One Serene Afternoon, Sesshu Toyo sat on a small rise overlooking the sea. At his right hand a brush, left his ink pots, before him a twelve-foot rice paper scroll. Sesshu sat in lotus position, his eyes closed, his mind as serene as the day.
Reflected in the still pond mind an image of Japan, a landscape of striking beauty and surprising detail given the simplicity of its portrayal and the monochrome expression.
Sesshu was master of himself, and as the landscape, the brush, the ink and the scroll were one with him, he was master of them as well. The ink knew the proper ebb and flow, congeal and spatter necessary to evoke an image in a viewer's eye. The brush knew the mechanics of transfer that allowed the ink to perform. The scroll was a master of absorption ceding the ink the proper degree at each point. The landscape knew how to best express itself and with Sesshu and his parts as agent effected its abstraction and transfer.
Without disturbing the still pond mind, Sesshu opened his eyes, took up the brush, dipped into the ink pot and began to reflect the image on the rice paper scroll. Had there been an observer on that hillside, she would have been amazed at with the rapidity and innerancy of the transfer. Each stroke of the brush, each sweep of the arm from paper to ink pot and back, each nuanced curve of the brush to modify a basic stroke was ibmued with elegance. Elegance that comes only from no-mind.
Mere moments passed. The sun was still shedding its warmth, well above the horizon, when Sesshu completed the last stroke and set aside his brush. A brief glance and nod acknowledged each participant, the ink, the pot, the brush, the scroll, that were One with Sesshu as the transfer was attained.
Sesshu picked up an inkblock and pressed his signature calligraph to the scroll to acknowledge completion of the task.
Sesshu rolled up the scroll, packed his things, and set the scroll on its journey to a museum where it is still enjoyed as a national treasure.
Centuries later, on another rise overlooking another sea, another artist enjoyed another Serene Afternoon. She too sat lotus posture, eyes closed with instruments before her. A stylus capable of exerting varying pressure and patterned strokes at her left hand, a sheet of ePpaper to her right.
Her still pond mind reflected another landscape, a landscape of complex interactions among a myriad of devices working in concert to serve a particular human need. Her landscape was also abstract - consisting only of those essential markers needed to evoke the fullness of itself.
She too was a master of her self and the stylus and ePaper one with her. The stylus was adept at stroke, embellishment, and nuance. The ePaper of converting to digital signals and providing visual feedback - evidence that the will of the landscape to reflect itself in another medium had been accomplished.
Without disturbing the still pond mind, she took up the stylus and began effecting the transfer of the program to the ePaper that, in turn, passed it on to the computers that would execute the interactions and provide the services indicated. Had there been an observer on that hillside, he would have been amazed at with the rapidity and innerancy of the transfer. The pressure of stylus to ePaper, the nuanced direction and width of stroke, angle of attack, and resulting morph was elegantly executed. Each stroke a directive modified by the variables of pressure, angle, sequence, and composition.
Time passed, but barely enough for a passing cloud to cast a pale shadow then cede its influence on her skin to the warming rays of sunlight. The stylus was set aside and from that moment on luggage would be accurately and efficiently transported through a complex maze of passageways in the Denver airport, from counter to cargo bay and back again.
Stylus and ePaper in hand she stands and begins to walk down the hill to the Studio. Within its halls and gardens she would practice and extend her understanding of the techniques that made her hillside performance possible: the calligraphy of expression, the language of objects, the extraction of essence, the visualization of form, and the stillness of mind. --DaveWest