Webding Holiday Greetings

The original words were meant to say: "Have A Very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year." But then, my computer decided different....

And it was right.

Happy holidays everybody.
See you next year!

Quiet Thoughts in Tandem

Clarity    Ink, wash & pen  2013

I am a great admirer of the painter Agnes Martin . Her quiet paintings and spare words speak volumes. The following is an excerpt from "Writings"- a  rare series of essays written in the sixties.

"The ocean is deathless
The islands rise and die
Quietly come, quietly go
A silent swaying breath 

I wish the idea of time would drain out of my cells 

and leave me quiet even on this shore".  A Martin

The further I look into Space, the farther away I move from the madding crowd.....

Silence # 2

Untitled    Ink, wash & pen  2013

It's not necessary to continually fill our air, ear or eye-space with noise. Real space is found in the pauses between words. Or, in the quietness between thoughts......

just look for it.  

4-Squared Space

Four-squared Space   charcoal  2013

Abstract painter Sean Scully once said: "A representational painter wants to show the things in the picture. With an abstract painting, what in a sense you're trying to do, is make everything happen at once."

Those words make perfect sense to me. Especially in terms of what's been going on with my work with the Three Wheels Zen garden space.

Like Scully, I'm trying to show 'everything at once', as well as what it means to me.

A whole universe contained within a 4-squared space.

Or Are Not....

Untitled    Ink, graphite, pencil & pen 2013

In a recent conversation with Professor John White (the designer of Three Wheels Zen Garden), I asked him to define space in 20 words or less.....

Untitled    Ink, wash & pen 2013

 and his answer was: "Space is where things are, or are not."

Untitled    Ink, pencil & pen 2013

Where Things Are....

Untitled    Ink, graphite & pen 2013

Sketchbook page

A New Chapter Begins

"Avalanche"     Ink, pen & wash  2013

Note: Due to photographic light refraction on ink surfaces, the original painting will vary slightly to the above photograph. (The original is always better!)

The Palimpsest Works

Movement   charcoal  2013

The Day After  charcoal  2013

Silence

Untitled    Ink & pen on Chinese scroll paper 2013

Untitled    Ink & graphite  2013

Untitled   Ink & wash 2013

"Sometimes it's good to be silent so that the work can be heard".  

R.Allen-Sherwood

Line into Space into Line

"Mapping Dark Matter",  Ink & wash  2013

"You could see every single leaf - see the twigs. His line as creating a space that was also a line..... space becoming a part of the artistic weaponry". Artist Maggie Hambling on Vangogh

Transcending Form

Ink & mixed media on Chinese scroll paper.

My monthly "pop-up Zen garden art studio"

Sketchbook work

Untitled    Ink & wash

Sketchbook

Sketchbook

The above photos show work created last month at the Zen garden and also give some idea of my working process.

My work is heading in a different direction. I feel like I'm navigating new territory beyond the shape, form and structure of the Zen garden - although I remain deeply and firmly rooted in it.

(Better buckle that seat-belt tightly & strap myself in for the ride!)

Over 1000 hits - thank you!

My laptop has returned. It's not 100%, but it'll do for now, I have been dutifully making work in the past month. Will post new works/ideas very soon.

In the meantime thank you so very much for supporting me and continuing to keep up with Still-Motion: A Journey into Space. Your visits have gone over the 1000 hits mark.....

Maybe I'm doing something right?

See you very shortly!

Cyberspace Gremlins Ate My Laptop

Downdraft            photo: R Allen-Sherwood 2013

Have to cry uncle and call time-out from cyberspace activities, as my laptop will be sent away for away for repair. Will use this unexpected time bonus to study and develop my artwork. Thank you for your visits and the continuing support.

Don't stop.
(See you in October!)

#34

Untitled",  marker pen & wash,  2013

"I discovered an invisible empire of the air. Intangible, yet solid as granite". 

