love

simplest

create god?

revelation

hell and heaven

sublime

struggle

beauty

work

silliness

persistence

emptiness

© Jeff Stilwell 2013

bosatsu on Pinterest!

My first bosatsu Pinterest entry!

© Jeff Stilwell 2013

bosatsu Evolution (III)

And another...

© Jeff Stilwell 2012

bosatsu Evolution (II)

Here's a closeup from one of the most popular illustrations...

© Jeff Stilwell 2012

bosatsu Evolution (I)

Here's how bosatsu has been coming along in the last months.  As we love to say, when it comes to the arts, details matter.

And that's how bosatsu has been evolving, detail by detail...

© Jeff Stilwell 2012

The Artist and Mu (II)

Who knew there would be so much interest in Mu?

That serenity known through lack of fear or desire.  How do we get there?  Specifically?

Well, it's a lot like baking cookies.  Really.

Before we go there, however, it's probably best to talk about what we don't need to get to Mu...

• a special room, sound-proofed from the neighborhood
• painted in a special color
• with Om and Yin/Yang symbols 
• and burning candles and incense

Nor do we require...

• a special haircut or robe
• sitting in a special posture
• with our hands turned in just the right manner
• chanting a particular sound or prayer

Nor, either, do we need to...

• find a labyrinth or
• do so many circuits clock-wise (or non) around a stupa
• breathing in some sort of esoteric pattern

Nope.  None of these.  Getting to Mu is quite simply a matter of practice - wherever, whenever, however.  And the more you practice teaching your mind not to give way to fear or desire, the less your mind will.  

Which brings us back to baking cookies.

After all, the more you bake cookies, the better you get at it, right?  Fewer burned cookies, not so much sugar that everyone's teeth hurt, or forgetting the egg or mistaking baking soda for baking powder, etc.  Surprisingly common, isn't it?  

Which makes us wonder whether it really could be all that simple.  After all, we are talking about an ancient Asian religious belief.  And yet...

Cue the artists again.  

This is a concept every artist knows.  For our job as artists is to make sure that our brushwork (so to speak) is excellent and not embarrassing.  And there is only one way to get there: spend those hours in the studio working it, practicing.

We get to Mu in precisely the same way.  Practice.

Bosatsu

My fearless adventurer bosatsu, skateboarding his way through the universe, popped into my head last year.    But up to now, I haven't known what to do with him.

Here's the first rendering of a new concept that showed up around breakfast time this morning.  I hope he likes it!  More on this later...

(Note: bosatsu is Japanese for buddha or "the Enlightened One.")

The Artist, Vulnerability and The Coup

We've all read about the coup d'etat of bygone eras.  An old regime falls as the new pretenders take power.  It happens from time to time to the state.

It also happens from time to time to the artist.  Captured stylistically, I'd describe the process as...

An artist enters an empty space and creates something beautiful.  Other people show up saying, "Hey, I want to control that."  The jostling then becomes so ugly that the artist one day says, "I have to go now" and leaves.

Indeed, the artist loses every time.

Why?  Because, creating art means making yourself vulnerable.  Being vulnerable makes you a poor candidate for fighting off coups, with their attendant deceit and double-dealing.

Interestingly, those who win such coups are, by definition, poor candidates for making themselves vulnerable.  That also means they have no art.  How could they?  Which, I suppose, is why they have to take control of others' art.

Is all this too dark?  I'm honestly not sure.  I myself recently suffered just such a coup.  Yes, it was messy.  Yes, it was awful.  Yes, it was wounding to watch such lies told of me.  (After all, those who win have to justify the takeover by smearing the reputation of the departed artist:  You know those artist types - unstable, irresponsible.  We're better off now.)

Yet, as I continue to ponder the event, an odd wisdom descends upon me, like a gentle rain: Yes, they took what I once created.  Brutally, too.  But that's all they will ever have.

I?  I still have my art.  And I'm free to take my art wherever I wish.  I always will be.  And no nasty ol' coup can ever change that.