ARTS: 2021 January Painting & Drawing Theme: Breath

Bows to you, my friends,

I would like to promote a monthly theme for painting and drawing; not to dominate your art practice all month (unless you choose), but for just one painting or drawing! The best part is that for these monthly themes, EVERYONE IS AN ARTIST! If you have a surface, be it a sheet of paper, canvas, board, or anything, make a mark on it, and post it here in this thread.

We have only a few days left in January, so there's no time to waste. Our theme this month is BREATH. Your goal is to produce a breath drawing or painting. What does this mean? Well, you are the artist! But I have some helpful suggestions/ideas:

• Create a simple piece of art by inhaling deeply, then starting and completing your work in a single breath that you release slowly, slowly through your pursed lips.
• You might complete a piece of art only placing marks as you exhale, using your inspiration to have your inspiration (See what I did there?) or to prepare.
• Create a piece of art that represents breath to you.
• Or come up with your own idea!

Your art could take a long time, or very little time. Then post a photo of your work here for us all to enjoy and express our appreciation for.

Breathing in
I pull the creative forces of the universe into myself.
Breathing out
I create.

Gassho,
Nengei
Sat today. LAH.

Attachment 7005 This is my Breath submission. i find during meditation that focusing on the breath enables me to get lost in the flow and to drop all else. they say that the breath is akin to the spirit - so much so that in certain languages the two concepts are represented by the same word - and when i just breathe, my spirit is calmed and i feel closer to Buddhahood.

Gassho, John
ST/LAH

Here is a quick line drawing I did last night for this prompt. The quote is from Kosho Uchiyama Roshi's Opening the Hand of Thought. This quote has really stuck with me over the past year or so, and often comes to mind when I am out in nature.

I am going to enjoy keeping up with these and seeing everyone's contributions, thank you for facilitating this, Nengei gassho2

Attachment 7007

Gassho,

Ryan
Sat Today

Ryan, that's brilliant! Love it.

Looks a little like Jim Morrison too... ;)

Gassho,
Seikan

-stlah-

Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Tapatalk

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GrasshopperMan17

Attachment 7005 This is my Breath submission. i find during meditation that focusing on the breath enables me to get lost in the flow and to drop all else. they say that the breath is akin to the spirit - so much so that in certain languages the two concepts are represented by the same word - and when i just breathe, my spirit is calmed and i feel closer to Buddhahood.

Gassho, John
ST/LAH

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What you say about focusing on the breath to help drop all else is so true. I will often do this at the beginning of my zazen to help "slow down" my mind a bit before moving on to shikantaza (when needed -- which is pretty frequently lately). It is always with us, which makes it an excellent point of focus for finding peace and calm [gassholook]

Very nice submission!

Gassho,

Ryan
Sat Today LAH

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Seikan

Ryan, that's brilliant! Love it.

Looks a little like Jim Morrison too... ;)

Gassho,
Seikan

-stlah-

Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Tapatalk

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Haha! It does! Wow, maybe I was channeling the Lizard King a little there :D

Thank you gassho2

Gassho,

Ryan
Sat Today LAH

Really nice, Ryan gassho1

Gassho, Yokai (Chris) sat/lah

Super-duper work, John gassho2 and Ryan gassho2 ! Yes, this is exactly it. For us, the breath is like coming home, like placing your bare feet in the grass and feeling your sameness with all sentient beings. Come back to the breath.

Gassho,
Nengei
Sat today. LAH.

Beautiful gassho2

Gassho, John
ST/LAH