Wow, has it already been five weeks since I last wrote in this blog? So much happened, not so much in the studio, so you didn’t miss anything 🙂 Not as an excuse… but to say that life sometimes takes it’s own turns and throws its own turns, and while we make plans God has […]
Been working on the little “manneken” that is to go into the new paintingmarked the space to see what it looks like… I made the mistake to start with paper instead of a mold from something else. So it was all wet and slippery and I had to wait for it to dry each time […]
You live in meas a constant pulseevery fiber ofmy beingdancingto yourdrum beat. Your heavy breathtouches my ear,and every poreof my skin vibrateswith the sweetestlullaby it everheard. And yetlouder thanthe storms outsideyour tune keepshaunting mein the nightin the day. Whenwillmyeyessee?
There are different wellswithin your heart.Some fill with each good rain,Others are fartoo deep for that. In one wellYou have just a fewprecious cups of water,That “love” is literallysomething of yourself,It can grow as slow asa diamondIf it is lost. Your loveShould never beoffered to themouth of aStranger,Only to someoneWho has the valorand daringTo cut […]
It’s been a while… and the current painting is sure taking it’s time… growing and evolving… Originally they were two… and who knows why I had the grandiose idea that they should be together but I could see those figures emerging and went ahead, little did I know where that would take me… because it […]
Nasrudin stories inspire me with their wonderful simplicity and yet profound wisdom, which often makes fun of our egos. Nesrudin is often portrait as a fool, and saints often times appeared to be fools when their wisdom would have been offensive and against the common knowledge. The fools of the village had a certain freedom […]
I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? (Rumi) Details… “Square and Round” acrylic on canvas, framed and ready to hang (4 canvases assembled with a hole […]
Been working on a new price-list for my paintings that is more consistent, based on square inch, as suggested by a lot of artists friends and galleries. This is always such a delicate question for every artist, putting a price-tag on what we love most. Though there is plenty of advice and yet plenty of […]
…or as Henry David Thoreau says, “The question is not what you look at, but what you see”. Note to self: Don’t forget to smell the roses and the happy bird, flapping its wings, as you rush like a winged stranger through this world. And if you look away try to see. “Looking away” […]
Those of you who have been following my blog might have noticed that I haven’t been posting much lately… been rather quite lately, and not up to much words… even (dare I say!) not much up to painting, but instead more drawn to meditation and reflection and reading… So it may not be a coincident […]
Found this very interesting especially in the light of recent upheavals in the world and around us. There is always a peaceful spot to be found… off to painting and gardening… 🙂 “Wherever your mind becomes peaceful, wherever your mind is situated peacefully, put your mind there. If your mind is situated peacefully in working […]
Been working on this “puzzle” of a painting for a while now… it is going in a circle and has a square whole, what more can I say… keep changing the left panels but I think now I know how they want to stay… or maybe… (below are some versions) acrylic and collage on canvas […]
“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.” (Richard Bach) “Everything you see has its roots in the unseen world. The forms may change, yet the essence remains the same. Every wonderful sight will vanish; every sweet word will fade, But do not be disheartened, The source they come […]
Join me this Saturday, May 22nd, 7:00pm for the opening reception of LarkGalleryOnline Show “Go Green”, which is part of the Second Annual Ecological Long Beach Festival. “Go Green” reflects this year’s Green Long Beach Festival theme – “Turning The Tide” towards a more sustainable and eco-friendly world. The participants of the exhibition present artwork […]
Seems like ages since I have been painting. We were hosting our annual study retreat and Birthday Celebrations and there was a lot of preparations and organizing, cleanups and catering to do. It was more an intensive study course with lots of practice: chanting, walks, good music, good food and for the final day we […]
Since my camera is not working and I couldn’t post pictures , I was thinking maybe a good opportunity to write more about my paintings, which I am both reluctant and having difficulty with. Always hard to write about something while it is still developing but also a good idea to clear the idea perhaps… […]
At the “Slow Art” event we spend a long time looking at just one painting, instead of rushing past hundreds of paintings without seeing or worse being overwhelmed. As the host was a yoga teacher, she encouraged us to compare our initial reaction with the feeling after seeing it for a while, which is done […]
