Takao Tanabe

TAKAO TANABE

I first became interested in Takao Tanabe’s abstract work some years ago, noticing he, like Ellsworth Kelly, was fascinated with the abstraction of landscape.

'Passing Rainbow'. 1968 Acrylic on canvas. Vancouver Art Gallery.

Born in Seal cove near Prince Rupert, British Columbia in 1926, he has been an eminent painter for the past 50 years.

After training and teaching painting in several Canadian universities, he studied at The Central School in London, exploring Japanese ink painting (sumi-e) and ‘Zen’ calligraphy at the Tokyo School of Arts.

In 'Red Hills', 1957, I see a similarity to my 'Zen' images, with their hidden imagery and mystical beauty. I am hoping to move on from designing my Zen images in meditation, to setting myself a source and painting a 'seen' image in a Zen state. I am also researching working with music and sound and movement, of perhaps dancers.

'Red Hills' 1957. Oil on canvas.

'Spring'.

He began as a painter of abstract expressionism, creating striking pieces often hard edged and of contrasting bright colour and black and white. Later he painted softer, misty simple, representational landscapes eliminating all non essential detail.

His abstract paintings always referred to the land although not always consciously. As early as 1955, artists and critics identified his abstract expressionist work as ‘real or imagined landscapes’.
The National Gallery of Canada and The Canada Council for the Arts

'Envelope Sketch.' Takao Tanabe. Color Lithograph and serigraph on wove paper 1968 (edition).

National Gallery of Canada.

I love the idea of creating a design in an envelope format so that when you open it up, it will appear as something else.

'Early Autumn'.1967

Of his current work, he said:

“What I want is this completely unoccupied pristine land, as though I am the first person to see it. It’s lovely, it’s mysterious. It has wonderful appeal to me. I feel great kinship with it”.
(http://www.paulhuhngallery.com/)

As with Ellsworth Kelly’s abstract work I do find a beauty in Tanabe’s linear art and abstract breakdown of space. I am more and more drawn to simple asymmetric design, which can be applied to anything, bags, garments, hangings, ties etc. and I will use my own simple dividing of colour as a base for my ‘Zen’ imagery. I see myself as a flat surface pattern 'print' designer.

MEDITATION

A walk along by the river listening to the birds, being aware of the wind in the treetops, existing ‘in the moment – in the now’, is a meditation. Being absorbed in writing, art or music is a meditation but there are deeper forms of meditation.

TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION (T.M.)

I was initiated into TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION in the late 70’s. The Beetles came back from India with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s spiritual philosophies and it became a ‘cult’ thing to do. I had had a serious operation and my good friend, Morag, insisted it would help me heal.





On the morning of the initiation, I awoke to find that someone had stolen our abundant golden sea of daffodils from the garden. Not one remained and I was upset. On visiting the local shop, I was told that a good friend had died. I did NOT wish to be involved with meditation that morning! However, Mel had other ideas.

We are a vessel, they said, and the vessel is filled with life stresses acquired from birth, each one creating a knot in our nervous system. As we meditate, these knots are released and deep traumas fly into the ether. (This can be disturbing, and follow-up sessions are essential).

With Transcendental Meditation, one is given a mantra, a Sanskrit word, which is repeated on each in-breath and out-breath. The aim is, as with all meditation, to still our many thoughts to take us into the Silence. Within the Silence is a state of Blissful Consciousness; a journey to 'The Cosmos' or 'The Void' or 'The Velvet' - Transcendental Consciousness, a soft place, and probably the space where I first became enthralled with the many warm 'blacks'. It was like floating in space. One stays there for 20 min. repeating the process night and morning. The empowerment and energy one receives from T.M. focuses the mind to such an extent that it enhances life and business success. It is simple and effective, much more powerful and restful than a good night's sleep and one is more alert and creative, filled with energy and positiveness.

There have been over 600 Scientific studies at over 200 industry research institutes in 30 countries. These studies validate the profound effects of T.M.

However, it takes dedication and persistence to keep it up and my forays into the Cosmos have long past. I must get back into it.

SPIRITUAL MEDITATION.

In SPIRITUAL MEDITATION several ‘tools’ or ‘aids’ may be used. One may focus on the flame of a candle, focus on the in-breath and out-breath, listen to a visualisation or just sit in the silence. A visualisation may be imagining a walk into a garden, on a beach or into a forest where one meets someone special. The aim is to block our thoughts, quieten the mind, and move into the Subconscious, or Higher Self where all knowingness resides. The belief is that 'thoughts' are living things, and can hurt or enhance as surely as a blow or a hug. The philosophy is vast and I am not going into that here.



ZEN BUDDHISM.

Zen Buddhism is not a religion as its followers neither affirm or deny the existence of God. P.14.

