In the Middle School

I spent the last three days as an Artist-in-Residency at Union Vale Middle School working with over one hundred 7th graders in five classes and forty-five minute sessions.

Christopher Rifenburg is the art teacher who has brought me in to work with his classes for many years. This time we had to follow a very distilled timing and work with larger numbers.

I poured out the deep and direct 1 - 2 - 3 teachings based on my True Nature book exercises. I guided the students in the uncertain and alive line of blind contour drawing. I demonstrated choosing three objects, drawing them in relation to each other on the page, adding words that revealed simple insights and then dropped in some watercolor. I had about ten minutes in each class to bring it all forth with the students gathered around me, then sent them off to dive in for themselves.

I have a deep respect and appreciation for what Chris and all Middle School teachers are working with these post-pandemic days. 

Who knows what landed in their young souls. 

Trusting the goodness of the offering.

Here is the freshness that showed up . . . 

zoom in to catch the lively details.

 

After my residency was over Chris worked with the students to bring their drawings, watercolor and words together on the page. Here are some of the results. There is a lot of care and affection in these drawings and the words are direct and true. 

Seeds were planted and something observant, attentive and wonderful came forth.

Tree & Serpent

I traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City last week, sketchbook in hand. It was the first time I'd been since the pandemic. 

I was there to see the Tree & Serpent show of Early Buddhist Art.

I wandered past sculptures of trees and plants carved in stone in intertwining patterns. These were the forms of the alive natural world that Buddhism had emerged from. There were also many male and female nature spirits, yakshas and yakshis, and empty thrones and footprints of the Buddha expressing his presence through absence.  In the last room the fully formed Buddhas were radiating. .

After I'd looked at everything I returned to the first room and opened the sketchbook, always a brave and vulnerable act. What will happen ? Can I meet the aliveness of the object and bring something forth ? The uncertainty is crucial to the encounter and uncomfortable. 

I worked in pencil and added watercolor later, including words that placed the piece in time and location and spoke of my struggle and perseverance. -

 

Then this male yaksha beckoned me. He was one of the nature spirits that had made the leap into the new buddhist faith that was emerging out of a world full of complex forces. This new religion needed guardians. Buddhism was building on and incorporating what was there, the magic and dark mystery of the world. 

I dropped in with him, shaping his face gradually with pencil, We gazed at each other. His presence settled and opened me.

 

At the end I was drawn towards the full Buddha, so elegant, quiet, serene. It seemed a perfect place to abide. But there was a struggle ahead. . .                    

I jumped with confidence onto the page and the awkward shape that emerged was painful. I turned the page and started again. Then I gave up and walked away.    

I had not noticed the animals supporting from below . . .

The process of completing these images stretched over some days. 

During this time I understood in new ways how these encounters in the sketchbook and with the world give me insight into myself and spark my curiosity about everything.

I offer it all here as a further completion, another step on the path.