Art

Muddy Waters Portrait Practice

This past summer, on Saturday afternoons, I’ve met with a growing group of artists, musicians and techsters for two coffee-fueled hours of individual teamwork.

Basically, for two hours, most everyone sits around, intensely focused on their laptop screens — providing perfect models for portrait practice.

All for the cost of a coffee!

For the first hour, I sketch as many folks as I can, paying close attention to gesture and light.

I draw fast with scratchy lines, quickly before the critical voice in my head cries out its commands.

I just keep sketching, flawfully fast until I fill the page.

During the second hour, while the models remain motionless, I brush watercolor washes over the pen sketches.

After two hours, we all share our work…

Come join us at Muddy Waters!

Stock Market Smithereens!

If a stopped clock is right twice a day, it may be time to heed the alarm of perpetual stock-market bear Harry Dent.

For decades, Dent has been warning about the “biggest crash of our lifetime.”

That time may be now.

To explain Dent in tsunami-speak, the tide has now completely rolled out, leaving behind schools of shiny flopping fish. The next wave to roll in is the one to destroy the beach.

Based on historical analysis, Dent believes the stock-market tsunami will arrive in three waves, wiping us out in five smooth phases.

The first phase started when the stock markets topped early this year, when the Dow Jones flirted with 37000. That first wave down hit bottom in June, equities dropping 20%.

We are now in phase two, the first relief rally, which Dent predicts will last 1-2 months — meaning the next wave down, phase three, should arrive in the next few weeks, perhaps as late as shortly after Labor Day.

Phase three may start when the Dow taps 34000. From there, it would likely fall like a forty-foot wall of water, crashing past the June lows, washing past 29500.

According to Dent, this second wave down — which could last five-and-a-half months — should be equally steep as the first wave down.

Another 20% drop from 29500 dilutes the Dow to 23600, back to its May 2020 support.

That puts us in February 2023, soon after a new Congress has convened, when new economic policies are most likely introduced.

If we’re lucky, the market will bottom in February and, like a limping bull, begin its slow climb back over the next decade.

But Harry Dent says no such luck.

The crash he’s predicting has two more phases, one more brief relief rally, then one more tsunami drop in mid-2023, one that may swamp us for another 30%.

How does a Zen Taoist prepare for such calamities?

By going with the flow, of course!

Time to cash out of equities, to hold cash and metals, to short stocks or invest in inverse ETFs.

Though the view won’t be much to admire at first, those who survive the coming flood will be blessed to fund the reconstruction while dining from their terrace on freshly sliced papaya.

Black Music Matters

 

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With racial division out in our urban streets, I reached out to one of my all-time black American idols to share a bit of appreciation.  Click on the image above to see André De Shields perform a Fats Waller favorite.

Dear Mr De Shields,

Back in 1979, after finding a $100 on the floor of the restaurant where I worked as a busboy, I knew exactly what to do with that money.

The summer before, while visiting my grandparents in Brooklyn, I saw the TV commercials for Ain’t Misbehavin’.

Though I never saw the show in New York, when I found that $100 bill, I went right to the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood to buy as many tickets as I could afford.

The woman in the box office saw how excited I was and wound up selling me tickets to four shows – all in front row center!

I was so excited!  I could hardly contain my joy!

The first three times I saw the show, I watched how you fooled someone in the front row beside me during “The Viper” song.

Each time, I watched you encourage them to step up and take a hit off that sweet-smelling reefer — only to yank it back right as the fool reached for it.

I’m sure, by the fourth time I was in attendance, you had recognized me – the same old bushy-haired kid in the front row, completely enthralled.

That fourth time, as you sang “The Viper,” you looked me square in the eye and held out the reefer for me to take.

Of course, I knew the trick, and I wasn’t about to be fooled in front of a full house.

Each time you held it out to me, each time you stepped closer, I kept waving you off, smiling, not to be fooled.

Finally, you gave me a wink, a little nod, as if to say “I know you, kid.  I’ve seen you here four times.  I ain’t gonna trick you.”

So, just as I stepped up to take the reefer – you snatched it away, like always!

Everyone laughed, including me, pleased in the end to have played the fool.

It’s now more than 40 years later, and I’ve been watching the show on YouTube with my 15-year-old son.

Before it’s too late, I just want to take a moment to tell you how much I appreciated you, how much I enjoyed your performance, and how much joy I still recall and carry with me four decades later.

So here’s wishing you all the best, including great health that may keep you kicking for another forty years.

Best,

Zen

Almost immediately, I received this reply:

One never knows, do one?  Nuff said!

Gratefully,

The Viper (André De Shields)

 

Starlight on Bernie Sanders

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Not the aches and pains of advancing age, nor even a recent heart disruption, can stop Virgo Bernie Sanders on his quest to become the next American President.

