Some memories of books #1

Kay Larson –Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism and the Inner Life of Artists

The Penguin Press, New York, 2012

When I read this biography in the summer of 2017 it directly influenced my work. I have fond memories of reading this book on my balcony at home in the early morning sun, then cycling to my studio where I immersed myself in just one job. I was painting the same fragment from Picasso’s painting The Studio (1956) on every sheet I could get my hands on for days, weeks and eventually months in a row. Inspired by Cage, I wanted to work without any judgement over any of the paintings I did, my rule was that I should accept them all. As easy as this sounds it ended up being a revelatory experience, and yet I feel I am not even close to fully carry the lesson learned those days.

Our intention is to affirm this life, not to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply to wake up to the very life we’re living, which is so excellent once one gets one’s mind and one’s desires out of its way and lets it act of its own accord.

As the subtitle already implies this book is a biography framed by John Cage’s interest in Zen Buddhism. It also makes apparent the influence of Zen Buddhism on so many American artists and writers in the 50’s and 60’s. The story is structured like a kind of conversation between the writer and John Cage, with words by the latter printed in italics throughout the book. The choice of Cage’s own writing and quotes is so wonderfully edited that it has become a book for me that I still often return to for ‘advice’, I just leaf through the book until I find what I was looking for. 

Although all things are different it is not their differences which are to be our concern but rather their uniqueness and their infinite play of interpretation with themselves and with us.