new painting, with details… Is it the fading tulips on the table (love it) or the general mood of retreating and de-cluttering, of letting go and getting back to the basics, who knows. It is a re-acurring theme in my life, that of death. As my favorite quote: “death is always on your heels” (Swami […]
I really like the way the leaf blends with the thorn and the cross, perhaps a reminder to the kind of suffering that we have to bear sometimes for understanding our true destiny… “Bleeding” acrylic on Masonite board, unframed H 6 x W 6.5 inches (15.2 x 16.5 cm)
I love this! Of course by Hafiz, so funny and yet so true… We are often in battle.So often defending every side of the fort,It may seem, all alone.Sit down, my dear,Take a few deep breaths,Think about a loyal friend.Where is your music,Your pet, a brush ? Surely one who has lasted as long as […]
“In the eye of the snake” acrylic on masonite panel H 4 x W 4 inch (10 x 10 cm)
Sweating the small stuff… and getting paintings done one night at a time 🙂 “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.’ (Thomas Edison) This is a small painting that evolved from a circle and ended in a snake 😉 Acrylic painted on masonite board 4 x 4 inch (10 x 10cm) There is a […]
Been working on my website and added 5 recent paintings to it. The link on the pictures below should send you to the page, where you can see close up views and details be clicking on the photo, a lightbox should pop up (Sorry, doesn’t work in Internet Explorer!). At the same time have added […]
Got a huge shock last night. While working on my website I had been consolidating backups from old to new computer, de-cluttering, and at the end of the day missing a folder of very important files for work . . . went to bed with thoughts of the worse . . . what would be […]
letting it fly like a kite in the sky… “Letting go” acrylic on canvas, 16 x 12 inches (40.5 x 30.5 cm)
Seems to come with the spring, this urge to clean up for a new beginning.Time to pull up the weeds in the garden and plant salad. Getting rid of unnecessary stuff in the studio making room for some fresh ideas. Not sure if I will go so far as the minimalists, but I like the […]
Sometimes when I don’t quite understand what the world is trying to tell me, or I am not quite sure where a painting is taking me, it helps me to remember that… “Everything is gestation and then birthing. To let each impression and each embryo of a feeling come to completion in itself, in the […]
Went on an outing with the Culver City Artist Group to Bergamot station. Lots of Galleries and lots of other stuff to see. I should go out more often, it was very inspiring, even the trip on the bus. Felt like a kid exploring the world. On the right is a car that was filled […]
This came to me after painting my latest painting (below) while contemplating the meaning of surrender, and I thought it was quite befitting…. It is from the Bhagavad Gita my favorite text of all times… Those who say, “I have understood the reality of Parabhairava,” they have not understood. Those who say, “I have not […]
It never ceases to amaze me when a painting is finally finished… and yet I never seem absolutely sure, or as Paul Gardner put it, “A painting is never finished — it just stops in interesting places.” Sounds a little less harsh than what Leonardo da Vinci supposedly said, “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” […]
This sure needs some more work . . .
HIS LIPS UPON THE VEIL He has never left you. It is just that your soul is so vast that just like the earth in its innocence, it may think, “I do not feel my lover’s warmth against my face right now.” But look, dear, is not the sun reaching down its arms and always […]
. . . honestly escaped me, but it started all very randomly, a couple of scribbles of sanskrit that got lost in the different textures of brush stokes . . . almost like a thick forest, when I saw a head appear thru the light and still fascinated with “hrim” from the previous painting . […]
After much prodding and resisting I finally sucumbed to making a fanpage. What convinced me in the end was reading Lisa Call’s blog “MakeBigArt.com“. In her article “Do I need a facebook fanpage?” she writes that it is technically illigal to have my art on an ordinary facebook profile. And finally, here’s a little tidbit […]
In this painting, a hand mudra emerges intuitively which seems rooted in the ground but reaches towards the moon. In the delicate dance between art and spirituality, I feel, a profound connection exists, one that transcends the boundaries of the tangible and ventures into the realm of the ineffable. Both art and spirituality often rely […]
NO ONE WILL BEGRUDGE ME I talk about it sometimes with Him, all the suffering in the world. “Dear God,” I have prayed, “how is it possibleall the horrors I have seen, all the atrocities you allow manto commit when you–God–are ever standingso near and could help us?Could we not hear your voice say ‘No’with […]
this time it looks as if a mudra is emerging from the abstract beginnings . . . and so it goes . . . not finished yet.