With both his Moon and Mars in assertive Aries, old uncle Bernie pounds his fist and stomps his feet, insisting that everyone’s hunger is equally hungry, deserving to feast on imported rhetoric.

Only Mercury and Venus in Libra hold him back, both making a warrior indecisive, debating what he covets most — the luxurious house on the lake or his portrait on the wall of a government office.

Saturn in Taurus dresses him down in well-worn, disheveled shrugs, making him skimp as he saves.

Jupiter in Gemini keeps him jetting here and there, grabbing the mic at public events, lecturing crowds on social equity, ethics and justice, and everything for free.

When old Lao Tzu was Bernie’s advanced age, he left his desk, packed up his bag, and wandered off toward the mountain – never to be seen again, but heard across millennia.

Sound like Bernie to you?  Leave a comment and let me know.

 

St Greta of Thunberg

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Bells rang across precocious pews this month when environmental-icon Greta Thunberg turned 17.

With her Sun, Moon and Mercury all in earthy Capricorn, it’s no astrological surprise that combating a climate catastrophe burns in her heart and mind.

Saturn rules Capricorn, the CEO of the zodiac.  Greta’s Saturn, her CEO, is in chatty Gemini — so she leads with crisp intelligence and talks, talks, talks.

Jupiter reveals how we travel through life, the persona we present to the world.  Greta’s generous Jupiter in Leo makes her the center of attention, the star of the global-warming debate.

And both Venus and Mars in Scorpio explain her extreme intensity, her direct and demanding passion, her stinging rebukes, her blazing blue eyes.

Some goats like Greta make it to the mountaintop early in their lives – only to discover a lack of horns to defend their hill.

Sound like Greta to you?  Leave a comment and let me know.

 

On the Cusp of 2020

Sometimes, you find yourself in the middle of nowhere; and sometimes, in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself. — Unknown

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Born at the birth of the 1960s, I’ve always viewed a decade change as my own personal milestone.

I remember the end of 1969, pedaling my bike down a tree-lined Van Nuys street.  At the end of 1979, I drove my VW Thing down the Ventura Freeway, twilight closing in on me.

The night the 80s ended, I was up in Tahoe, alone with the flu.  And the night we rang in the new millennium, I stood up for a friend at his surprise L.A. wedding.

Tonight, as neighbors fire gunshots into the San Francisco fog, I’ll remember the start of 2020 as spending the night at home with my son — making some dinner; laughing at some videos; staying up till midnight, talking.

Such a blessing to put in my pocket as bullets rain down from the sky.

 

A Tale of Two Zens

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Many many years ago, a Zen temple high in the mountains was renown for imparting wisdom. After its founding father passed away, the temple was left in the capable hands of two brother monks – a bald monk and a monk with long flowing hair.

When pilgrims came to the temple seeking wisdom, they were naturally drawn to the monk with the long flowing hair.  This made the bald monk very very sad, for he could not grow his hair, and he envied his brother’s appeal.

One morning, the bald monk gave a talk on the importance of detachment, the importance of not attaching to negative thoughts and worldly things.  To prove their own detachment, the bald monk instructed all the pilgrims to completely shave their heads, to demonstrate that they were not attached to their hair.

One by one, the pilgrims shaved their heads to earn the bald monk’s approval, to prove they were not attached to their hair.  Eventually, all the pilgrims were equally bald.

The monk with the long flowing hair, however, did not shave his head – not because he was attached to his hair, which grew naturally from the top of his head, same as his arms grew from his shoulders, same as his  legs grew from his hips – but to prove his detachment from detaching his hair.

Eventually, the bald monk, with the support of all the newly bald pilgrims, banned the monk with the long flowing hair from meditating in the temple.  And so the monk with long flowing hair eventually moved on — leaving the temple, leaving the mountains, leaving attachment behind.

The Learning Process

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As pointed out in Treescape, a finished product does not appear all at once like a bolt of lightening, though it may appear that way to an audience.

Creative endeavors follow the learning process.  Things start out rough and unfamiliar, awkward, even ugly; and that’s an essential step.  A week-old embryo does not resemble an eventual baby at birth.

Even a simple sketch develops in stages — tentative pencil lines first, followed by cautious inking, then wild water color.

At the beginning, we already know what we want to learn or create.  By the end, however, we often discover a surprise awaits us — often different than what we expected, if not much better than what we had imagined.

Here are ten sketches of a simple street scene.  The early attempts try to learn the placement of major lines and major shapes.  In the middle stage, shading and details are discovered.  In the final scenes, color is revealed.

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We rise to great heights by a winding staircase of small steps. — Francis Bacon