I am a fiddler as well as a painter, so I can tell you firsthand
that painting with Asian brushes is more akin to bowing a musical
phrase, or dancing for that matter, than struggling to recreate
external reality. No doubt my music has benefited my painting,
and vice versa, and those who nurtured my music and those who
still play music with me have also been my painting teachers.
Little-know fact: Indeed, Richie Havens, guitar great
from Woodstock who still pours his soul out in every performance,
is the proud owner of own of my pieces, so moved was I
by the generous spirit of his music at a recent event in
conjunction with a show of mine at the Old Town School
of Folk Music in Chiago in 2003.
TRY IT YOURSELF!
"Paint a line. A brave line. Or a timid line. But
a line that expresses at the core who you are in this moment.
If the line is happy by itself, stop. If it begs for company,
there are 10,000 imaginary lines next to the first. All
but a handful will weaken or neutralize your bold beginning.
The challenge is to effortlessly and without hesitation
paint the line that will shine in its own right, while
brightening the first. If you are not fully present, the
brush will "show you up" on the page and make
you humble once again. Zenga Girl prefers this sink-or-swim
honesty: when the work succeeds, there is life on the page." -Karen
Kain
