Tuesday, January 29, 2013

GRATITUDE

Just an update on Slow Looking, for TBD readers.  As you know I have been much preoccupied in recent days with putting out word about my new book and this is a good moment to acknowledge the help you've given me, some in very significant ways.  Just yesterday, my friend and fellow-blogger, the painter Gregg Chadwick, wrote a lengthy entry about the book on Speed of Life.  Thanks, Gregg!  I'm grateful, too, for the long and thoughtful article by Liz Goldner , the Orange County-based writer and art critic, on her blog, Contemporary Art Dialogue.  And then, quite unexpectedly, there was a fine article in Slow Muse, a blog authored by the east coast painter Deborah Barlow.  Thanks, Deborah!  How about a "One Hour/One Painting" session in your studio one day?  The paintings you post on your blog look like excellent subjects!  And thanks, too, for Facebook postings by Fiona Robyn, Robin Chan, Morrie Warshawski, Pat Riley and others--as well as to all those who "liked," forwarded and tweeted links.

This has been my first experience with POD (publish on demand) self-publishing, so I'm more than ever aware that it's this kind of support that's needed if a book is to rise above the horizon line in today's saturated market--and I hope it goes without saying that it's the ideas I'm interested in spreading, not the commerce!  One thing that's puzzling to me is the stats on CreateSpace. As I've noted before, there have been annoying glitches in the ordering process--now hopefully ironed out.  I'm also told that there's a time lag in CreateSpace's reporting.  But I still would have expected more of a spike that I've noticed to date and I'm concerned by what seems like a discrepancy between the stats and the feedback I've been getting.  But I don't have my own numbers, not even bare estimates.  So you'd be doing me a great favor if you'd simply drop a line to my email address (peterclothier@mac.com) to let me know 1) if you placed an order and received a copy; or 2) if you tried to place an order and gave up in despair.  That information would be very useful as I persist in my efforts, so my best thanks in advance if you have it in your heart to help.

I'd also love to hear from you if you have a readership with whom you'd like to share some thoughts about Slow Looking.  I still have a (rather limited!) number of review copies to send out, so please feel free to ask.

I have often expressed my gratitude for your readership when posting on The Buddha Diaries, but it bears repeating.  I have been writing for many years and have published in many different arenas, but it gives me more pleasure than I can say to know that there are hundreds of people throughout the world who check in on these pages, whether regularly or only on occasion.  To know that I can actually publish what I write on any given day and that what I have written will be read on seven continents still seems miraculous, and continues to provide me with a somewhat incredulous thrill.  I send out metta to all, along with my gratitude...

 




2 comments:

Jeanne Desy said...

I would like a copy for review, if possible.

cynda valle said...

Dear peter, recently got my copy of “slow looking” and was surprised and delighted to hear you describe a process that is very like the way many painters see.
Everyday, when I am done painting I bring the current painting home and spend hours looking at it. My family has often teased me about my “infatuation” with my paintings, not realizing how important it is to spend time looking rather than actively painting, …. Ideally this “slow looking” evolves into a painting that tell s me something about myself that I didn’t already know and moves me in directions much more interesting then where I THOUGHT I was going.. When this starts to happen I experience the most wonderful sensation of becoming the medium, rather than the author of the work. The painting starts to direct me, rather than the other way around. This is a truly heady sensation, one that, more than any other, feeds my soul and gives me the reason to paint. In order to be willing to spend the time “just looking” I have had to develop faith that the process will work, and that faith gives me the tenacity and paitience I need to sit and simply look, no matter how long it takes for the “Muse” to speak.
The process reminds me of those old lava lamps from the 60’s; The subliminal (uncoucious) mind bubbles at the base of the lamp. Given time and a quiet mind, (“unhindered,by preconceptions or mind sets”) and influenced only by the colors, shapes, textures, and images in the paitning, in front of me, a bubble of an idea will detach from the base of the lamp (subliminal mind) and slowly rise through the viscous liquid to pop into the conscious mind (top of the lamp) complete and fully formed and presenting such an obvious and simple direction for tthe painting to move that I am always surprised that it took so much time looking to discover it. I get that magical sensation that I’d didn’t think it up myself, merely grabbed it when it popped into my conciousness.
The Quakers too, understand this phenomenon. “The still small voice within”, requires the quieting of your conscious mind and sufficient time to focus in and hear the voice. Even so we often try to deny the voice, it is so subtle, and we can easily drown it out….But, over time it will bubble up again and again; quietly burst ing into our consciousness until we “see.”