Blue Tree is an ink drawing that I created in 2023. It consists of hundreds of tiny ink lines that show a broad expanse of a blooming tree. Inspired by a huge walnut tree at the Seattle house (where I grew up), I depicted a shallow root system. Although the black walnut reaches a majestic […]
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I recently listened to a woman’s speech about having lived in a Stone Age indigenous community doing volunteer work for many years. She adapted herself to their lifestyle. In her descriptions, she casually mentioned that the village would gather together each week “at the Meeting Tree.” This sounded like a natural assumption that a large
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Using ink and acrylic, I drew a meditating figure floating atop a void. The darkened ovoid space below the figure reminded me of an apple-shape. I grew up in Seattle and we had several apple trees on our land, perfect places of refuge. On many a spring, summer and autumn day, I climbed a tree
Clouds Low is an ink drawing that depicts people meditating in nature. The left figure sits among boulders. She consists of multiple layers: the white outline, an off-white area inside the outline and an inner space with tightly drawn ink lines. When I meditate, I feel an outer level, symbolized by the outline, that is
In my studio, while working on my ink drawings series, Land and Water Meditations, I spontaneously drew a large tree that I titled Planted. With hundreds of ink lines, I created the vitality and energy of thousands of leaves in this enormous tree that extended to the top and side borders of the picture. The
I grew up in Seattle with omnipresent rain and abundant trees. In early spring, pink blossoms covered fruit trees. The east side of my family’s one-acre plot featured a cherry orchard, with a few plum, pear and apple trees growing wild in the back. Blossoms heralded the advent of caterpillar season. We used no pesticides,
Pictured above: K. Kauffman, Moon Bath, 15″x15″, Acrylic, Oil, Pastel, Ink, Collage Part of my regular hygiene is to allow a big moon’s rays to shine on me once a month or so. I call this “moon bathing.” Fortunately, in Hawaii, during a full moon, it’s warm enough all year to go outside to my
Nature can astound me with perfect scenes that deeply move my artist’s soul. These aesthetic occurrences are so powerful, I think of them as visual poetry. At their best, poems offer special and intense experiences of feelings and ideas that incorporate distinctive styles and rhythms. On a walk, I discover that a rain storm left
Lizard Head and Backbend Dancer burst into my vision as I walked by the bushy vines clinging to a stucco wall in my neighborhood. When I gazed into the textured swarm of leaves, these two figures appeared to my inner vision. In the animated swirls of the foliage, I sensed dancers. Lizard Head’s mouth opened
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Leonardo Da Vinci taught his students to gaze at random abstract designs in clouds or textured mud walls. “Draw what you see,” he instructed them. I often take his advice. It’s easy to discover delightful sky-dragons or cloud castles in the air. Staring in a meditative state makes boundaries dissolve and re-form; my vision changes.
