Breathlines proceeds from meditation to creative expression. Meditation is a gateway to silence and emptiness. In this 'space,' a practitioner abandons intentionality and preconception. Released into beginner's mind, the painter blindly lays down lines on a blank canvas. These lines present a template for imagination and memory. Images appear, recognizable forms--a giant's face, the turn of a shoulder, the fleeting shadow of a bird. The painter may sense here a message that says something important about who s/he is. Contemplation of image spawns words. The challenge becomes poetic, how to use language to honour the dream.
Blindly we create as we exhale a first breathline. We pass the canvas to others, who contribute their own breathlines. At last we open our eyes. With a single exhalation we paint a frame. We clean our lines, look into them as into clouds. With white paint we release forms that have spoken to us. We examine our painting from this point of view, then that; we are searching for story. Our recognition of the story when it emerges is a kind of remembering. The sign of our engagement is the emotion we feel. Our paintings are like moments in a reverie. Throughout, the experience is shared and the consequence of this sharing is the cultivation of community. From here to poetry and story is but a short season. The fruits of harvest are beauty, humour, compassion, fellowship, joy.
Toronto writer and painter, Laurie Edwards, has been sharing breathlines ever since he was introduced to the motivational practices of the Butterfly Peace Garden in Sri Lanka. One of these is called by its creator and Garden co-founder Paul Hogan "mystery painting". Over the years Laurie has elaborated his own version of this practice, which he calls "breathlines" because of the particular emphasis he places on making the brush an extension of the painter's exhaling breath.
A breathlines painting is an offering first to the practitioner, and perhaps to someone else. They are not bought or sold. Nor can they be traded. Breathlines images, on the other hand, will soon be available as silkscreen prints and, where appropriate, impressed onto fabrics such as blankets and t-shirts.
Blindly we create as we exhale a first breathline. We pass the canvas to others, who contribute their own breathlines. At last we open our eyes. With a single exhalation we paint a frame. We clean our lines, look into them as into clouds. With white paint we release forms that have spoken to us. We examine our painting from this point of view, then that; we are searching for story. Our recognition of the story when it emerges is a kind of remembering. The sign of our engagement is the emotion we feel. Our paintings are like moments in a reverie. Throughout, the experience is shared and the consequence of this sharing is the cultivation of community. From here to poetry and story is but a short season. The fruits of harvest are beauty, humour, compassion, fellowship, joy.
Toronto writer and painter, Laurie Edwards, has been sharing breathlines ever since he was introduced to the motivational practices of the Butterfly Peace Garden in Sri Lanka. One of these is called by its creator and Garden co-founder Paul Hogan "mystery painting". Over the years Laurie has elaborated his own version of this practice, which he calls "breathlines" because of the particular emphasis he places on making the brush an extension of the painter's exhaling breath.
A breathlines painting is an offering first to the practitioner, and perhaps to someone else. They are not bought or sold. Nor can they be traded. Breathlines images, on the other hand, will soon be available as silkscreen prints and, where appropriate, impressed onto fabrics such as blankets and t-shirts.