Lee De Forest

A Definition of Nothing

This short video is so good, I've double posted it, here & on my Facebook Artist page!

(Glad I'm not the only one who spends their days talking about Nothing).

Waiting Room

Untitled     Ink, charcoal   2013

Made this the day before yesterday. Had not been to the garden in almost 2 months as they've been too busy. It was good to see it again, like a long lost old friend. The kind you don't need to constantly talk to and can just sit with,  sharing a rich, healing silent space together.

I post here the most orthodox work that emerged. The rest I will save for later.

Until next time, keep well in your spaces.

Spaces Appear & Disappear

Stratford Station 1       Photo by R Allen-Sherwood 2013

A thought-collage from a brief chat with Spanish architect Juan R.

Its difficult to separate form from space, or to think about architecture without thinking about space...

Rilke said something like “Every space in fact is an inner void. Our inner void that we all have

Stratford Station 2     Photo by R Allen-Sherwood 2013

JR - Space can sometimes have a deep resonance. They can arise a deep feeling in ourselves, do you know what I mean?
RAS -  Like when you're standing alone in the vastness of the desert?
JR - Yes, but it can also be in a tiny room. It’s a matter of feeling the space , perhaps.

Stratford Station 3       Photo by R Allen-Sherwood 2013

Sometimes space is so fragile, it needs a sensitive person to catch it, to touch it. 

Stratford Station 4       Photo by R Allen-Sherwood 2013

Some spaces in the city are so saturated, it seems to me they want to be born, to arise or expand but sometimes they can’t. For example if you go to Bedford Square, its a complete space.The quiet space, the defined space – and the city sometimes needs these types of spaces.

Stratford Station 5       Photo by R Allen-Sherwood 2013

 A type of space can also be created where people gather, or some situation that comes through. These spaces appear and disappear.

Stratford Station 6      Photo by R Allen-Sherwood 2013

 Light can also build a space very well. Light has a lot to do with space. It has the power of creating or transforming the space. Even a small window can completely transform one square space.

Stratford Station 7       Photo by R Allen-Sherwood 2013

 

Words by Juan R (except where specifically stated)

Photos by Rachelle Allen-Sherwood  2013

White Space

Exploring relationship /,   Ink, chalk, graphite, and pencil

I recently went to a talk about Zen gardens, given by Professor John White - the man who designed the Zen rock garden at Three Wheels Temple in West London.  Here is a small excerpt from that talk in the form of running quotes, alongside some recent experimental works I've been making - directly inspired by a few select small stones from Three Wheels. (With permission, of course).

Close-up detail ,   Ink, graphite and small stone

"Zen Gardens create a vast sense of calmness and space." 

 Describing a specific zen garden composition in Japan: "The smallest rock in the picture is the Alpha rock and the entire garden relies on this rock."

"You can make a zen garden with even one rock (and gravel)."

Drawing/  Ink, graphite and charcoa

"When the arrangement is right, there is no sense of scattering or cluttering of rocks. Wherever you are, is where you are meant to be." 

On the famous Zen garden of Ryoanji in Kyoto: "It is all about space. The rocks are merely measuring rods, Each one no more than a space within a space..."

Studies in relationship/  Ink

I'd like to end this post with one of Professor White's haiku poems, written specifically for a Zen garden in Japan which was designed around the idea of a flowing river:

Here in the still
the river races uphill.
No wave ever moves

Containaeity

Untitled ,   Ink, wash, graphite and charcoal  2013

"Who would believe that so small a space could contain the images of the whole universe?"

Leonardo da Vinci

Perec's Species of Spaces

Detail of sketchbook work   2013

In 2010/11 during my uni years, when I wrote my space poem in the form of a list (see post "Drawing Space"  http://stillmotionajourneyintospace.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/drawing-space.html), I was not aware, nor had I ever seen Georges Perec's Species of Spaces. So it was a great pleasure, joy (and relief!) to encounter his work. Many thanks to Juan, my architect friend, for recommending him. Here is an extract from Perec's classic book, a small gem of a piece entitled 'Space'.