‘In order to understand Zen Buddhism properly it is important to know something about Buddhism itself. The ultimate experience for a Buddhist is the realisation of Nirvana, which releases one from the addictions and consequences of Dukkha, or suffering. No one can describe this experience because it is ineffable. It was in this condition of inner freedom that the Buddha dwelt after his Enlightenment.’


‘Buddha turned his back on material comforts, on his family, on the priests, and even on the holy men he met along the way whose wisdom he felt, did not reach the mark. He sat alone, accompanied merely by his own deep honesty and awareness, searching for his inner Truth.

The Nature of Things is called emptiness or Buddha-nature, and this in turn is no-nature. Our true essence is no-thingness. (Nirvana).

Over the centuries all sorts of elaborate practices have been built into this simple approach – mantras, koans, visualisations, chanting, listening to ones breath’. St. Ruth, Diana. ‘Experience Beyond Thinking, A Practical Guide to Meditation’. Buddhist Publishing Group.1993.

If you wish to move in the One Way
Do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.
Indeed, to accept them fully
Is identical with true Enlightenment.
The wise man strives to no goals
But the foolish man fetters himself.
There is one Dharma, not many;
Distinctions arise from clinging needs of the ignorant.
To seek Mind with discriminating mind
Is the greatest of all mistakes.

Zen Master.

'The practice of Zen has as its aim the purification, deepening and transformation of the consciousness. It seeks to realise the mind of the Buddha through Za-Zen or sitting meditation. Za is understood as ‘sitting’ and Zen is Samadhi, meaning one-pointedness of attention. Many Zen Masters maintain this is all there is to Zen'.

‘When you practise za-zen, do not make any conjectures on good and evil. Do not try to stop your thoughts from coming. Ask yourself only this question: ‘Which is my own spirit?’

Bassui.

O.B. Duane: ‘Zen Buddhism'. Brockhampton Press.

‘Enlightenment comes from practice,
Thus Enlightenment is limitless;
Practice comes from Enlightenment
Thus practice has no beginning.

Dogen Zenji.

Is enjoying the ‘pure, living experience of the moment’ the aim of Zen?
I have a lot of learning and understanding to do before I am close to Enlightenment. What is Enlightenment and how does one know one is there?

Meditation. Being, Consciousness Bliss, Astrid Fitzgerald, Lindisfarne Books.

MY PRACTICE.

“Begin each painting session with a period of silent meditation. After a period of meditation, artistic activities further calm the body and mind and offer another way to tap into one’s intuitive nature and deepen the Spiritual Experience.”………”In Zen Art, as in meditation the breath and present moment are the foundation for practice. A line is drawn once and never altered in any way – one line – one breath.”……………….

“Concentrate on your practice and be in the process. Enjoy the moments of creation. Be aware of your breath, your hand, your eye and your body – each moment. Let your painting be an extension of yourself and an expression of your inherent, inner nature. Paint with your breath and body, not with your thoughts. Nurture spontaneity. If you let your breath work for you, your painting will flow smoothly and naturally." Myochi Nancy O’hara. ‘Zen by the Brush. Stewart, Tabori and Chang, New York.


To create my ‘Zen’ designs, I sit quietly in my studio surrounded by the tools I may use. This includes flat brushes, calligraphy brushes, various forms of card, and even scrubbing brushes. With most meditations, one may open ones eyes at any time and still be in a state of meditation. I may employ any one of the methods above. One must sit quietly for at least 10 minutes before a feeling of deep Peace is reached, a feeling of oneness with all things, a feeling of existing only in this moment. I wait until I feel my consciousness change. At that point I will stand. Sometimes I will have read a poem, or written a poem, or studied a picture. Often images appear in my mind and I will pick up a tool and work quickly directly onto the silk using Procion dyes or sometimes on paper using gouache or acrylics.

Often, I am amazed at the images.

I wish to experiment more with poetry, reading a poem before attempting a 'Zen' image. I will also experiment with working with sound.

My dilemma is in how these images should be presented. Do they have a hidden imagery? Letting them fly free, I feel they are strong enough to stand alone, or I may create repeat patterns with them. I see them as symbols of Peace, as huge hangings somewhere in the environment. Or should they be flat on a mountain to be seen from the air.

Meanwhile, I am working with shapes and images created from Tremough as a background structure for my imagery, using my experiments with ‘blacks’ and circles (Terry Frost).

‘The Circle represents everything and nothing – or true ENLIGHTENMENT.’
'Zen by the Brush' (above).

Another little piece about Za-Zen from 'Illuminations, Zen Wisdom'. Running Press.

‘When approached as meditation, Zenga can be the ideal way to ease the tensions of everyday life. The empty canvas mirrors the blank mind for which one strives while meditating. The goal is not perfection, rather, the mind should be free to allow the creation of characters that are simple, natural, and spontaneous. Each character is an expression of the moment, a demonstration of enlightenment.