Here is the promised snippet, that I talked about in my last post, about what love is by Swami Lakshmanjoo . . . there are those saints that are moved to tears by everything they see, smell, hear or touch . . . “This supreme state is absolutely different from all these, you may call […]
By Liz Bennefield Looking at Claudia’s painting, I recall a poem that I wrote a very long time ago. “Memories” I do not live alone.One by one come memories,purged by time,existing once againin the perfectionof what might have been. Visit her two blogs (“the moments between” and “quite spaces”) for more poems and wonderful photos. […]
This painting reminds me of a passage I found in the Bhagavad Gita where Swamiji Lakshmanjoo was explaining what love/devotion to God is like: “He is filled with tears everywhere”. The seeker’s heart becomes a vessel overflowing with a love that transcends the boundaries of the mundane and embraces the divine. Where every tear becomes […]
After watching Avatar, I had a discussion on facebook about my disappointment with its solution to the problems of survival of this planet being again war, as it has been unsuccessfully practiced in history for eons now. Though I really liked the way they showed the connectedness of everything and wished they could have plugged […]
This is what I like about painting without pre-conceived ideas, and without judging and reasoning (at least not while painting), and this is how they seem to teach me. Usually though this happens long after I have painted them and this one might have been an exception because it took longer to complete and I […]
Haven’t finished this one, but since it has been taken so long I have had more time to wonder about this latest painting that has been evolving in my studio… You can click the “in process” tag on the side or beneath and it should just show those posts relating to the process. There was […]
click to see bigger… photos copyright Claudia Dose
Back at the canvas after its been sitting there for a while, looking at it with ‘fresh eyes’. There is some more in the pipeline just not flowing onto the canvas yet . . . never mind, for now plenty busy painting the rose, emptying out my head meanwhile.
Been luxuriating in laziness over the holidays, ahhhh!Haven’t been that lazy for a long time, it felt needed and long due.No blogs or tweeds or facebook comments or likes and friends requests, tried to stay away from the computer as much as possible. Btw. here is a funny movie about the facebook frenzy. Even talking […]
…with everything it seems, especially writing in my blog, paintings seem to multiply without getting finished, to do’s are piling up, while life goes on and on…It occurred to me that I need to slow down, and that perhaps this is the perfect time for it. Too much is going on yet at the same […]
Was watching this documentary “doing time doing vipasana“, about how 10 days of silent meditation made a huge difference in the lives of the inmates as well as the officers. At the end of the course they all stood in a line to have a hug from the director (something very unusual due to caste […]
Lately it seems I have started more paintings than finished, this is one that I had put aside a while ago and got inspired to take up again…
“Love and Death both are effecting our heart… One takes the heart, the other the beat.” Anonymous (Shivastotravali, verse 15)“Those devotees who are intoxicated with the this wine of attachment, devotion, in those devotees, you just extract the hearts of people. Just by your mere presence. That is Lord Shiva’s positions. Wherever Lord Shiva is […]
Garden looks more like a jungle these days, time to do some serious pruning, it’s autumn, the chrysanthemums are almost finished with flowering, some repotting, some new seeds for the winter (it’s two seasons of gardening here in CA). How gardening is always so nourishing, feeding the soul with being connected to earth, nature and […]
The Guest House This being human is a guest house.Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness,some momentary awareness comesas an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all!Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,who violently sweep your houseempty of its furniture,still, treat each guest honorably.He may be clearing you outfor some new […]
Wonderful concert last night at the Zipper Hall with the Camerata Pacifica. Reminds me again of the power of music. Just watching the amazing cello player Ani Aznavoorian be absorbed in her play taking the whole audience with her. She was playing together with Lera Auerbach on the piano in a composition by Lera Auerbach […]
I felt honored to be hanging my paintings with to so many talented artist from the CCAG at the art show on Saturday. There was such a variety of mediums and styles that I was glad I wasn’t in the shoes of the judge who had to make decisions of first and last.
