Thursday, January 1, 2009

East meets west


Chinese Calligraphy is so abstract and sublime that in Chinese culture it is universally regarded to be the most revealing power of a person. While one has conformed to the defined structure of words, the expression can be displayed with great creativity by individuals.



Master Wang Hsi-Chih

To become an artist or expert in Chinese calligraphy, one has to practice word by word and stroke by stroke until the spirit of the practice gets into one's mind. Just as Chinese Qi Gong, the Chinese brush calligraphy can temper a person into a state in which one can apply subconsciousness got from the daily practice to control the concentration of ink and the compatibility of font and size of each piece or word.

In contrast to the Western calligraphy, diffusing ink blots and dry brush strokes are viewed as a natural and free impromptu expression. All the varieties of the operation depend on the mental exercise that coordinates the mind and the body to perform the proper sense to choose the proper way in expressing the content of the passage.

Here in the west there's only one thing to say about the way that them Chinamen use total integration of a four thousand year old discipline as a medium where tradition is so cherished...You see, we do things a little different here in the west. Specially where us post war baby boomers invented the "Me generation".

YEEE-HAAAAA Fuckin' -A - here's some burn't rubber traffic calligraphic for you Mother fucka!!!




Bigger faster meaner better...It's all about ME!...Let's roll!


----------------------BREATHE-------------------

Oh yes, I mean..uh hum, I mean, can we like share how to best address our needs so as to totally support the eight-fold path that I've chosen to journey?




We can't help ourselves, we are pilgrims, always moving "up", never quite satisfied with the way things are and yet we don't learn much from history because we are so focused on the future, always racing to slam on our brakes at the next red light just up ahead..

We're pacing back and forth in our lives like tigers in a cage...There's just got to be a better way, a way to....Hum?



(This is starting to remind me of a set up for really weird children's story.) Am I going to resolve this thing or what??!!

What I think I was on to here before I so rudely interrupted myself was that it's all in there. I've been so busy looking for answers that I forget that I already know them. My problem is that I'm just not paying attention. You know it seems like ever since I became a husband I have lost the ability to listen..No wonder!


JUMPING AHEAD..

So this is all about how we search for our identity by trying on different personas until we either get tired of doing it, or we realize that our own fits us just right.

This is where I get interested again in what Gary Martin calls "Picture takers". I've seen them called "face in hole cut outs". Nobody really knows what to call them but I feel a lot more resolve and justified in my earlier intuitive choice to use them. Back then I just thought of thm as a "better mouse trap" a cool idea that no one has done. Now I see these as a very clear metaphor that accurately represents visually what I have been arriving at for the last three days of solid processing and writing of this essay.

In a conversation yesterday it was suggested that the cut out figures would be a screen that images could be projected upon.

Here is what I wrote Jeff about the idea early this morning:

Thanks again Jeff.

I'll consider the time thing but I rather keep on course with the external clock for now, It's got my lazy ass a goin'..I'm not feeling like it's all that short of a time actually. You know me, With a good motivational idea to carry out, energy gets high and expectations lower. A perfect mix for a schlep like myself. But I know what your saying, "This time can be different since I'm going to all this trouble".. The thing is that just because I am doing all this thinking, it is different. I always rely on luck, my intuition ..This time I'm upping the bar by 33%, I'm using luck, my mind and intuitition as a guide. Not too bad for starters...

Thanks for that push bro. It finally is beginning to seem like a great direction to be going in.

I feel like I'm something's finally percolating & getting ready to break loose here..I wish it was this fever or whatever the hell has had me bedridden for the last 2-1/2 days..Ugg. I'd probably be writing better too, but this is the state that I was in a quarter of the time that I was in Asia so I guess it's all the same. I like your idea about talking with Victoria. Perhaps a shamanic investigation would be productive..Hell, I may as well see Yani while I'm at it. I like tying these things together as it all seems like it comes from the same ether anyway.


I'm also starting to understand more why the cutout "picturetakers" thingys are relevent. They go perfectly with what I'm writing about which is merely a persuit of self discovery.Trying on personas until one just is reminded that the one you originally came with is the best fit. I want to play with the idea of not painting any subject matter on them at all, but having them just be pure white, blank cutouts..just like these blank pages, that could become a reflective screen to what might ever be projected on them such as photos or moving pictures (movies or animation) of say, myself at different times of my life or relevent meaningful people and or animals. The subject will always be himself or his fully intact spirit self behind the reflective "listening" or "observer" surface of the cutout screen that's being projected onto..Ideas for projection might include stills or a montage of say, (Vicky's co-discovered Cheetaah-power animal with story) or things that are important to me, perhaps from these stories I write about or songs like "Evil Spirits" Fat golfers, Smart fools and so on...

Put that in your pipe & smoke it will ya?

You heard it first right here. I am having trouble getting myself to go to the blog as I wrote from 9AM till 12:30AM with a 1 hr break.yesterday..No wonder my neck hurts.

I'm loving this!

Yours truly
XOB.Log Jammer

I like that a lot because I think that a montage of images could be projected as the subject possibly remains unaware of what is being reflected.

Expanding on this theme, I also like the idea of the moving montage finally stopping on a final projection the subject's picture being projected on the cut out as he stands behind it.

Then it dawned on me. An idea that I had years ago. I wanted to hand out mirrors to all of the homeless people who were "working signs" on the corner of 5th and Lamar. That's where a large concentration of Austin's wealthiest are stopped at the traffic light. There at the intersection, a part of their soul is suddenly stripped bare for 120 seconds until the light turns green again. They just sit there having to deal with not dealing with the myriad of feelings such as fear, guilt, anger and so on that they display by ignoring these poor people ..I thought "if these non compassionate drivers got shown a reflection of themselves by the homeless, then they might reflect on through the simple twist of fate that could so easily switch their places and then act accordingly.


Mirror cut outs. Solid reflection, no technology...That's where I have arrived today. And I still kind of like the idea tonight .

Better sleep on it. This is enough for today.
TaTa for now Ya'll

XOB



Here's some out take photo bloopers for you...
















Check THIS out ya'll!
Oh man this dude definitely suffered for his art!

You think he got his paint at Dick Blick???



AMAZING !

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