From Joseph’s Journal – 10 April 2011


FROM JOSEPH’S JOURNAL
10 April 2011
“The temple bell stops but the sound keeps coming out of the flower…”

BASHO
_________________________

I went outside into the garden shortly after hearing the BASHO, and Life showed me this flower……. ( If this were  to be a painting, it might be called “OPENING”…..)

Joseph’s Letter to Pre-Schoolers on Becoming an Artist

A teacher from a pre-school class of 4&5 year olds in California yesterday asked Joseph to make a statement offering these young people advice on becoming an artist.
Here is Joseph’s letter to them.
__________

Hi friends, fellow and sister artists,

From your teacher, Cheryl Perrin, I hear you are going to be studying ART and the work of some artists.
Isn’t that wonderful?
Isn’t that fun?

I hope you will enjoy yourselves , and enjoy the magic of making pictures.
Do you like magic? I bet you do.
It’s like being a magician to make pictures.
It’s MAGIC because you start with an empty page, and your brush or crayon or pencil becomes the magic wand
and you create with your magic wand, out of what seems like “NOTHING”,
and before you know it, there’s a picture in front of you, and you made it.
Without you it would never be.
Just think of that.
AND the best part is that the picture that you make is like nothing else in this world.
It never existed before you made it,
and no-one else in the whole world could have done the same picture as you did.
Isn’t that great?

The pictures you make are so special.You are so special.
There’s no one like you, and there’s no other picture like yours.

The most important thing about enjoying yourself while you paint is to be yourself.
But you know that already, don’t you?
Continue to have fun.

Love from me to each of you,
Joseph

“Lost” Poem

Upon a new reading of this poem LOST by David Waggoner…
I hear it, feel it, understand it as also describing  the act of PAINTING.

LOST
Stand still. The trees ahead and the bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made the place around you.
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

DAVID WAGGONER