LIFE IS NOT LIKE AN OIL PAINTING

“Life delineates itself on the canvas called time; and time never repeats: once gone, forever gone, and so is an act: once done, it is never undone. Life is a sumiye-painting, which must be executed once and for all time without hesitation, without intellection, and no corrections are permissible or possible. Life is not like an oil-painting, which can be rubbed out and done over time and again until the artist is satisfied.” p130.

I had never thought about it this way until I read the passage by D.T. Suzuki above.  These pages have bemoaned the Western penchant for applying opaque blobs of paint to canvas.  We also believe that opaque blobs of paint on a canvas obscures time, typically to one instant.  Now, here we have the great philosopher telling us that the act of applying blobs of paint also obscures the time of the act.  And we certainly know that the act, of drawing, is more important than the result.

Sumiye painting is a Japanese term which, when translated, means ink painting.  The Chinese (shuǐ mò huà) first employed ink painting starting in the fifth century.  This method has strong cultural representations in Korean (sumukhwa) and Vietnamese (tranh thuỷ mặc) traditions as well.  Every gesture, every mark, every deed remains visible.  The example below was taken from Wikipedia and is in the public domain, and as you can see, there is transparency in play.  The tones are not opaque, which provides suggestions of a holistic three dimensionality.  In many instances, this dimensionality is implied by the simple and masterful movement of the brush.  The goal is to reveal the essence, using transparent media.

Our acts of transparency fits Suzuki’s description of a Zen drawing mindset.  You are recording knowledge in three dimensions on your paper.  Every act remains visible.  There is no going back.  You can’t remove what has been put on the paper.  The time of the act of drawing remains on display.  You can’t go back and cover things up with more blobs of opaque paint.  The result is not representational.  You must work with what you have already put down.  Just like life.  Just like seeing.  Immediate.  Transcendent.  Pure.  Clear.

“We can never retract what we have once committed to deeds: nay, what has once passed through consciousness can never be rubbed out.” p130.

The act of applying a line and a tone to the paper is the passing thru of our consciousness.  Any thought that we have had can never be rubbed out.  Any application to our paper can never be rubbed out either.  We gain knowledge as the act of drawing meets our consciousness.  In real time.  In the here and now.  Which is all there really is.

We have referenced Eastern traditions thruout these pages.  Some of these references include:
–One Wash Drawing
–36 Poetic Immortals
–Character Based Form Projections

These quotes by Suzuki fills me with the belief that the basic philosophical underpinnings of Transparent Drawing are Eastern, not Western.  The similarities are crystal clear.  We reject Representational Spacetime.  We value a visual knowledge, and reject most lingual nonsense.  We focus on the thing itself, at the exclusion of extraneous data.  We value the direct application of knowledge.  We question our slavish cultural acceptance of oil as a favored medium.  We are encouraged to Draw Like A Byzantine.

1.  Suzuki, D.T. Zen Buddhism, Selected Writings of D.T. Suzuki. Ed. William Barrett. Doubleday Anchor, New York. 1956. Print.

For my drawing at the top of the page, I first thought I would do some sort of dimensional form projection based on a sumiye work.  But then I thought, no, that will be kind of hokey.  Instead, I’ll use the drawing that I was working on as I wrote most of this page.  It shows every drawing act, just like a sumiye painting.  It is based on a diagram of a foldable plate structure that is transformable.  Then I said, no, let me see what happens when I use sumiye as inspiration, which I have never done before.  So the drawing below is the result.  Good or bad, there is no bad drawing.

Then I used the above drawing for the drawing below, in which the basic sumiye painting geometry was overlaid onto House Dress.  All of a sudden, we have the beginnings of a buildable solution.

I consider this page to be a very important component in the understanding of Transparent Drawing.  There is a Zen reinforcement of the methods.  There is also a display of the method, from vague inspiration to a unique and buildable solution.  So I may very well not put up another page for some days.  If anything, there is no doubt that a good use of my time is to improve what I have written above.