10/2/24
work on the gate continues apace. I was feeling like the sketches were becoming too imaginary or had taken me as far as they could. So I have moved to mocking things up on the gate itself. The main problem identified in class was that the huge gap above the gate dwarfs whatever ornament I might be thinking of. So I need to put something in that gap to ensure the two centers (gap and window/ornament) support each other. Also it's really hot here, so a lot of this has been tiring, uncomfortable, and grumpy.I started with mocking up a similar lattice to see how that felt and how it affected the window.
How about some divisions in the window?
Those feel a bit heavy. Maybe bamboo?
Ultimately the lattice was feeling too samey for me. This should be a gate not a fence. It needs something more different to support it as a center. And something lighter to invite you more into the garden– the lattice is so heavy. So bamboo on top too?
I also added a latch mockup just to see how that played with everything. Let's try a smaller window:
Hrm. Ok just to be sure let's try filling up the space with a panel and putting ornament there. This was suggested in class.
Doesn't feel quite right. It has a centeredness to it but it feels like it makes this gate quite imposing. As if we have some secret meetings behind it and everyone else should keep out. To make this gate live for our vegetable garden, I think it should inspire curiosity and invite one in without being pushy. So offer a view, but not too stark or wide of a view (mystery draws us in). So I went back to bamboo and a lower window. This time with just a top bar framing the bamboo.
This is starting to approach deep feeling I think. I wonder how to attach that top bar to the bamboo though. I was having dreams of weaving two pieces of bamboo through the top to hold it all together but all the bamboo I tried was way too crunchy. Maybe the wrong time of year. I could probably find some branches or vines but not confident enough to justify finding some yet...
So I tried tying on the bamboo cross-piece. Then I didn't love the tops of the bamboo sticking out so I tried tying on a split piece over the top. That was very unstable but felt good. So now I'm just worrying about how to join these pieces properly and feeling a little lost.
I also tried a different window shape just to see. Maybe it's better than the circle, I'm not sure! The top looks bad bc its all wonky on there but I think the shape is pretty good. And it does look good with the circle window. But oof how am I going to bind it all together?
Enjoy the jasmine on my desk.
9/26/24
I have begun classes at Building Beauty. So far the most interesting part is the ornament assignment:assignment doc
Your task is to make something with feeling. The following hints may get you on the right track. Try to make something which has a subdued feeling, something soft in spirit, something very unpretentious, easy-going, but orderly.
This is the gate to our vegetable garden at the zen center.
here are my sketches so far:
I was thinking of making a latch but it felt more like mechanism than ornament when sketching it, even if I think it could turn out ornamental when I make it. I think now I will return to it, with a focus on the knob of the latch. Leaving it aside, I started sketching ornaments for the gate itself:
Then I decided this should be about cutting little holes or windows in the gate. Especially since the ornament pattern (from A Pattern Language) mentions the borders between boards as an ideal space for ornament.
Now I started feeling like woah this gate is old and rough, made of rotty old boards and feels very simple. It couldn't handle so much fanciness. It would feel wrong. Need to go simpler, more subdued and somber.
The very last one creates the deepest feeling in me I think.
And I was wondering what it would feel like to sketch ornaments with less constraints so I did some tiles. I feel like one or two of these have some feeling but none are particularly strong.
and here are some flowers I've been playing with today:
9/1/2024
Today the Timeless Way of Building reading group (tm) met for the fourth time. It is so invigorating to digest such true words in the company of true friends. We read the second chapter "the quality without a name". In it, Alexander describes the central quality that makes a building, town, person, etc come to life and, in doing so, shows why there is no word that quite fits it.Delicious! All of the words we have are just a bit too broad or too narrow or have connotations that could lead us astray. So we can't get lazy. We can't say "oh yeah that quality is just aliveness" or "oh yeah that's just eternalness" or wholeness or freedom or any of the other words that come close. We have to let the quality live outside of language, un-pinnable by our words that could so easily reduce or abstract it. The quality remains nameless, retaining its essence and its dignity. Delicious!
It's so juicy to read this with zen students. We're already on the same page (at least intellectually) that there is no difference or boundary between our (apparently) internal and external experiences. So we get straight to the meat of things without having to convince anyone of that. The Timeless Way is almost a Dharma text, pointing us to what-is-really-going-on-here. But because Alexander is working from how to make good buildings, it hits at such a different angle than most Dharma. Circling round the quality-without-a-name, invoking its true spirit without nailing it down in words, reminds me over and over what I'm actually doing here. And how rich to have company that is just as struck by it as me!
It is not only simple beauty of form and color. Men can make that without making nature. It is not only fitness to purpose. Man can make that too without making nature. And it is not only the spiritual quality of beautiful music or of a quiet mosque that comes from faith. Man can make that too, without making nature.
The quality which has no name includes these simpler sweeter qualities. But it is so ordinary as well that it somehow reminds us of the passing of our own life.
It is a slightly bitter quality.