The Teacher

watercolor
24″ x 29″

oil on linen
33″ x 46″

oil on linen
33″ x 46″

watercolor
20″ x 15″

oil on linen
33″ x 46″

watercolor
20” x 15”

watercolor
15″ x 20″

I see you,
I see your faded blue shirt.
I see your torn blue pants.
I see your giant big head.
I see your thick, thick neck
and your big, big self.

I mostly see your watery eyes
that sparkle like the ocean
that dissolve into your blue shirt
and that dissolves
into my blue bowl
and my blue bowl is space.

I have learned a few things from you,
like how to sleep on an airplane
with my feet folded on top of a tray table,
and how to stretch my legs up between the seats,
and the stewardess says, “My you’re flexible.”
I’ve learned how to squat and pee in the woods,
and I’ve learned how to squat and pee
into a little metal can if it’s raining in the woods.

But where does my mind come from?
Where does it return to?
How does my mind go in bodies and out of bodies,
from one body to another body,
teach me that one
and one more thing,
how does God come into it?

watercolor
15″ x 20″

My teacher is showing me to bring religion out into the world. When his birthday was coming up, I thought of painting him a present. The first idea I tried out didn’t work. He was in seated posture, bowing to the ocean. I like him in that pose a lot and I like to paint watercolors of the ocean. I did some that are pretty nice. Then I got the idea to do a portrait of only his head against the ocean. I didn’t have to worry so much about the drawing, and the paintings seemed to make themselves. I tried a few of those and decided to give him one. “The Evolution of Consciousness” I titled the piece and signed it using India ink with a quill pen.

watercolor
15″ x 20″

I see my mind.
My own mind is a drawing mind.
I see my mind, my drawing mind.
In my mind I see Cezanne.
I see Degas. I see Matisse.
I see my own paintings
in my mind, my artists’ mind.
Even the ones that I did so long ago
that I had forgotten about,
Those paintings are still in my mind.
I have a friend in my own mind.
Since my mind cleared up
I have a paper in my mind
that mirrors me.
So now I am free now.
I found something that doesn’t cost anything.
Everyone says I look so happy.
I tell them why,
“I have found my own mind,”
I tell my daughter.
“There is a paper in my brain attached to my heart.
I found that!”
“That’s good mom,” she says,
Not knowing what I mean.
So I can say inwardly, to myself,
“I can say that it happened to me.”
I don’t know how or why, but
Now I have a friend in my own mind,
whose different than me,
but who I see.

watercolor
15″ x 20″

One day Dodie didn’t feel too well. She couldn’t walk. She had to lie down. She went to Doctor Jones who specialized in nothing but bones.
He checked out Dodie’s bones with a little hammer. Then Doctor Jones went to a bank all filled with bones instead of money. When he got all of the bones collected he put Dodie to sleep. He filled in the place between Dodie’s head and Dodie’s body with all the bones that she needed. He sewed her up and Dodie awoke. Dodie wore a special brace for six weeks to keep all the bones in place. When the brace came off, Dodie had a new neck.