Impasto Master (detail)

Post-Impressionist Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, was born this day in 1853.

From An Artist Empowered:

The Brothers van Gogh:

Theo van Gogh was certainly ambivalent of his older brother’s original talent. While providing a monthly allowance and art materials for Vincent, who routinely sent him paintings that would one day attain iconic status, he was also dismissive of his brother’s art.

An art dealer of some note, Theo promoted and encouraged Pissarro, Degas, Renoir, Gauguin, Sisley, Signac, Toulouse-Lautrec and Monet; but he refused to exhibit Vincent’s work on the pretext that they were not yet good enough.

In his assessment, Theo may even have been sincere, but that didn’t make him right.

Vincent, who knew all this, ultimately accepted his brother’s stipend for unfettered time to paint, but at a price: his work, especially during those last productive years, would end up collecting dust in a corner of Theo’s apartment in Paris.

Field of Temptation

Gautama Buddha, according to tradition, came to the Middle Path between extremes that leads to the cessation of suffering, after being confronted by Mara, a personification of death, delusion, and temptation.

While Siddhartha, the prince before he became the Buddha, sat under the sacred Bodhi tree of awakening, Mara assaulted him with doubts and temptations such as hunger, sensuality, fear, and sloth to dissuade him from pursuing the path toward enlightenment.

But all temptations failed and the Buddha attained Nirvana. The Lord of Illusion couldn’t seduce Gautama from his mission to see reality as it is. This parable is a favorite among Buddhist artists and teachers as it illustrates the pillars of character and spiritual striving: discernment, truth, renunciation, and calm.

Resolve or great art can’t exist without tests of character.

And, as the Zen master said: character answers all questions.

© Arnold Newman

Hans Hofmann, (born March 21, 1880, Weissenberg, Ger.—died Feb. 17, 1966, New York, N.Y., U.S.), German painter who was one of the most influential art teachers of the 20th century. He pioneered the use of improvisatory techniques; his work opened the way for the first generation of post-World War II American painters to develop Abstract Expressionism.

Hofmann’s painting Spring (1940) was among the earliest works to employ the paint-dripping technique associated with the American painter Jackson Pollock.

In his book, Search for the Real, Hofmann writes:

“Art is magic. So say the surrealists. But how is it magic? In its metaphysical development? Or does some final transformation culminate in a magic reality? In truth, the latter is impossible without the former. If creation is not magic, the outcome cannot be magic. To worship the product and ignore its development leads to dilettantism and reaction. Art cannot result from sophisticated, frivolous, or superficial effects.”

Hofmann wrote it down, and now you know, too.

Flower in the Ashes

Today, I heard on the radio that the nuclear power plant meltdowns in Japan were ‘not as serious’ as Three Mile Island or Chernobyl.

Not as serious is misdirection. While this may be factual, the reality is that such ‘accidents’ poison the planet. And, after many decades, there is still no safe way to dispose of all the radioactive waste produced by nuclear energy plants. Do you want to live near one?

Of course, we are greedy for energy, and it must come from somewhere. Years ago, in the 1960’s, there were warnings about committing to the nuclear energy cold path. No matter how well built and designed, nuclear energy plants are fodder for disaster in Mother Nature’s volatile kitchen.

I am no luddite. There are organic means to humanity’s need for energy. Of course, politics, vested interests, and apathy keep us from such solutions. We have been riding the unsustainable bus, which is now speeding toward the cliffs of regret.

As artists, we see our art and our world as it is—without illusion or prejudice. With all the science at our disposal, humankind can’t create a single flower—like the one pictured, growing out of the ashes of our ignorance.

Star Gazing

Self-confidence is a form of freedom that manifests as having a realistic self-assessment fueled by an absolute faith in your abilities.

While there is no ‘instant’ formula for acquiring confidence, there is a path from no confidence (point A) to confidence (point B).

You can follow a litany of self-help instructions in books and workshops designed to promote self-confidence, which can help. Or, you can cut through all the complications by discovering one thing that will reward you on many levels, including an immutable sense of self-worth, and a belief in yourself that cannot be diminished.

At the core of this freedom is in an ancient Hindu word, dharma—which means your purpose in life. When you are in dharma, no one does what you do better than you.

When you are in dharma, you are not deterred from achieving your desire by any outside authority. Your sense of worth is not dictated by the opinions of others.

When you are in dharma, fulfilling your life’s purpose, nothing can stop you from communicating the wonder of your inspired work.

You must find your dharma, and to paraphrase the Buddha: one’s work is to find one’s work—and that requires dedication.

As an artist in dharma, I prove the above to myself daily.