a book my dad gave me. I forgot to talk about the Elvis portrait I did. This one is a commission for a friend of my dad's who owns a plantation/hotel in Mississippi. He might even sell my work in his gift shop! Nice contact to have, and a very nice guy.

I certainly hope you aren't as scatter-brained as me right now. I do recognize and accept it, though! I don't feel bad about it. I'm doing well, right?

Peace.

Rain? Here?

It's raining today. In Phoenix. Arizona.

Weird.

The Beatles and Bobby Darin are for my first high-profile client. Pretty cool. He bought my Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland from Roy Robbins in Pacific Palisades, CA. I hope he likes these too. Maybe he'll even contact me!

Peace.

SOLD - Bobby Darin 05/22/08

Do You Own A Piece Of Vinyl Art By Daniel Edlen?

Then I've got something for you! All I need is an address.

So if you've got one of my pieces, drop me a line. It doesn't matter how you got the piece: radio giveaway, direct purchase, or gallery find. I just want to reconnect, and give you a little thank you. You see, I truly appreciate the time and attention you've given to my work.

Speaking of that, if you'd like, tell me where you have the piece and any cool stories associated with it. You can even send me a picture of it in place. I'll share fun stories and photos here in a post as anonymously as you want.

I hope you'll share or at least let me personally send you my thanks.

Peace.

SOLD - The Beatles 05/21/08

The Freedom In Discipline

In the wonderful yin-yang of life, if you think about it, aren't rules and boundaries freeing? My oldest lab whines and stresses until she knows for a fact what her physical boundaries are. As we grow up, we test social boundaries, stressing until we know with what we and those around us are comfortable. As adults, we delight in dancing over that line in Vegas or Mexico or on Spring Break.

Don't you worry at work if you don't know what is expected of you?

As a professional artist, I'm my own boss. Great in theory, but in practice, a big challenge. It is a big challenge to stay accountable to oneself. This past week after painting a piece a day for Primitive Kool, I've decided to set that as a goal for myself, my future self. I'm telling myself that I expect myself to paint a piece a day. I'm setting up my own guideline.

So now I can relax and follow my own rule. Pretty neat I think. Good way to keep focussed on my art too. I'll bet there are a LOT of posts out there about this very thing, but if you don't experiment yourself, then it isn't your experience yet, right?. I found that when I wasn't painting, doing my "work", I felt disheartened. Don't get me wrong, Jason's sudden death accounted for most of my heartache, but at least this way, with this rule in place, I'm free to do what I need to do for my business.

What's been your experience with the freedom rules provide?

Peace.

SOLD - Johnny Cash 05/19/08