Before Enlightenment; Chop Wood, Wash Dishes.  After Enlightenment; Chop Wood, Wash Dishes....
 
This is a zen statement I’ve always loved and which makes a lot of sense, to me.  The words come back to me at times when I’m feeling overwhelmed by drudgery and picky details.


A great deal of my time in recent days has been ‘chopping wood, washing dishes....’

Which goes along with another maxim I think of often;

‘An act of creation is 2% Inspiration, 98% Perspiration’.

So, a lot of ‘wood chopping, dishes washing and Perspiration’ in the form of taking stock of and organizing a series of many paintings done between May ‘95 into somewhere in ‘03; photograph/scan, enter into my computer, label, reduce the size of, upload and enter into my web site....  It was a lot of wood chopping in the form of approx 16-20 hours of Office Work.  But, after all is said and done, worth it and now, behind.

I enjoyed a lovely 2% inspiration moment this past Monday morning as I was sketching the above scene from my Painting Outside! lawn chair, parked across the road from these barns, between my mother’s house and the farm a little bit up the road.  I’m so grateful that I took the time from Office Work and made the effort to go to this place and do this sketch, to plan, dream, ponder, remember & enjoy the energy of the 2% moment.  For weeks I’ve been thinking about the possibility of teaching a class at this location and in my 2% moment, saw it as a Possible and made the decision that I would take the next steps to get it out there, allow it to happen.

I’m offering 2 sessions of 3 weeks each the first session to begin on Saturday morning Aug 14, Aug 21 and Aug 28.  Then a week off because of Labor Day.  Then a new session to begin on Saturday morning September 11 and September 18 skip the 25th and the last day on October 2.

Contact me for more information.

On the 25th and 26th of September I plan to be in Bennington, Vermont taking a Plain Air (Watercolor) class with an artist named Tony Conner, whose work I admire as I’ve seen a lot of it online.  I'm looking forward to the adventure of a trip and a new painting perspective.

Check it out his website.  I’d love to hear what you think about his paintings.    

www.tonyconner.com

Time for lunch and more office work.  And later, maybe,  this evening when it's not quite so hot or humid, I'll  go out and sketch for awhile, encounter another 2% moment....