"Just be in the mood for the truth." Agnes Martin

I watched the documentary on Agnes Martin last night. Second time.

She says, "You just can't be an artist if you can't be alone."

Inside our own minds, we can also be alone. Traffic calmed. Social media left alone. Quietness reigning.

She goes on: "You focus on everything. You are affected by everything. You are responding 100%."

She sat and stared at open New Mexico, letting the air ride into her geometric paintings. You can feel the meditation in the muted colors.

May our whole lives be prayers like this.

Material as second brain

I’ve been mesmerized by Sheila Hicks lately.

She reminds us to let the materials speak. To use the loom as a brain — not even a second one. The first one.

I’ve been sitting humbly before the material. Playing with it. Waiting. It will tell me what it wants if I stay quiet enough to hear it.

The life and the material speak what they seek to become.

Do we let them?

Also, happy birthday to my grandmother Ina Jane. She would be 108 years old today.

The Electric blue curtain

I picture a white wall. A small window with an electric blue curtain pulled across it. The rainstorm blows outside but from inside we see only white — and the shoots of rainwater as they pummel down that wall.

That's how life often feels.

And yet on the inside, with the electric curtain pulled shut, we can be safely, warmly, quietly home in ourselves.