SCROLL

Here is the finished scroll - click to enlarge!

SNAKE OF RUNES

Mario gave me a scroll that he bought in Japan. It is made of rice paper and is 0ne foot wide and exactly as long as I am tall: 5'7". I have had it for a while, not knowing what to make of it, but now it turns out to be an excellent vehicle for my rune mania. I have filled a little more than half of it with excerpts from Dao De Jing. I make borders in between the different parts and I can also use these to decorate my ceramic bowls. I'll take pictures but for now you'll have to make do with this one:

A STEP FURTHER

FINALS

Here is the flounder I told you about:


and the bowl made on my birthday and inscribed with runes:


the raku piece:


and the pre-Colombian chicken tripod:

COLORED RUNES

THE SAGE HAS NO FIXED MIND

In ceramics class we had this assignment:
Choose a form and give it a texture that is foreign to it.
I thought this was silly until I got an idea: a flounder with runes instead of scales (I shall post it in a few days when the finals are over).

Now, what I’m doing in my drawings is really the same idea: the form being chapters from ‘The Book of the Way and Virtue’ and the texture being runes.
It is still kind of silly because I’m the only one who can read it (until somebody else get bitten by a mad rune)! But, really, it is not that difficult to read – give it a try!

RUNIC ALPHABET

My runic alphabet is taken from Codex Runicus, a Skanian law book from about 1300AD and one of the few examples of runes written on paper.
The missing letters:
j and w are taken from the Older Futhark;
c, y and ng are from Anglo-Saxon Runes;
q is from the Runic Alphabet by Gabriele Campbell (lostfort.blogspot.com);
z from the common Germanic Runes.
V, x and å are created by me (x as a combination of k and s)

23rd DUNUN VILLAGE

These three together spell out the 52nd chapter of 'The Book of the Way and Virtue'

What comes next:

The more I write the runes the more I like them. This one, in ink, is a chapter from the Dao De Jing.

RUNES #4

This one says:
Holiness is everywhere and to accept all as holy is the key. Love is the result as well as the cause.
Pure mind is all pervading Bliss.
The sorrows are like clouds, vital to all creation. The rain of tears moistens the soil, and to accept all with equanimity is to follow the Great Spirit.

SHED

Brian and I build this shed behind the wall we built a week ago. The door is the one I built sixteen years ago when I moved in at Wilkes Circle, and the step below it is an old railroad tie that appeared when we started digging. I'm going to paint the shed.
Can you see the passionflower growing up the wall? I was given it on my last birthday at Wilkes Circle. It is going to come back to life now, after a year in a pot.
It was lovely to get a soft rain yesterday after planting - and more to come tomorrow.
This was my vision for the backyard when we moved in and it's good to see it manifested.

QUOTE

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
(Mohandas Gandhi)

BACK TO SCHOOL

Coming to ceramics class after spring break there were some nice surprises.

PRAYER WHEEL

The Runes say:"Give Thanks".

BLESSINGS TO THE HOUSE

Peter gave me an idea: to make an equivalent to the embroidered "God bless this house" but with Runes and, for my part, without "God" because I think that word creates confusion.
So this one says:

May Blessings
upon this house
cause happiness
to all who live here
and all who enter
by the virtue of
these Runes

If you try to read it note that there are special letters for 'th' and 'ng'.

DRAMA IN THE WILD

RUNES #3

The Unity of the Great Spirit ties everything together.
The affirmation of Unity is a Love that is equal for all creation.
One can nourish such Love as a feeling but it only becomes real as it translates into compassionate action.
That is when one values the interest of others as highly as ones own.
That is Big Love.

TEAPOT FINISHED

It really came out exactly like I planned with one exception: it drips all over when you pour.
Live and learn!
Many potters make teapots that cannot be used, just as an artistic statement, so that's what this one is.

MORE RUNES

This says:
The Great Spirit is one name for the energy that is the substance of the subatomic particles. This basic Energy contains the seeds of every quality imaginable and thus contains the faculties of awareness and intelligence. If these were not inherent in the basic particles, how could they come into existence by simply adding particles to particles?

I LOVE THE RUNES

It says:
Life has a will that is a force in creation
and goes beyond the laws of the material.
Therefore life shapes its own destiny.
Pleasure and pain are reflections
like shadow and light.
The big bang is the beginning of time and space.
Its origin is the still point beyond space-time.
We call it the Great Spirit.

FROM THE LAST KILN FIRING

The teapot was made last fall but didn't make it into glaze firing. It came out nicer than I expected, but it is very heavy and contains only one cup.

Today I didn't make it to school because I hurt my hand. I dreamed that I was attacked and I punched the attacker as hard as I could, but it was my night table that I punched and my hand was bleeding all over.

RUNES

I am making a bowl in ceramics class and I decided to decorate it with Runes. I love alphabets but never seriously looked at the Runes. It's overwhelming because there are so many different sets of runes: German, Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, Latinized etc., and the experts disagree, but at least the information is there on the net and I've been studying yesterday and today and can now write two different kinds. I think I'll stick with the Scandinavian because they are my heritage. Here are some of the inscriptions I contemplate using on the bowl.
I also build a fence today to give us more privacy in the back yard. Brian, who lives in the studio in the back, helped me, and he is a pro, so we did it in a couple of hours.

A SCARY MOMENT

ANYONE'S GUESS

A picture says more than a thousand words - but what does it say?

ACCIDENTAL CREATION

I thought I had everything under control, but then I touched the wet painting with my sleeve - and the plans had to change.

TEAPOT

I'm planning a teapot and with my engineer mind I designed it in detail. My teacher was duly impressed!

SATURDAY NIGHT

I watched "Nomad" with the Mexican actor Kuno Becker tonight. It's a highly romantic epic from Kazakhstan. The landscapes of central Asia are something else and the story of friendship, love and destiny called a few tears out of me.
Or was it just the smoke?
This is Kuno Becker in a somewhat different setting!

MY VASE

SAME, SAME - BUT DIFFERENT

I'm exploring this motif, the play of subtle energies.

A BOLT IN THE BLUE

It was a nice rainy weekend and I finished this painting also.

In between painting I read. I just finished 'Famous all over town' by Danny Santiago,a story about Chicano life in LA narrated by fourteen years old Chato. It's a great book and was quite famous when it was published in 1983. Later it caused some controversy when it was revealed that the author was an elderly white man, Danny James, who had worked as a counselor in the Chicano community.
The book is an easy read and funny too, and it seems authentic. I recommend it!

SWASTIKA

For 3,000 years, the swastika meant life and good luck. But because of the Nazis, it has also taken on a meaning of death and hate.
These conflicting meanings are causing problems in today's society. For Buddhists and Hindus, the swastika is a very religious symbol that is commonly used.
Unfortunately, the Nazis were so effective at their use of the swastika emblem, that many do not even know any other meaning for the swastika, and in Germany it is now outlawed.
Can there be two completely opposite meanings for one symbol?

I say no. Even the Nazis used the symbol for good luck in their struggle and the fact that their struggle was hateful does not change the meaning of the symbol.

That's why I want to rehabilitate it in the Western iconography by using it in a way that cannot be mistaken.

AND……

These are the last from my six weeks at John Brown's studio, the blue was a second time in the kiln and the others in the display of the week.