'The struggle to find enlightenment, to know and understand one’s inner self and the world, is a centuries-old quest that has captivated many of the greatest minds – from Zen masters to writers and poets.'

‘The world is not to be put in order. The world is order. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order.’ Henry Miller author (1890 – 1980)

‘I could give you no advice but this: To go into yourself and to explore the depths where your life wells forth.’ Rainer Maria Rilke. Poet (1875-1926)

Art in Meditation.

Frozen to the print table

Everything was frozen in my studio. I was saved by having a bowl of hot water to plunge my hands into after washing off a screen. I was so cold but managed to print the first part of my new 'blacks' by combining a red, blue and yellow.

And samples, grounds for my 'Zen' paintings.

My coffee was frozen solid

My bowl of washing water was frozen but today, Sunday, beginning to melt. The water is frozen, toilet is frozen, so - no printing this weekend. Mel was talking about putting a few gas radiators in there for me, but will Russia cut the gas line? Central heating. What a dream!

I would have to be made of tougher stuff to sleep in the caravan where the windows are frozen inside and out. No pictures of my 'ceramic' banana or of the water I spilt on the cooker which instantly formed a solid frozen patch. I am now in a warm bedroom, thank goodness.

Jeanet Honig - From painted canvas to painted floors.

Jeanet Honig, a German painter living in Zurich, Switzerland stepped 'out of her box' and I love that.

Feeling restricted by the size of her large painted canvases, she began creating furniture and doors and finally finding expression in huge pieces of floor art. She discovered polypropylene, used for creating industrial floors, amazed that although a huge palette of colours was available, no one had thought of mixing them together to create interesting floor design. She was able to 'paint' huge areas with her individual and colourful designs to create unique floors.

'Polypropylene was being used for factory floors already, but it was always a uniform colour. There were many colours to choose from but people never mixed them. I couldn't see a reason not to'. JH

Pictures from idFX Magazine. Oct 2003 p.102/103. Also from http://www.jeanet-honig-design.com/

Some of her floor art covers 6,000 sq. m. She must work fast as the polypropylene sets quickly and there is no room for error. Wearing spiked shoes, the large areas are scraped into pre drawn shapes with large wooden spatulas and 'edging' is poured from a watering can. Inspired by urban life, she uses minimalist shapes and bold colour. 'combining art and function'.

To my knowledge, Jeanet has created a unique way of working, creating art which everyone can enjoy and she creates each project herself.

I can see a link with my own dilemma. I have been obsessed with my love of working on the square, enjoying geometric designs which change with the drape and movement of silk. Working with the division of space within a boundary, I create simple shapes using a combination of 'free' screens and painting. These 'scarves' are my paintings. If it were a painting on canvas, I could price it at any price the market would stand, but as a scarf, there is an upper price limit. Creating 'one offs' is so time consuming that I know I cannot make a profit unless I value that piece at a price which takes into consideration the length of time it has taken to make. Such is the dichotomy - art or craft or design? Is Jeanet's work art or design?. It is both, and she has found a way of expressing her art through a new medium finding a way to make here work both desirable and commercial.

Study of 'Blacks'.

The Magpie is said to be black and white, but her 'black' feathers shine with blues and purples. The 'black' Dor Beetle shines with iridescent turquoise and purples.

The Australorp chicken is said to be black but it's feathers gleam with greens and blues.

The Corvus, (Crow, rook or raven), are black - or are they?.

'Corvus' Etching by Julia Manning.

COLOUR STUDY Terry Frost. 'Blacks'.

Colour Analysis from Nature. Terry Frost. Scolar Press.

“Being interested in abstraction, in Constructivism and in the experience of being around St. Ives, led me to deal with painting which was the result of walking, breathing the air and lying flat on our backs, ‘being intimate with the landscape’ ” – “in town the harbour, the streets the roof tops – geometrical division, space, movement and so on.” p.161.

"Roger Hilton and I were struggling to flatten things out, to accept that we were working on a flat surface. We wanted just flat shapes and colour. If you keep a colour flat, then you’ve got to find a shape that will hold it flat, therefore you are involved with proportion and relationship to the next colour you put on”. Terry Frost.

Although these statements are a deviation from his study of 'blacks', I was interested in the breakdown of landscape into geometry; flat shapes and colour. It struck me just how much bright colours are changed when seen in small areas with the luscious 'darks', just splashes of colour with 'black'. -

"There is no such colour as ‘black’ or ‘white’. Both are an amalgam or all colours, of light. There are matt blacks, glossy blacks, soft blacks, blue blacks, purple blacks, green blacks, maroon blacks. Each ‘black’ affects the colour juxtaposing it. Is a bright colour, say burnt orange, more powerful when placed in small splashes next to ‘black’ or a blue than when presented as a large area of colour on it’s own? This is one area I want to explore".

