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Contained within this first book of my sumi-e ink paintings on rice paper are 33 images of freedom. My whole life is one continuous work of art dedicated to freedom. This is a visual example of what that looks like on paper. Beside each painting, on the other page, is a companion poem which doesn't explain the painting. Writing poetry made me feel free. I discovered this feeling as a teenager. Doing art made me feel free. Creativity kept me alive and made life worth living. My art work is as visceral as my desire to live in absolute freedom. Limited in one paragraph to saying why someone should buy this book, that is what I can tell you about "Sky Bones". It will resonate freedom across your skies like the sound of a red-tailed hawk soaring overhead. Keeeeee!
I write a short history about the rice paper and sumi-e ink used to make these paintings in the introduction to the book. I could repeat that story here but just know that this paper and the ink stick used to make these paintings was over fifty years old when I got them. It's a good story well worth the read if that is something you value as part of the making of art. It's in the book. If you don't get a copy of the book then I'm wasting my time repeating the story here. What I get to relate here that I might be repeating myself but I'll say it anyway, is where the title comes from. That's a good story also. I worked on an acrylic painting from 1976 until 2006. I couldn't get it to come off the way I wanted it to. Then one day I realized that it was a cloud with a rib cage showing. I was doing the skeleton inside the cloud, so I called it "Cloud Bones". This also references an oil painting I did around 1979 which was an attempt to do an oil painting that had the same energy going on that I could get with ink on rice paper. It was titled "Zen Bones". This is a reference to "being down to the bone" in terms of poverty, but it is actually about giving up attachments on a spiritual level that keep us in a cycle of pain and suffering. One can find teachings about this in Buddhism (Tibetan, Zen etc.), but it is the source of freedom in all spiritual journeys that function in a positive direction. The reason I say this is because it is one of the most important aspects of Cherokee spirituality in my opinion. Freedom.
"Sky Bones" is 76 pages, hardback, on #70 glossy paper. It is $29.95, plus shipping and taxes.
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