"Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. there is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there."

Henry Miller

Happy New Year!

May we remember to look as closely as we do when we are in foreign lands, and maybe bring a little of the amazing colors back home with us.

mumbai fishing village, low tide

"Iqbal, that great poet, was so right. The moment you recognize what is beautiful in this world, you stop being a slave. To hell with the Naxals and their guns shipped from China. If you taught every poor boy how to paint, that would be the end of the rich in India."

from The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

"If I could have one super power, I would choose the ability to change the colors of things."

Porter Tierney, age 4

"There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."

Leonard Cohen

photo taken on way to elephanta in india

"I have always looked upon decay as being just as wonderful and rich an expression of life as growth."

Henry Miller

"Cast Asea", 20x16"
collection of John Chandler & family, Maryland

"Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, but to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such."

Henry Miller

"Joy", 24x14"

from the collection of Wendy & Emily, Washington DC

"This was the year, at five or six, that I learned the meaning of "reverence," which, as I understand it, is the natural attitude to take toward magical, unverifiable, phenomena, the same way that "respect" and "obedience" describe the attitude one takes toward observable physical phenomena, such as gravity or money."

from 'All That' by David Foster Wallace

Mumbai Apartment Building at Night

from the sketchbook December 2, 2009

from the sketchbook 11.26.09

after first day in mumbai

"inconvenience regretted"

(construction sign on street in mumbai)

"If we are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are eternally anchored. One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things."

Henry Miller

"The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all."

Jawaharlal Nehru

Notes to myself on beginning a painting.

1. Attempt what is not certain. Certainty may or may not come later. It may then be a valuable delusion.

2. The pretty initial position which falls short of completeness is not to be valued---except as a stimulus for further moves.

3. Do search. But in order to find what is not searched for.

4. Use and respond to the initial fresh qualities but consider them absolutely expendable.

5. Don't "discover" a subject---of any kind.

6. Somehow don't be bored---but if you must, use it in action. Use its destructive potential.

7. Mistakes can't be erased but they move you from your present position.

8. Keep thinking about Pollyanna.

9. Tolerate chaos.

10. Be careful only in a perverse way.

from Richard Diebenkorn's notebooks

"This was what Bertrand Russell called his 'Ten Commandments' as a teacher.

1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2. Do not think it worthwhile to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
4. When you meet opposition, even if it should come from your husband, wife or children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority- for victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are contrary authorities to be found.
6. Do not use power to suppress opinion you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence, as you should, the former implies a deeper argument than the latter.
9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness."

"Boredom is an instrument of social control. Power is the power to impose boredom, to command stasis, to combine this stasis with anguish. The real tedium, deep tedium, is seasoned with terror and with death."

from Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow