Words Change

The meaning of words can change through the years. Some words have changed their meaning in my lifetime alone. This word is an example. Understanding how words were used historically is a small interest of mine.

Here we have my first ever attempt at sumi e painting in my copy of a Tomioka Tessai scroll from The Works of Tomioka Tessai, a collection intended to accompany his paintings On the occasion of the second exhibition in America beginning in 1968. No, I have none of the right tools. I used a student-grade watercolor brush and india ink on mix media paper. I wanted to feel what the strokes were like. I was only able to get two shades with the India ink, I’d like to learn how to get five shades. I might need to buy an ink stick. I see a rabbit hole in this pursuit.

Tomioka Tessai is one of my heroes. We’ll  talk more about him in the future.

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Bewildered

Justin Cronin’s novel The Passage is entertaining with strokes of great understanding of human nature.

I wonder if confusion is part of the plan?

Today’s post is from page 237.

Blue Jacket Paper

I’m slowly falling in love with the life and work of Tomioka Tessai. I came across his paintings first, and the more I learn about him, the more enamored I become. Here is a bit from the beginning of Tessai: Master of the Literati Style by Taro Odakane.

Distant Realms

Another piece in the Victor Hugo and Reading series. If you know who these people are and what they’re doing in this room, then you know the story…and if you don’t, I won’t spoil this scene from the novel Les Miserables.

 

 

IF

Ian French is a spoken word poet. There is a little movie (little, as in only one hour long) called IF the Poet. I think it’s slightly bad form to quote spoken word because part of the power of this form of poetry is in the presentation….which is why you should see this movie. By the way, the subtitle of the movie is No Fear, Only Love.

 

Sky and Earth

Mostly this post is a blatant attempt to get you to read Brad Warner’s blog Hardcore Zen.  My quote is only part of a great post about how we can all be too dense to get it. Train yourself to see more clearly every day. Get in the habit of asking yourself how are we the same. Read words, think about them, put them away to take out another day and look at them again, with fresh eyes, a fresh mind, and a different perspective.

 

Mountains and Forests

I’ve not had much time to read this week, but did sneak in a couple of movies. This one was beautiful to watch, Dersu Uzala (1975). I have subscribed to a new film service that gives me access to movies that previously have been unavailable in my little backwoods hamlet: FilmStruck. I highly recommend it.  These are the woods words I loved in the movie.