Being No.4 - Wood Form - with concept notes

Being No.4 - 2024

Meet the 4th piece from the "Being" series of forms. As the round mass provides the majority of the weight, the extended form is allowed to gently curve into its contact with the ground by way of its tip. And there is an interplay between this structural component and the more formal component which includes the piece's visual dynamics, directions of force, stresses and resolutions.

In my sculptural work, I find that these visual forces or vectors function to build an "interior geometry", an internal relationship of parts within the encompassing whole.

In Being No.4, the round mass metaphorically—yet loosely, vaguely, ambiguously—could represent the human or the soul, whilst the opening presents a window upon "infinite nothingness". Is this ocean of nothingness the spaceless and timeless field of pure potential? Personally, contemplating this vast field beyond the psyche, beyond the sense of being tied to body and senses, opens the mind to a quality of peace and serenity. Does "Being" then end with our sense of existence in this world, or does it extend beyond ourselves—emanating through us from an everlasting field of pure Love and Clarity.

Form and Formless No.12 - with description including reference to art and beauty in general

The simplicity in form conceals a greater complexity upon longer viewing. Form and Formless No.12 in fir was conceived on the sketch page with the precise angles and proportions seen here in the final piece. The sensitivity and subtlety of the form always baffles the sculptor in its implications regarding the laws of nature, perception and existence. The conclusion is made, that art, form and nature contain a beauty and mystery infinitely revealing in depth, and we as humans can dip into this beauty as long and as far as desired without ever exhausting its possibilities.

To the sculptor, the piece constantly reminds of a "key to truth hanging on the wall", where the form and its absence are in eternal communication, forever engaged in an inextricable relationship of total wholeness, beyond the fragmented patterns of dualistic reality.

 

Form and Formless No.12 - 2024

 

What is Art?

 

 

Contemplation on the falseness of ordinary perception results in the revelation of a very quiet mental mode where beauty is all. The motion of the bird in the tree carries a delicate purity.

Art comes from this mode of being. It can be shooting an arrow, fine cuisine, constructing a cement wall, speaking with elegance and lucidity, taking care of a sick person, even just sitting. Life is Art if action springs forth from this mode of wholeness.

The Motions of Life - a poem

 

The motions of life

In their natural course

Showing signs

And symbols

Of grand order

 

Participating,

We dance with the rhythms

Of the cosmos

And feel that

Overwhelming sense

Of joy

 

The beauty of a falling leaf,

A raging protest,

Or a drifting canoe;

The pure love seeps

Through all

 

MS

Reception No.1 - With a Short Poem

 

Reception No.1 - 2018

 

 

The compassion of absence—

The soft reception

Of emptiness—

The bed of nothing

Upon which we return

Every moment

In unceasing peace,

Tranquility, light,

Joy, surrender,

Love

 

MS

Self Judge: A Short Poem

 

Self Judge

 

Incessant effort

To convince myself

I am worthy

Of my self judgements

These judgements

Are learned

From the crowd

We suffer collectively

 

Rejecting all that is false,

Turning toward truth,

Finding truth

In being

MS

The Opening of Space No.2 - 2023 - The Inspiration From Which the Form and Title Were Drawn

 

The Opening of Space No.2 - 2023

In this title, space refers to that non-physical, non-electromagnetic space. What is this space? In the popular mind state there is a tendency to accumulate ideas, holding bundles of them, projecting same and modifying them in a seemingly endless cycle. Perhaps this existential space, the reflection of which being the physical art object, begins to "open" through the negation of these accumulated falsehoods (ultimately arriving at the falseness of conventional time, dualistic thought and fear which constitute the foundation of the whole false reality in general). 

The next question is "How does negation of falsehoods occur?". There are two ways of seeing. The conventional way is through dualistic thought, through this false perception based on comparison, this narrative of our "life". Looking at one's thoughts and beliefs this way only continues the same cycle of fragmentation. The second way of seeing is holistic observation. Seeing this way results in realizations where something dies. That which dies no longer occupies and obstructs this shining light of silent love.

 

The Opening of Space No.2 - 2023

 

 

 

The Inclusive Nature of Events — Sculpture and Titling Process (specific and general)

 

The Inclusive Nature of Events No.1

Languages spread ironically between warring states. We are influenced by the environment whether pleasant or otherwise. Feelings of isolation are psychological and ultimately false. We are the whole, this vast masterpiece that is the cosmos. Our human life can be sailing on the ocean of Love, in a boat of Love, experienced by Love.

Thus is the inspiration for the title of this piece. The title is discovered through contemplation of the drawing of the form prior to carving. Through contemplation on the form, the essence or Idea of the form is met with and it is from this Idea or "Form" whence a title or "name" manifests. There are potentially multiple possible titles and the chosen ones are filtered by the persona, but as long as it is a manifestation of the Idea, it will be a "true" title.

Thus, the title is poetry.

 

The Inclusive Nature of Events No.1 - 2021

 

Single Rain Drop - A 4-line Poem

 

Single rain drop

Soaring into earth's centre

Gracefully obstructed

By a blade of grass

MS

The Outer Life - A Short Poem

 

The Outer Life

The objective moved him

To strive, to grasp—

The fleeting smile,

Hiding feelings of desperation

And demands—

"Going with the flow",

He lost control

And believed in falsehoods.

There was a branch

Reaching into the rushing river,

Extending truth

To the chaotic blindness—

Pulling out of the water,

Finding dry footings,

Surveying the rushing course,

His life was revealed

In a continuous force—

A force so real,

So powerful,

So total.

Yet, there he was,

Standing firm

Beside the flow,

Watching it and himself

In a peacefulness

Long forgotten,

By conflicted fury

And mistaken truths.

MS

2024

Notes:

The title refers not to the life outside of the river, but the superficial life which is a characteristic of being in the river.

This poem is written quite plainly as the communication of the meaning has been prioritized over more sophisticated wording.