Implements

This is a continuing series of watercolors and drawings of tools and ordinary household objects started in 2003. At the time I was on sabbatical from Naropa University, where I teach classes in studio arts and meditation. During an extended painting retreat at Linda Fleming's Libre commune studio in southern Colorado, I got a call from Liza Matthews, art director of the Shambhala Sun magazine. She needed some images to accompany a Jack Kornfield article about the tools of meditation. I delivered a chisel, coping saw, wrench, and putty knife, all of which appeared in the January 2004 issue. Since then I've continued with the idea of tools and “implements” as I started to call them. Many of the compositions are vertical and formal, with the image placed slightly above center. They all bring into play a kind of clear observance of things, which is one of the secret delights of artistic practice: clear seeing, as though a fog has lifted.