My last painting got me thinking and wondering about what that angel is doing, looking a bit burned. And who is that (Satan?) who seems to pull it down into the dark? “Coincidentally” I was reading that according to Mansur Al-Hallaj, a Sufi saint, Satan used to be an angel who “fell from grace” because […]
This is one of the paintings that basically just appeared in front of my eyes as I kept painting. I love those moments. They make me feel as if something from way deep down is emerging that could have never emerged if I had an idea already in my head. They are much more interesting […]
I will be participating in the annual exhibit of the Culver City Art Group with some of my paintings. There is going to be a broad variety of art from local artist including oils, water colors, acrylics, ceramics, photography, collages and more! The show is judged with awards and prizes. If you are in the […]
“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” (Mahatma Gandhi) Original painting 18 x W 18 inch (46 x 46 cm) acrylic and leaves on canvas, ready to […]
It seems there is a lot of uncertainty in the air lately, in the world and in everybody’s life. Perhaps as an artist we don’t noticed it much before because uncertainty seems to be a part of making art. Do we ever know why we make this or that paint stroke or why we choose […]
CERTAINTY Certainty undermines one’s power, and turns happiness into a long shot. Certainty confines. Dears, there is nothing in your life that will not change – especially your ideas of God. Look what the insanity of righteous knowledge can do: crusade and maim thousands in wanting to convert that which is already gold into gold. […]
This painting comes with a lot of history. The mat surrounding the painting is from a Jacquard fabric that I designed (way back working in Switzerland). The pattern becomes more visible when the light is shining at a particular angle. The frame goes even further back in time, to my school days while interning with […]
“A Necessary Autumn Inside Each” You and I have spoken all these words, but as for the waywe have to go, words are no preparation. There is no getting ready, other than grace. My faults have stayed hidden. One might call that a preparation!I have one small drop of knowing in my soul. Let it […]
Autumn The leaves are falling, falling as if from far up, as if orchards were dying high in space. Each leaf falls as if it were motioning “no.” And tonight the heavy earth is falling away from all other stars in the loneliness. We’re all falling. This hand here is falling. And look at the […]
A friend took me down to Santa Monica to meet Melanie, the owner of the PaintLab. What a fabulous idea. You can come and look at the art on their walls, different styles, abstract, phantasy, watercolor, graffiti, surreal, realistic and more and each of the artist represented is teaching a class in his or her […]
Haven’t been to a concert for a while, so this was a real treat: the old fashioned Händel gala at the Zipper Concert Hall, conducted by a very engaging Martin Haselbock, and the singer Dominique Labelle, absolutely stunning! Also very impressive flute musician, and they had played some beautiful old instruments. Never mind that it […]
Why are you so blind to what the soul needs?Weep for yourself as when a cloud weeps,and then the branch freshens. As when a candlereleases tears and gets brighter. Wherever people grieve over anything,you should sit with them and grieve louder,because you have an even better right to moan. They lament for what passes away. […]
Feels as if the world has been spinning a bit faster the last few days or even weeks, at least “I” for one am dizzy. Where is the exit? Let me out of this carousel! Grateful for solitude and painting…Here is some of the paintings in process. I could reach great heights with Your love, […]
Well the very first one actually happened at our house in May, so this was the first public one. I was showing my art as part of a fundraiser event (“a Night of Devotion“) last week. Thanks to all who came and made this into a special evening. Thanks to our friend Don McDaniels who […]
St. John of the Cross says it so clearly… “What is grace?” I asked God. And he said, “All that happens.” Then He added, when I looked perplexed, “Could not lovers say that every moment in their Beloved’s arms was grace? Existence is my arms, though I will understand how one can turn away from […]
Been busy preparing for the event (“a night of devotion”), working on website, updating statement. I had taken Alyson Stanfield’s advice and written snippet of my thoughts about my art down over the last month, now basically just need to put them together, but…. Today stole myself away from the dreaded writing about my art […]
Here is another poem by St. John on the cross that really touched me… Do they prove anything to you, these tears? All that I had I laid outside that door where I was told you lived, and someone took those gifts, was it you? Were they that worthless that no thanks was given? That […]
It took a while but finally…
I will be participating in “A Night of Devotion” (kirtan, paintings, photography) at the Electric Lodge in Venice, CA. The event is on Thursday, September the 10th from 7pm to 11pm. Special feature: Hathaway’s new album release. Special guests are Trevor Hall and K.B. Solomon. The paintings will show for the days after the event […]
lazy afternoonwatching the birds on the feeder(“Wallie”, the magpie who used to come to the kitchen window has found himself his first girlfriend and doesn’t think hand feeding is cool any more, at least not when she is looking :-)) last days of filling the potbelly stove (an art in itself)the smell of wood fires […]
acrylic on canvas,18 x 24 inch (46 x 61 cm)
Still reading St John of the Cross and his “dark night of the soul”… Into the darkness of the nightWith heartache kindled with love,O blessed chance!I went out unobserved,My house being wrapped in sleep. In the darkness, and yet safe,By secret ladder and in disguise,O blessed chance!In darkness, and in secret, I crept out,My house […]
Very often it happens that the final painting (above top) looks nothing like it started (below)….
