How to start a Zen Blog and not die in the intent!
At first, when I read about the topics we could choose for the paper I was immediately attracted to the idea of creating a Blog about Zen images, actually it is about one’s own images of Zen. But then again the big question kept popping in my head What qualifies an image as zen? What is Zen?!
The next step was doing some research, at that time I didn’t know much about it, neither zen nor its paintings, but I do recall thinking first about the Enso* maybe the main symbol or at least the easiest graphic sign to relate with this particular school of Buddhism. Anyway, not knowing where to start, I decided to consult some teachers about it. Prof. Scott showed me a book of Zenga, with many paintings of Hakuin Ekaku, then I realized that maybe what makes the image a zen one is the subject of it. A very common topic is the daruma, intense brush traces get together to represent this old grumpy looking old man. After going through the book, she told me Prof. Barry made a really interesting research about darumas in particular and so I went to talk with him. Prof. Barry recommended me to read a book called “Zen and Fine Arts” first and so then he could talk to me about some main points of his thesis; In this book I found a list of 7 characteristics that a zen painting should have.
At this point I found out that I had too ways of carrying on with the task. On the one hand I could make it about a zen subject, such as monks, objects, or just creating something with a minimal expressionist aesthetic would be fine, would that fulfill the requirement? Maybe. On the other hand I could just have in mind the main principles that a zen painting have, wait, Have in mind? and there comes the third way; according to a text I read somewhere in the internet there is no planning, no thinking nor struggle in the process of creating this types of images.
So, three different alternatives of dealing with this assignment -all seem fairly valid- However, one last thing to consider is a four way to proceed (according to this quick draft of how to make a zen image) and that shall be discarded due to the fact that a zen image can only be made by someone who practice zen and truly understand the escence of it. I struggled with this idea a considerable amount of time, but for the sake of this project it was indeed necessary that I put an end to those thoughts, if not I would had get a really bad grade.
At first, when I read about the topics we could choose for the paper I was immediately attracted to the idea of creating a Blog about Zen images, actually it is about one’s own images of Zen. But then again the big question kept popping in my head What qualifies an image as zen? What is Zen?!
The next step was doing some research, at that time I didn’t know much about it, neither zen nor its paintings, but I do recall thinking first about the Enso* maybe the main symbol or at least the easiest graphic sign to relate with this particular school of Buddhism. Anyway, not knowing where to start, I decided to consult some teachers about it. Prof. Scott showed me a book of Zenga, with many paintings of Hakuin Ekaku, then I realized that maybe what makes the image a zen one is the subject of it. A very common topic is the daruma, intense brush traces get together to represent this old grumpy looking old man. After going through the book, she told me Prof. Barry made a really interesting research about darumas in particular and so I went to talk with him. Prof. Barry recommended me to read a book called “Zen and Fine Arts” first and so then he could talk to me about some main points of his thesis; In this book I found a list of 7 characteristics that a zen painting should have.
At this point I found out that I had too ways of carrying on with the task. On the one hand I could make it about a zen subject, such as monks, objects, or just creating something with a minimal expressionist aesthetic would be fine, would that fulfill the requirement? Maybe. On the other hand I could just have in mind the main principles that a zen painting have, wait, Have in mind? and there comes the third way; according to a text I read somewhere in the internet there is no planning, no thinking nor struggle in the process of creating this types of images.
So, three different alternatives of dealing with this assignment -all seem fairly valid- However, one last thing to consider is a four way to proceed (according to this quick draft of how to make a zen image) and that shall be discarded due to the fact that a zen image can only be made by someone who practice zen and truly understand the escence of it. I struggled with this idea a considerable amount of time, but for the sake of this project it was indeed necessary that I put an end to those thoughts, if not I would had get a really bad grade.
Finally I do think is appropriate to state that the images produced and being expose in this blog are merely illustrative (illustrative illustrations!) I don’t think I would ever be able to create a true real zen image (whatever that is!:)) and therefore the ones in here are to be thought only as examples... perhaps someday I will...
Thank you, and feel free to comment!
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