In Terry Frost's studies of blacks. P.179. He talks about: -

“Colour in acrylic
Colour in oil
On flat
On round
In stripes
In verticals
In curves
In harmony
In discord
In contrast
Through all intensities

The possibilities of
A yellow walk
A lying down sky
A smiling black
A soft black
A tight black
A fat black
A mean black
A blue black
A red black”

I was also interested in his use of flat colour and abstract form.

“The love of colour has to be real, in fact, like love. And it must be concerned with reason, with the logical extension of a colour to its breaking point in order to discover the relations of colour and form, and together a final totality and authority” Terry Frost

Terry Frost says, “ It is a question of reacting via the eyes through the heart and head for a full sensation. It is not a momentary sensation alone, for, from my experience; I see better the next time. It’s an additive experience; it’s a sort of cleansing process, so that each colour builds up more of its own spiritual value, its own being."

“Just to think in terms of colour is enough to set the soul alight. This colour without shape – in the spirit. Shapes are known to people by words but colour can make its own shape and exist in its own right”.

Yellows, Through paintings and black, p.186

The narrator says, “At Reading, Terry Frost asked 60 students to mix a black from red, yellow and blue. He wanted them to learn to mix oil colour cleanly and with a set aim in mind. Having mixed their different blacks, from the warm side until it broke to red and the same with blue, green and ochre, each student was asked to choose their mid-black, their blackest black. No two were the same. They made a mural of the blacks and this led Terry to a series of black paintings.”

A page of Terry Frost's black studies.

Terry recalls the words of the great gardener Gertrude Jekyll:

"What a wonderful range of colour there is in black alone to the trained colour eye. There is the dull brown-black of soot, and the velvety brown-black of the bean-flower’s blotch; to my own eye, I have never found anything so entirely black in a natural product as the patch on the lower petals of Iris Iperica. Is it not Ruskin who says of Velasquez, that there is more colour in his black than in another painter’s whole palette.”

A beautiful 'black' flower - Bloom Magazine.

Terry says; “I learned to mix my colours, to mix red, yellow and blue to make black, and if you do that, you find there are as many blacks as there are yellows. A lot of people don’t realise that; they think black is just black, but black, as the old poem says, is the container of all colour.”

Later he says: “I wouldn’t have painted the ‘Through Blacks’ or the ‘Through greys’ if I hadn’t insisted on the students finding out how many greys they could make or how many blacks, you see”.

AF "But you never told the students that you can just chuck a bit of red in the black. They had to mix it all out of red, yellow and blue, but you can actually just use spectrum black and put some red in it, can’t you"?

TF When you are in a bit of a hurry, that’s O.K. There are times when its right to do that but it doesn’t work in a poetic sense when you’re trying to stretch your imagination and your mixture of colour together to get your concept out. It’s a different thing. It’s not to do with trying to write a poem in black and it took me bloody weeks, all those fifteen different blacks from red, yellow and blue.”

A 'black' rose. - Bloom magazine.

I am quite excited about experimenting with creating 'blacks' from scratch on silk. How will they respond to a shiny crepe backed satin silk, or the matt finish of crepe de chine silk? Or even the translucence of crepe georgette silk?

I was interested in a quote in Terry Frost's book, (above) from Gasch.

“The artist should represent his own interior world, the visual counterpart of a poetic mythology. He argues that the interior is not pure fantasy because there is no such thing as pure imagination. It must feed on something, which is necessarily reality. The imagined world can become as real as the reality which kindled it….”

You could say that the artists world is always an inner world, a world of deep cognitive discovery and imagination. So, is my way of working with ‘Zen’ meditation any different? I wonder if it is. Although working in meditation, the 'unconscious' feeds from something ‘conscious’ and thus becomes part of reality. I am planning to try to work from a deeper space within, working on larger pieces hanging vertically on the wall.

I have been sampling my own 'blacks' by mixing equal proportions of various yellow, blues and reds. So far, the colours I have achieved have been gorgeous but rather pale. One black in particular, has worked well, a deep, warm 'midnight' black achieved by mixing yellow, red and navy. Tomorrow, I intend to sample further and show my results.

Pure beingness

Czernin, Nicholas. “Wasteland Words. The Heart of Wonder” Non Duality Press.

“At the instant of perceiving, there is nothing – empty virginal space, but almost immediately the mind gets to work and fills in that space with all sorts of ideas about what is perceived, and so the original empty space is constantly filled up with thoughts, discriminations and emotions, plus anything else the mind can get its hands on to keep control of the originally pure beingness. And so, all through our waking lives, the vast, original empty untamed space is suffocated by the ever-busy mind – the jewel buried in the mud”.