"If you see it, draw it. If you don't see it, don't draw it."
 

James Finley lived at a Trappist monastery under the instruction of Thomas Merton. In a recording of his book, Thomas Merton's Path to the Palace of Nowhere , Finley recounts this event, which so exactly described my experience in taking drawing and painting instruction, that I thought it worthwhile to transcribe it here for those who might be interested:

[QUOTE]I once attended an art class by Frederick Franck, who wrote a book called

Ditto Steven, here's some more to expand on this:

All of us are watchers

Let there be Light
 

An extraordinary poem about light, featured on today's "Writer's Almanac." (For those not familiar with it, "Writer's Almanac" is a daily "literary moment" produced for public radio and distributed throughout the U.S.)



Light, at Thirty-Two
by Michael Blumenthal
from Days We Would Rather Know


It is the first thing God speaks of
when we meet Him, in the good book
of Genesis. And now, I think
I see it all in terms of light:

How, the other day at dusk
on Ossabaw Island, the marsh grass
was the color of the most beautiful hair
I had ever seen, or how

"The perceptual and the rational are qualitatively different, but are not divorced from each other; they are unified on the basis of practice. Our practice proves that what is perceived cannot at once be comprehended and that only what is comprehended can be more deeply perceived. Perception only solves the problem of phenomena; theory alone can solve the problem of essence. The solving of both these problems is not separable in the slightest degree from practice. Whoever wants to know a thing has no way of doing so except by coming into contact with it, that is, by living (practicing) in its environment."

Karin said something close to above paragraph.

Comments from writer Elizabeth Gilbert ("Eat, Pray, Love") about times when lack of recognition and financial success in your creative efforts leaves you feeling resentful, discouraged or unappreciated: [QUOTE]

Originality
 

From Robert Henri, in The Art Spirit

"Don't worry about your originality. You could not get rid of it even if you wanted to. It will stick to you and show you up for better or worse in spite of all you or anyone else can do."

"After you die
they'll be valuable,"
he tells the painter.

--Anon.

from Haiku Humor

"Ha! all you
critics and collectors --
I'm taking them with!"

-- I reply

Compromise?
 

This came on a day when I was beginning to consider getting a full time job and making some real money...

"Don't compromise, you're all you've got" - Janis Joplin


Who needs alot of money? It'll come....

3000 Proverbs
 

An artist lives everywhere.
Art is long, but life is short.

From 3000 PROVERBS
http://club.learning.sohu.com/r-engl...5-24-88-0.html

SB,
I liked # 2514. To see is to understand.