When you write every day of the week, it's a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because the more you do anything, the better you get. Let me clarify that statement, though. Practice alone doesn't guarantee you'll get better. The old saying, "Practice makes perfect" is wrong! If you continue to practice the wrong stuff, you will not improve. Practice A better … [Read more...]
Finding a master
There is so much to know and learn - and time is running out! What is the old saying? Art is long and time is short. The lack of information is not a problem anymore. Maybe five hundred years ago finding information was difficult. Then Gutenberg invented the printing press and information became accessible and plentiful. The Internet is unleashing an explosion of data. For … [Read more...]
Light!
Light is the most important thing for every artist. Light is always there, in the mountains, in the grass, in the water, out in the open, into the shadow and out of it. As a painter, you have to learn to play with light, to play with colors, and to feel its movement. That’s what makes a complete artist. To see the play of light, to take it inside you, and bring it home to fire … [Read more...]
What We Know
"The only thing I know is that I know nothing." "For we can only know that we know nothing, and a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." One of these quotes is attributed to Socrates. The other is to a Chinese philosopher who wrote one of the foundational texts of Taoism. Neither quote is easy to document, yet they contain a nugget of wisdom. The more we think we know, … [Read more...]
The Master’s Apprentice
Duane began his martial arts career as a teenager. He progressed through the ranks until he became a black belt in Isshinryu Karate. The more he studied, though, the more he felt something was missing. He wanted to learn more than his instructors could teach him. Duane's father was a preacher, and his church had a mission in Taiwan. Almost all the martial arts disciplines … [Read more...]
Kung Fu and Painting
Do you remember watching television on Saturdays when you were a kid? Saturday mornings were cowboy shows like Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, and Sky King. But the afternoons were those full-length crazy Kung Fu movies. The actors' mouth movements never seemed synched with dubbed English voices. And the sound effects -- that "whoosh, whoosh" sound even when somebody picked up … [Read more...]
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