zen and art

When I was a young child I would often try to draw a or paint a tree. I learned early on that there was a certain energy, a certain beauty to a tree branch and compared to the actual tree my drawings looked stilted and stiff an lacked the same life. As I grew older I realized that if you want to draw a tree branch you are better off trying to capture the energy of a tree or a branch. This is (on some levels) what the Japanese ad Chinese were doing with their "zen art" They saw no need for an exact replica or a naturalistic copy---they wanted the feel of a tree, the energy of a tree, the chi of a tree. Now if I paint a tree I get myself into this kind of nervous energy and almost try to feel the essence of a tree--it sounds crazy but I find it works. You know how to draw as a child but then you get into belief systems later and forget that you know how to draw as you age. Japanese scroll work etc in my mind is responsible for the impressionist movement as all those Frenchies were collecting Japanese woodblock prints--especially Van Gogh. I remember idiots from art school spending days in and days out trying to make an exact replication of a tree for instance and everyone ohhh and ahhhing and talking about how it looks so real and that it is so smooth it "looks like glass" and in my eyes it had about as much life a flounder left on a hot summer dock for three days. Art is about energy and control----to much self indulgence and you have the wasted paint of the abstract expressionistos and too much anal minded control and you have a lifeless attempt at a photograph..art should breath like a tree and flow like a river---it is like life----it is all about energy. In nature there are very few straight lines and its hard to find a tree that if you really look closely isnt a miracle and a work of art--god doesnt make junk and he made you so if your harness your god given "chi" you can find the art within you and draw like an artist--you just have to unlearn the idea that you cant draw...I learned long ago that in order to teach someone art it is a process of unblocking not of forcing new info. on someone. In fact a hypnotist has a better chance of making you a good artist than an art teacher. Be the tree, my friend.