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jack petranker
December 2009 
Painting as Practice - Transcendence of Pointings
Davidu
The process of pointing continues from the memory of the singled out impression to the choice of colors, to how to obtain the right shades and hues by mixing certain ones. It includes what order to place them on the paper; to start with the lightest colors for background, and to slowly move forward in the painting with darker colors. This moving from background to foreground, and from light broad suggestive, but less defined strokes, to darker more detailed colors, is what clarifies what is suggested far off, and what appears in the shorter distances. It gives nuance and definition to what perspective is meant to focus upon. These choices and pointings become ever narrower as the painting becomes clarified. In TSK terms, the read-outs from the initial impression in space and time, each shaped by the previous pointing, forces the reality of the painting to move within the circle of established possibilities.
I make sense of the developing landscape painting through a continuous series of back and forth pointings, assimilating the current version of the painting to the memory of the original impression, attempting to extract coherence as the painting develops. "Shaped at every stage through a passing on and [adding of color], an interweaving and feeding back, the [painting] as it has been received becomes the accepted truth of what actually [appeared]." The direct experience of the original impression gradually becomes subordinated to the emerging, specific landscape painting -- a new 'frozen' reality is shaped.
But there can be another level, where at some point the process becomes less about 'me' doing and controlling the painting, and more about the process of painting. When this happens, in a sense, 'the painting paints itself'. Process seems to take over at a more fundamental level and doer dominance is relinquished, to return and fade as needed, back and forth. Pointings by a separated bystander-self are reduced to necessity or to a level that does not emphasize separation and distance, and objects touch and interact with themselves as they appear and develop in time and space.
But there is another even more basic level I sometimes get a sense of while I'm lost in impressions along the way -- prior to establishing 'I am here', and prior to pointing and doing -- where whatever arises does so with the allowing space that knows; a witnessing at the edge of time, where fundamental events burst into appearance without establishing anything, unconnected, and without meaning. When I emerge from that freedom there is a new energy and clarity. It's like starting over fresh and clear and ready.
Access: Public
Hi, David, I just wanted to express my admiration here. What a lovely picture, first of all! I am moved by the delicacy of line and the subtlety of color – exquisite. But I really appreciated also how you took us from appreciation of the picture into another space where we are with you in that creative act, the dance between the pointings of perception and the surging of delight, and then suddenly beyond – in a clearing prior to the sparkling forth of snowcorn or bystander, object or self…
Did you write this for your class with Jack, or just for this blog?
Best wishes,
B.
Hi Brother B,
Thank you for your kind words. I will be sending you my class journal, which recounts pretty much everything that's been said to this point, since you mentioned you might be joining us in January. Not that you need the background, of course, but in the event you want to read it over the holidays. You're right; I wrote the description for class (homework!), so you'll get to read Jack's comments in my journal.
The artist who has had the most influence on me (besides my mother, the artist who taught me initially) is Philip Jamison, who also lives nearby. Look (here) to see a couple of his landscapes and you'll see the influence. He's the pro, of course, I'm the amateur. I'm conscious of speaking/painting/seeing from different voices/views as though there is a hollow here, yet my little dog and dear wife recognize me - I seem to be something and nothing together. :-)
Have a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year to you Bro, and your family.
David
Oh! So wonderful…
simultaneously participating in the linear unfolding of serial events while observing their non-linear presentation, all the while being fully engaged and present.
I would love to quote you on the Diving Deeper pod: what you have described (and shown) so beautifully applies to my approach and being-ness with writing.
Thanks so much for this, all of it.
Sandra
Hi Sandra,
Delighted by your enthusiastic response, and of course you may quote me - my honor. Just joined your Diving Deeper Pod and I'm enjoying exploring it. There's a lot there so I'm still at it.
DavidBest wishes,
Yes, I too love how experiences reframed through the imagination – in order to (re)create art, for instance – offer dynamic perspectives as compared to how the experience is originally peceived in 'Real-Time!'
If judgement does not prevail as a limitation, the memory or original point of reference is 'pure' (as is this portrait), with a holographic quality, which accesses details in the experience separate from 3-D logic. Here is a chance to perceive it from a truly 'divine' perspective, but not altogether separate from the humanistic (perspective).
I'd like to think myself a human in transcendence, so I'd prefer that the humanistic perspective still be present.
What a 'great work,' by the way! I am grateful for your sharing!
I enthusiastically agree with all these appreciative comments. You have described in words perhaps as best as can be done something that is akin to my own process with words and art - it was eerie. Now, tell me, what class ???? When ????? Where do I find out more ???
Blessings, AJN
Thanks, Bryan and Happiness, for your appreciative comments.
Bryan, I will respond to you questions on the TSK Pod about dreams later.
Happiness, The class is a TSK on-line course; details can be found (here). The course is conducted by Jack Petranker, and you can read more about him, TSK, and his book, which was graciously posted on Balder's Blog (here).
Best wishes,
Davidthe act of creation is a joyous thing in itself. whether it's visual art, or music, or just shaping words, the force of art is coming from the Other Side.
I envy your visual skills
love and light
'the painting paints itself'
It does…and then you step back and wonder how it came through you onto the paper! While letting it happen, letting it form, letting it evolve out of color and light and timelessness, it becomes… And then it is transformed again by each viewer's interpretation of it…
Your expression of a still winter landscape breathes through the papery grasses poking through the snow. The colors and white are one of my favorite palettes. They take me back to the barrens of Cherryfield, Maine, near where I lived for a time… They take me back to hours of walking quietly through that frozen landscape, wondering, imagining…
May I share that your piece reminds me of an exhibit I drove hours along Rt. 1 to Portland's art museum to see? The long drive there and back, a transition, too… The artist on exhibit was Thomas Crotty: Solitude of Space. I am also reminded of Andrew Wyeth's time at the Olson House. I had the opportunity to visit once, on that salt-sprayed patch of coast as beautiful in its austerity and shades of grey as could be…
”When I emerge from that freedom there is a new energy and clarity. It's like starting over fresh and clear and ready.”
Conveyed so clearly through your writing and piece, above.
Wonderful!
Erin