Monday, October 06, 2003

Relisted  "Whoosh!" is back on eBay, this time with no reserve. 10:04:25 PM    comment []

favorite quotation from artist Tom Joyce "We're all apprentices to ourselves." Back in 1986, I went to my first national blacksmithing conference. Tom Joyce was one of the demonstrators. Watching and listening to him, I realized that he knew how to follow his own path of development. He was educating himself. First he thought of the forms he wanted to make - then he figured out how to make them. The tools and techniques followed the forms, not the reverse. This fit in perfectly with what I'd read in Robert Henri's The Art Spirit. So at the conference, watching Tom, I realized that going to conferences like that wasn't the way to make my own forms. No, they could only come from apprenticing to myself - free drawing, free forging, imagining forms and figuring out how to make them. Without Tom's early influence on my blacksmithing career, maybe I'd never have found bowls - or found the courage to make only bowls. It's been a strange path sometimes. But at least it's been my own. And when you're on your own path - you may be alone in one sense - but in another sense you're never alone. With you are the thousands, perhaps millions, of other people who have found their own paths and are following them now. And then there are the people who walked their own paths and have gone on. They're with us too.   9:42:02 PM    comment []

Envying a Superior Artist: Tom Joyce This is from this morning's "clearing the way to work" journaling. Last night when I read online that artist-blacksmith Tom Joyce had won a MacArthur Fellowship, I felt a flash of envy and even anger. At the same time I felt shame at reacting that way. I admire Tom - why shouldn't others? So I want to explore this a bit. What's my feeling? Envy - for his skill - his hours of practice - for his family - a wife who does all the business part and likes it - daughters who love him and one who even works with him - his own dedication to his family. Overall, it's his grace, an inner purity of heart. Wait a minute. What I believe is that all these qualities are "Tom-not-me." Yet for me to admire them in Tom means that there must be some of each quality in me now. So am I not longing to affirm these qualities and let them bloom in my life? What do I admire in Tom Joyce? dedication and practice self direction, a natural evolution - developing skills, techniques, tools, space to follow this inner path. integrating awareness of ecological problems and sensitivity to different cultures and needs all over the world, into his work as a smith making interactive art in iron - art projects that include people and their concerns and feelings, let them take an active role in creating the art order and care - in life, in studio gentle strength and caring - not sacrificing care for others for the sake of the studio work - yet carrying on with the studio work in a steady way - loving and caring for both. OK, granted that Tom is Tom and I'm me - do I see any potential at all in myself to develop these qualities? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. And wouldn't developing these qualities - letting them shine in my life - be worth more than a MacArthur Fellowship? Absolutely. But there's that other quality than underlies all the others - that purity of heart that my friend and fellow smith Daniel Miller pointed out. Is it conceivable that I could ever develop any kind at all of "purity of heart?" That seems a lot more doubtful. And it's Tom's purity of heart that makes all the other qualities glow. Well - maybe by the time I die - I could be closer. When I think of people I know and have known - what obstructs purity of heart? Lack of forgiveness - bitterness, resentment, grudges. Lack of compassion - bitterness, resentment, grudges. (For example: begrudging a wonderful man his MacArthur Fellowship.) I'm smiling as I write this so I think I've let that go. Tom, you're the greatest. No one deserves it more. And thanks for inspiring me yet again. By the way, here's a brief bio on Tom Joyce on the MacArthur Foundation site. 9:34:00 PM    comment []

Painting  "After the Storm" is probably my favorite of this whole group. I listed it tonight too, with no reserve, but starting at a higher price. 9:17:59 PM    comment []

"Bright Moon" painting about reaching for your dreams   "Bright Moon" is listed again, this time successfully. No reserve price. At Robert Wittig's advice I decided to try this. 9:12:27 PM    comment []