| 'Always be a beginner...'- Suzuki Roshi | | | | art- color, composition, and brush. As the artist's |
| INTRODUCTION | | | | concentration and vision expand into the motif (eye, |
| For the Artist, being absorbed in the practice is the | | | | mind, and heart journeying together) She/he realizes an |
| ultimate payoff. The word practice connotes a | | | | infinity of relationships in the 'simplest' of objects. In this |
| commitment and devotion to what one does. For the | | | | seeing of things as they are sits the greatest gift of |
| artist this becomes her/his whole experience, and not | | | | the artist, as she/he begins to note the absolute nature |
| other than who or what one is. All of it goes into each | | | | of the everchanging world. |
| moment of the art. In this practice it is always | | | | The abstract nature of reality is the source of |
| unfinished and it is always complete. This Artist's | | | | beauty.'-William DeRaymond |
| Manifesto is dedicated to the sustenance and evolution | | | | In painting there are 3 major motifs. The landscape, the |
| of the practice. | | | | portrait, and the still life. All painting embodies one or |
| COLOR IS GOD | | | | more of these themes. It is the abstract values of |
| Color exists everywhere throughout the manifest | | | | these archetypal realities that are the source of the |
| cosmos. Nowhere can you look, where you will not | | | | paintings beauty. It is the real beauty of color and brush |
| find color. Color and form are one. Color is a | | | | which create the 'abstract values' which make up the |
| fundamental force and principle of cosmos. Every | | | | 'representational image'. A Painting is more than muzak |
| possible tone has a specific vibration which can be | | | | for your walls. A painting is a doorway into |
| received by the human nervous system in the same | | | | psychological/spiritual space. It is an expression of |
| way we listen to a musical tone with our ears. In | | | | transcendent form which opens out into the infinite. A |
| painting it is the eye which receives the tone. The | | | | Still life painting can express the width and breadth of |
| painter's palette is a very sophisticated instrument, | | | | cosmos; can take you from here to there. Motif is |
| limited only by the artist's consciousness. Color makes | | | | God. |
| up the painter's alphabet, and the combinations of | | | | ARTIST IS GOD |
| tones which create visual chords and rhythms within a | | | | 'I transcend my subject'-Antonio Salemme |
| given composition are the sentences and paragraphs | | | | The artist conscious of the archetypal power of color |
| of this visual language. It is your nervous system, your | | | | and brush, and recognizing a divine order inherent in |
| eyes, which receives and makes sense of this | | | | cosmos, must also recognize s/he is the conductor |
| language. Color is God. | | | | and organizer of these forces, no small part of which |
| BRUSH IS GOD | | | | is the artist's personality. The artist takes joy in the |
| Artforms create and are the creation of archetypal | | | | medium; the brush, color and motif. The artist doesn't |
| reality. The brush is an archetypal reality. The world is | | | | create the color, but does create the values and |
| a symbol of archetypal reality. Mother, father, sister, | | | | relationship of the tones and color harmonies. The |
| brother, teacher and student, are all examples of | | | | artist is not the brush, but s/he uses the brush to |
| archetypes within human culture. A Vessel is | | | | create the textures and the rythyms that express |
| archetypal in that it symbolizes that which contains. | | | | both the world and the inherent surreal values of the |
| These are universal principles. The artist is also an | | | | art form itself. All this the artist does according to her |
| archetypal reality. In the act of painting, there is a | | | | his personality and intelligence, and reflects her/his |
| language created which is archetypal. A language | | | | absorption in the craft. Artist is God. |
| universal and eternal. It is made up of all the forces | | | | Y0U ARE GOD |
| that go into the work. The personality of the brush is a | | | | Simplicity demands our deepest attention in order to be |
| most basic ingredient to being able to express this | | | | appreciated. Connoisseurship is receiving the vibrations |
| language. Let the brush have its say. It is something like | | | | of a work without preconceived ideas and |
| the vocal chords through which sound is expressed. | | | | judgements; allowing the judgement to arise out of that |
| Every medium has a personality which desires | | | | receptivity. As simple as this is, it is just as difficult. |
| expression. So, 'brush' is used loosely here to mean the | | | | Forget all you've been taught to see, and begin to see |
| instrument of creativity. It could be a pen, crayon, | | | | beauty with your own eyes and nervous system. You |
| charcoal, etching needle, etc. It is important to | | | | are God. |
| understand and be sensitive to the nature of the tool | | | | ART IS GOD |
| you use, because within the personality of the | | | | There is this language that is art, that embodies the |
| instrument is found an integral ingredient in the | | | | highest expression in the world of form. The artist's |
| expression of an inherently mystical language. This is a | | | | practice involves creating expression that represents |
| key to the deepening of the practice, and thus, the | | | | this archetypal reality, and thus create ecstasy within |
| deepening of your bliss. Brush is God. | | | | her/himself and the connoisseur. The medium, the |
| MOTIF IS GOD | | | | brush, the color, the artist's temperament, the motif all |
| Motif means to move, meaning that which moves the | | | | need to be in harmony for there to be the mature |
| artist. The artist must see the motif in terms of her/his | | | | work that reveals art as consciousness. Art is God. |