We often speak of experience as a thing to be possessed or identified with, e.g., “I am happy”, “I feel hurt”, “I am in love”. We become the state of these emotions, attaching and identifying ourselves with these experiences.

But do you possess that which you experience? If you suffer, is it your suffering? Is suffering not universal to all that suffer?

Is happiness, sadness, love, or sorrow ever possessed, is it ever yours to possess?

Perhaps we do not possess sorrow or bliss any more than a drop of water in the sky possess the gravity that carries it earthbound. Our experiences are not possessions nor attributes to who we are, they are the process to which we live.

Realizing the truth of your experience, that those personal and profound experiences are not yours to possess, that there is no you to possess those experiences. You are as the drop of water hitting the ocean — you cease to be, and are a part-of and simultaneously one-with the ocean around you — vast and seemingly infinite.

The mind and body are a piece of a seemingly infinite ocean, as relevant to the universe as a drop of water to the ocean. Yet just as that drop of water experiences something as universal as gravity, so does the mind experience something as universal as love, sorrow, sadness, and bliss.

There is no ‘I’ that is separate from all that is, and there is no ‘I’ to possess that which is as universal as the experience of life.

It can be difficult to find Beauty in everything
There are times it is unknown to us
Our perception mingles with expectation
And we see only the divergence
The flaws from the expected Beauty

There is ugly in reality, it is everywhere
And there is Beauty– it is the paradox of life
That both are everywhere all the time
The movement of life assures this

So what are these aesthetics we cling to?
Perhaps an evolutionary morality
And we cannot help but to find and cherish
The beauty in all things

Went to the penultimate show of the 2009 Mainly Mozart Festival. A nice pairing of Mozart and Tchaikovsky featuring the surprisingly lively St. Petersburg String Quartet.

It’s only the second time I’ve been, but I really love how the Balboa Theater has come together

It starts as an illusion, a perfection of thought
An ideal for none to know

Unknowable as any hope
You were larger than life, yet existing
Only in my mind

The indelible mark of a souls existence
Is left not by serene hopes
But of the actions and reality
Of what they create

And every creation
Marks the end of the ideal
Beautiful flaws of existence

I see you in this place
On the other side through doors unknown
Detached and secure
A smile on your face
It stops those in the streets
Only to come closer
And marvel on the intricate
Details from every angle

Dreary doldrums of gray
Drift through cold emptiness
Unaware and uncaring

What a vivid contrast
To the lifeless gray

* photo by Lotus and Tim at the Gebert Gallery in Venice
** Dave, you Rock!

Your back aches hunched over the sketchpad
Hands scribble furiously as
Lines slowly take shape

Outlines emerge in primordial form
Details are sparse and slowly the
Lines tighten in all perspectives

Frantically trying to capture the important
Just the right curve, the right pucker
The details can wait

Maybe a little slimmer, a little fatter
Beauty begins to shine as the artist
Injects a style all their own

And then

NEXT POSE

* Photo taken at Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School

In the bustling blur of coffee and work
Running hitherto from place to place
Life’s gentle reminder of beauty in everyday places

Was it random?
Or did an unknown artist seek tirelessly
To prepare the small aesthetic decor
That makes your dizzying life
A little more beautiful?

In the late of night I step outside
A brisk chill in the air

My eyes adjust to pitch black
Empty and unknown in the cold

The wind whispers as if teasing
Behind the darkness is mystery

And for but a second the whispering winds
Part the formless blurry clouds

A faint glow emerges from above
Surreal light from the moon-lit sky

For the briefest moments the darkness dimmed
And an endless sea glimmered in this enchanted night

The soft winds danced with the crashing waves
And as soon as it began, it ended

The light dimmed and the pitch black returned
A comforting and beautiful unknown

An amazing display at the San Diego Museum of Art, Itchiku Kubota’s (1917–2003) Symphony of Light — a series of Kimono’s spanning decades of work that depicts the changing seasons. Each piece was rich with color and detail, and the entire collection creates a breathtaking panoramic. I loved this as there was an entirely different world of detail depending on where you were standing

If you happen to be near the San Diego Museum of Art I would highly recommend viewing this exhibit. It is open until January 4th 2009