"Untitled"   Ink, pencil, graphite, chalk & pen  2013

SPACE

We use our eyes for seeing. Our field of vision reveals a limited space, something vaguely circular. which ends very quickly to the left and right, and doesn't extend very far up or down. If we squint, we can manage to see the end of our nose, if we raise our eyes, we can see there's an up, if we lower them, we can see there's a down. If we turn our head in one direction, then in another, we don't even manage to see completely everything there is around us; we have to twist our bodies round to see properly what was behind us.

"Untitled"   Ink, pencil, graphite, chalk & pen  2013

Our gaze travels through space and gives us the illusion of relief and distance. That is how we construct space, with an up and down, a left and a right, an in front and a behind, a near and a far.

Elliptical eclipse on my studio table (ink, paper & stone)

When nothing arrests our gaze, it carries a very long way. But if it meets with nothing, it sees only what it meets. Space is what arrests our gaze, what our sight stumbles over: the obstacle, bricks, an angle, a vanishing point. Space is when it makes an angle, when it stops, when we have to turn for it to start off again. There's nothing ectoplasmic about space; it has edges, it doesn't go off in all directions, it does all that needs to be done for railway lines to meet well short of infinity.

Georges Perec  Species of Spaces and Other Pieces  1974

Questions of Space

 

Work in progress, detail   2013

I've been reading Bernard Tschumi's essay entitled,'Questions of Space.' Although it is aimed mainly at architects and building designers, his words speak deeply to me too, in my quest to understand what space is all about. Here are some examples:

"Untitled" (site specific installation)  Graphite powder, pencil & stone  2013

1.1   Is space a material thing, does it have boundaries?

1.11  If space has boundaries, is there another space outside those boundaries?

"Untitled"   Ink, pencil, graphite & pen  2013

 1.12  If space does not have boundaries, do things then extend infinitely?

Work in progress (digital image)  2013

1.13  As every finite extent of space is infinitely divisible (since every space can contain smaller spaces), can an infinite collection of spaces then form a finite space?

(B. Tsuchumi 'Questions of Space' / Architectural Association Publications )

1001 Ways to See

"Sunshadow Pink"   Ink, wash, marker pen & watercolour  2013

“Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.”
D.T. Suzuki

Still-Motion. No Verdict

"Untitled"   Ink, wash, pen graphite  2013

There is an ancient Japanese gardening book, known as the Sakuteiki, or Notes on Garden Making. It was written in the eleventh century and is still referred to today. In it, I can't remember where, there is a teaching about the proper placement of stones in a dry landscape garden, such as the one I've been working with here.

"Message For Noguchi"   Ink, marker pen & wash  2013

The Sakuteiki points out a need to place the rocks in relationship to each other in such a way, as to produce or reveal the dynamism of the forms. It also mentions that the final composition or configuration of the space should make it appear (ideally) "as if the stones are moving towards each other". 

"Zen Garden Walkabout 1"   Ink, paint & pen  2013

This concept had a great impact on me when I first encountered it several years ago, as I'd already experienced a sense of movement in the motionless forms of certain karesansui gardens in the past. It happened once at Ryoan-ji, in Kyoto. And then again here, at Three Wheels Garden in London. This was also the inspiration behind the title of this blog: 'Still-Motion'.

Perhaps it is this 'still/motion' quality which gives a good karesansui space the ability to completely 'absorb the viewer into the scenery' so that we feel (in many cases) as if we've become part of the garden in the most natural way - sitting comfortably alongside ancient rock formations, green shrubbery and mossy rock crevices. At this point it's just my supposition as the jury is still out on this one. 

Nietzsche's Space

"Solidarity"   Ink, paint & pen  2013

"With sturdy shoulders, 

space stands 

opposing all its weight 

to nothingness. 

Where space is, there is being".   

Nietzsche