This painting is one of the first in my latest artistic explorations entitled Way Under the Bodhi Tree; Fish, Chinese Landscape and Zen. Spiritually I have always felt myself a part of the tradition that says 'Understand the world and universe, understand your place in it, do not think when acting, just be". I was raised Catholic and from that I learned compassion. I found Taoism and Zen while in university and my time in East Asia is where I first came in direct contact with Buddhism. These experiences have fostered in me the underlying, unidentifiable energies that create my imagery.
While in in China I studied Chinese Painting because I was moved by a contemporary artist working in the same medium. It is from here I learned about the techniques for holding the brush and using the ink and how these techniques lead to a freedom of expression and the ability to have absolute control without the necessity to think. It became much easier to understand Jackson Pollack's description of his experience when painting from these studies. However, after a few years I grew tired of painting birds and flowers and pine trees, and since I was still a young man began to explore different visual ideas and mediums in the spirit of exploration and understanding what is out there.
A combination of moving house several times (sometimes between continents), cleaning up the classroom at the end of the school year (I'm an art teacher) and a workshop I ran for Greening the Beige where myself and a group of designers created new work from discarded exhibition posters, prompted me away from the making paintings on canvas. I returned to working on Xuan paper (rice paper of a particular Chinese type), I recycled old paintings left behing by students and bound pieces of them into books and made those ever evolving works of art. I took old print photographs and grouped them together in old cigar boxes and I began to make graffiti. For the most part I was making graffiti, not street art. I was going out late at night with my friend and we were 'decorating the outside' with our names and eventually started to use our characters and symbols as well. What attracted me most to this art form is that it is impermanent and that movement is very much a part of making a successful painting which is similar to Chinese painting.
My work is now a distillation of these experiences, ideas and philosophies. I still mostly work on Xuan paper, although canvas does turn up once and again. I do not go out late and night and make graffiti anymore, although I like to see it. My work continues to be about the concept in Zen of understanding the world but not trying to name it, just to fit into it. I have developed a cast of characters to explore this, most prominent is the octopus but other water creatures turn up. I've always been attracted to images of water creatures, gold fish, jellyfish, dragonflies, and the like. One of my favorite stories (I got a tattoo of this story I like it so much) comes from Zhuang Zi where he and a friend are walking along a stream. Zhuang Zi says to his companion,
"See how happy the fish are" to which his friend replies,
"How do you know the fish are happy? You are not a fish".
"How do you know I do not know since by that logic, you are not me" Zhuang Zi responded. "But I know the fish are happy because I am happy walking along side the stream".
There is more it than only this, but it serves as a god introduction. I will explore in more depth these and more ideas, as well as share images of art and design of all types.
Enjoy!