HOW COULD A LOVER FALL? What could have caused your grip to weaken that allowed creation to be? How could a lover fall to his death from the arms of infinite strength? How active are you in the mind sustaining such a great wall that the sun can cast a frightening shadow the world believes. […]
Wondering about why Jesus and St. John were suffering so much, and if they had a choice why they choose to suffer, until came across this… Why this universe does not take place according to my choice . . .“You desire for something, it does not happen . . . are you Shiva?I don’t like […]
acrylic on canvas,18 x 18 inch (46 x 46 cm)
Watched “The Passion of Christ” for the second time around and still couldn’t stand it, had to walk out a couple of times crying. Just too gory in the details, but it sure gives you a feeling of how it must have been… And just like a parallel the other day I was reading about […]
My friend Sarah reminded me of the book, “the van gogh blues”, by Eric Maisel, which I was reading a while ago, and which impressed me at that time. I think one of his approaches to the depression and creative downtimes that every artist experiences from time to time was that as an artist we […]
I hate showing unfinished work. But then again it might be a very good treatment for my ego to show those ugly beginnings… 😉 This one has a story that will have to be told when it is finished…
Seems like my inspiration and output in painting has been lessened lately. And I remember Elisabeth Gilberts (in her TED talk) suggesting that we shouldn’t beat ourselves up and put that much demand on our little Self. She reminds us of the Muse that used to visit artists in the old ages. Realized I haven’t […]
June gloom weather… makes me wanna just crawl into my ‘cave’ and meditate… trying to escape uncertainty… being the only constant unchanging feature in life… it dawns on me that the only way out aint pretty or any less painful than where I am right now 😉 It’s probably going to be more like Mirabai […]
Heart-strings – The pain has helped me heal. It’s all connected, the pain, the sacredness, the fruitful opening of it all, like a pomegranate. Then moving on… with a song in the background.
Gelassenheit means “releasement” or “letting go.” The term is an old one in German intellectual history, from the theologizing of Meister Eckhart (1260-1327) to the religious thought of Reform Anabaptists and early modern mystics, to its 20th-century revival in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. “Make a start with yourself, and abandon yourself. Truly, if you […]
Still reveling in Meister Eckhart’s words: “To be right, a person must do one of two things; either he must learn to have God in his work and hold fast to him there, or he must give up his work altogether. Since however, man cannot live without activities that are both human and various, we […]
“When there is misunderstanding; when misunderstanding is manifested all over the world, misunderstanding everywhere.The remedy is in my hands, that brute has nothing to do with that. The remedy is in His [Gods] hands, he is watching that.This misunderstanding, He creates that misunderstanding, He manifests that misunderstanding. Then by his own free choice, at the […]
Something was still missing 😉 The sprout that sprouts from the hand into one day a giant tree. acrylic on canvas, 18 x 18 inch (46 x 46 cm)
acrylic on canvas,18 x 18 inch (46 x 46 cm)
Timely reading: Meister Eckhart in German, which I should have read a long time ago. Brilliantly put in words, clear, and filled of the highest monistic thought (like Kashmir Shaivism), and with a wonderful touch of down to earth-ness. And the first thing in one of the books (Meister Eckhart Mystische Schriften and with original […]
My friend Doni took some professional photos of the latest paintings, and I have been able to upload them to redbubble, an art website that offers prints on demands in all sizes, postcards etc. Have a look… http://www.redbubble.com/people/claudiadose and let me know what you think.
I met you, a lizard, in the loYou stared at me the same way tooMoments, minutes, time stood still. I blew a kiss and our souls merged in aweYour eyes blinking as if you understood it allSmall feet, frozen, melting my big heart. When finally you lifted up your head and leftI wondered when I […]
How then can we argue? having lunch in a field one day, I troubled an ant with a question. I asked of him humbly. “Have you ever been to Paris?” and he replied, “No but I wouldn’t mind going.” and then he asked me if I had ever been to a famous ant city. And […]
We have been busy preparing for the Birthday Celebration of our spiritual teacher, and a retreat following it. It’s been different this year without our chief cook, organizer and my “partner in crime,” but we managed surprising well and everyone had a chance to help so much more this time. Except we forgot to let […]
The feet of a master have been associated with his connection to the ground and as such there is a certain gratitude and reverence for them to connect us with the higher realms here on this earth. In this painting I tried to capture this connection of the sacred among with the earth, water and […]
Been updating the website with new paintings painted thus far, plus finalized titles that appeared to fit and add to the understanding, or so I hope 😉 Have a look here.
Elizabeth Gilbert (author of the book, “Eat, Pray, Love“) muses about: “A different way to think about creative genius.” In her very funny, personal and moving talk she has some really important points that might keep us artists and “geniuses” (and everyone actually) sane, and even save some lives… “Allowing somebody … to believe that […]
