seeing/ drawing

what really happens when seeing and drawing become seeing/ drawing is that awareness and attention become constant and undivided, become contemplation. seeing/ drawing is not a self-indulgence, a ‘pleasant hobby’, but a discipline of awareness, of unwavering attention to a world which is fully alive. it is not the pursuit of happiness, but stopping the pursuit and experiencing the awareness, the happiness, of being all there. it is a discipline that costs nothing, that needs no gadgets. all i carry is a pen in my pocket, a sketchbook under my arm. this eye is my lens. this eye is the lens of the heart, open to the world. my hand follows its seeing.

for the artist-within (who must exist in everyone, for if man is created in god's image, it can only mean that he is created creative) there is no split between his seeing, art, and ‘religion’ in the sense of realizing his place in the fabric of all that is. (..) there is no split between a man's being, his art and what one might call his ‘religion’, unless there is a split in the man. these three are inextricably interwoven: they are one.

: the zen of seeing. seeing/ drawing as meditation, frederick franck