Patience is a Virtue when Courted

My third, self-administered ink therapy session started with great enthusiasms. Fantastic things were about to happen. Or, so I thought. 

It turned out that habitual thinking was locking me out of the drawing space I wanted to occupy for most of the night. I was poised above the paper, but the ink pen did not want to move of its own accord.

Blank-minded and anxious to start, I finally borrowed a pattern from one of Pam’s latest art quilts. Thereafter, I turned the beautiful abstract pueblos of the quilt into a winless kind of tic-tac-toe game. 

Sheesh! What to do? 

I called on the Cavalry. Soon my old, pen-headed friend Tanda appeared, but almost begrudgingly he stood at the edge of the page. We stared at each other for a long while. 

My representative of the subconscious mind was not ready for my prime time. Just before bed time, however, Tanda’s tan tien opened into a flower out of which a snake-like, pixie-eared muse came forward to show her/his face. Was this a message from my subconscious regarding mind games?

Click on drawing to enlarge.

Did you notice that the pixie-eared muse has one eye closed and the other eye only partly open? 

It seems the intended collaborators in this ink therapy session (the conscious and subconscious minds of Gerry Zeck) were not working in unison for much of the evening; we struggled with control issues for hours.

At the end of the session, this ink drawing seems to be telling me two things: 1. Sometimes enthusiasm can destroy equilibrium and, 2. Sometimes the subconscious knows better than the conscious mind. 

Next: Learning to listen.

Ink Therapy Resurrects Old Friends

My hope is that Ink Therapy saves us from this crazy, greedy, violent world. And that's just as good a reason as any to spend hours doodling with black ink on white paper.

My second inking session (Doubting Tanda) started at the top of the page with a series of short, parallel lines that eventually turned into a wooley creature with a noble probiscus. How do these things happen? Do these wooly creatures inhabit my brain? yours?

Grab a pen and paper and start doodling. Just make marks. Lines, circles, chevrons, dots, whatever feels good. Don't think too much. My ink therapy is not an activity that depends on plans or forethought or ego. Just the opposite; I simply doodle until the pen starts moving by itself.

Click on image to enlarge.

Before long a formally attired, pen-headed character and his strange dog-like buddy appear at the bottom of the page. Nothing too intimidating for a 70 year old inkster with viagra in his pocket, however. 

The pen-headed character is Tanda, an old friend from previous ink therapy sessions. Tanda always shows up with weird baggage; that’s his nature. Tanda is my psychological Shadow; his full name: Tanda Lobit Shadowself. He's here to amuse me.

But Tanda's first appearance was one of uncertainty on the page. He was dubiously amused when he showed me how he's changed during the past 16 years. He had been resting in a near visible sofa world waiting to make a reappearance in india ink. 

I told him he looks like a full professor on his way to a brandy sniffing party. 

Toltec Rising and The Four Agreements

About a month ago a dear friend of mine offered me a small book purported to contain ancient Toltec wisdom. The Four Agreements by nagual Don Miguel Ruiz was subtitled: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book). 

http://www.amazon.com/Four-Agreements-Practical-Personal-Freedom/dp/1878424319

How could any fan of Carlos Castaneda’s writings decline such a title? I accepted the book as my next reading assignment.

The book was an ideal fit with my lazy self; Here was a small, simple book that could be breezily read. It provided the perfect momentary diversion, I thought, to reclaim some kind of sanity in this crazy world.

Before concluding the book, I had decided to follow the path of the Toltec Warrior, as best I could, by adopting the Four Agreements.

The Agreements were obviously roaming through my mind when I recently decided to reenter pen and ink art therapy sessions again after a layoff of sixteen years. The difficulties of facing a blank white page were initially resolved with words. Then shapes began to emerge.

Here is my first pen and ink doodle-drawing of the year. Subsequent drawings will explore the mysteries of this Toltec Rising.

COMMENTS invited. Scroll down.

Pen & Ink Drawings as Art Therapy

I think of my pen & ink work as a necessary art therapy. I have to pick up the pen and ink every fifteen years or so. This work doesn’t produce high art; It involves the making of marks that are little more than doodles at their beginnings. 

I also like to play with my Shadow self. We are shameless trollops, Shadow and me. These days we work on plain white paper where nobody can really get hurt. Together in ink, we work toward a sense of agreement and renewal.

“Dancing for Julio” (below) is a self-portrait. It comes from the last art therapy session I did with pen and ink in 1994.

At the time I made this drawing, our house had been for sale for nearly two years without the prospect of a buyer. (The inverted statue of St. Joseph buried near the mango tree didn’t seem to be working.) 

One day in February a young man showed up to look at the vacancy in our grandfathered garage apartment. The prospective renter, a young Peruvian employed by one of the finer restaurants in Sarasota, had a patron. The patron wanted improvements made to the garage apartment and was willing to pay the expenses of new floor tiles, etcetera.

Hence, I elected to accept the gracious offer that paid material expenses and I gathered my tools for the renovation project that would lead to the completion of Ink Therapy Session 1.

Shortly thereafter the renovations, the house sold.

Any questions?

Ink Therapy for Bloggers

Reflection is the prime utility of blank walls; One pours one's thoughts out and those thoughts are reflected by the wall. During the course of 123 blog writing encounters with the blank wall, I have learned a smidgen about organizing words and pictures in ways that feel comfortable for me. And I have experienced the palpable loneliness and futility of projecting thoughts through electronic space. 

What is lacking in the creation of a blog is the tangible taste and feel of a physical object; a  bumpy sheet of watercolor paper, an emulsion rich photographic print, or the earthy scent and feel of clay. That physicality has always been a sensual part of the creative process for me. 

Electronic blogging can talk about creativity, but it cannot provide the satisfaction of applying india ink on a blank sheet of white paper. So a blog is like the life of a brain without a body; it may be good for reporting, but it’s not good for the body or soul that seeks nourishment.  

Nonetheless, I shall return to the electronic blog wall soon with some old and new pen & ink drawings. See you soon!

I want to thank you, thank you

Natalie Merchant sings songs from her new album, "Leave Your Sleep"

Natalie Merchant sings old poems to life | Video on TED.com
www.ted.com

TED Talks Natalie Merchant sings from her new album, Leave Your Sleep. Lyrics from near-forgotten 19th-century poetry pair with her unmistakable voice for a performance that brought the TED audience to its feet.

A lovely rain

It's rained during the past three weekends in Sarasota. This weekend brought a lovely rain. All these views within 15 feet of our front door.