The Alpha Seer understanding true art

Figure 1: 0210 by Pablo Picasso

Not too many of you have got the basics of a composition yet, –I am afraid!
Several young persons here have it, and their gratitude and delight is a form of energy that radiates,– young people are more likely to receive the profound knowledge of composition, as a curious and malleable mind have they!  Then the Alpha Seer could sense that some old folks from his Wah Yan past also have it.

However, if the majority of folks on my “Enlightened Friends Panel” still don’t get it, there could be a problem, which is, that all of the Alpha Seer’s work in his basement simply will not see the light of day, which is contingent on public understanding and acceptance. Let me be a little more explicit here: I am running free art appreciation classes because there is the wish that the public will get enlightened eventually. The inner driving force is to have my heir Isabella properly deal with those basement junks for posterity, instead of just submitting them to a wild bonfire after her old man passes away. My idea of securing such a scheme for the unknown future is by providing her with an incentive: the awareness that her inherited junks can one day turn out to be worth a bunch, if she would persist in the effort of dragging them along as she changes address!  It is my observation that poorer folks in town change address often, and my little girl would probably have a less prosperous future than most as she is intent on saving the world and the frogs. Then guess what, the poverty stricken gal may even have a shot at becoming more prosperous one of these days. Ahh, who know what the future thinks…. really?

No one knows exactly what secrets the future holds, yet my concern is to avoid having those art getting engulfed in some future flame. And if they can be properly preserved, then lo and behold, the future could brighten up like never before! Let me guess, Postmodernism will be lying low in the Ditch of Oblivion should Alpha Art prevail! Clouds will then disperse like thin naked devils as the sun returns to his majesty!

So today I will take your hands, boys and girls, and walk you through every step of the way trying to understand composition, following the exact same path that I went through as a young dude….

0210 in the illustrations above is the simplest composition of them all. Let’s adopt it as our model here. Those art were by the extremely brilliant Picasso,– with the exception of the last two. At first I thought of showing the great Knox Martin’s art here as well, but as his work are being copyrighted in increasing number, I am forced to withdraw the desire. Eventually, one must view his art by visiting his personal website of www.knoxmartin.com.

The first thing you should know: I  have divided the composition, the white areas (or Yang) into subsets of Pure Yang,–i.e. the area being denoted by B. There is a lot of significance in this division as you will learn later on that art is created in an embrace of Yin and Yang. Leave Pure Yang alone, untouched by Pure Yin, nothing will happen, and nothing ever will,–but a horrid tempest is raised the moment Pure Yang invades Pure Yin! When a man ejects semen into the womb of a woman, what kind of tempest can be raised? That is a Biology question, you said, but that is just your opinion!

We shall deal with the white subsets only. Of course, you can do the exact same thing with your black subsets if you so want, but it would be redundant, and hence unnecessary,…Yes, the Yin subsets are the complements of their Yang counterparts, and vice versa!

Now let’s say A and B are the subsets of  white. (Actually, it is helpful to consider A as an extension of B, since Pure Yang can flow into each another, or merge into each other as one.) Don’t forget: Yang can flow into Yin just as well: consider the penetration of mercury, and you will be amazed how the universe operates in this art of penetration and invasion! B is hereby denoted as the dominant Pure Yang, and A, the extended Pure Yang, in order to acknowledge how everything work together, relating to one another, setting up the dynamism of life and what not.

We shall call C, D , E , F, G, the extensions of B, or more appropriately, the extended subsets of Yang. The areas denoting the head and the hair have more Yin elements than Yang elements. Simply consider them as subsets in transit. I used to call them the twilight zones!
Even as twilight zones, they can still be read as subsets of B, or Yang. From another point of view though, it can also be recognized as subsets of Pure Yin. So how you treat them will depend on your eyes’ fielding emphasis.

C,D,E,F,G, and the twilight zones are areas where Yin and Yang (or black and white) intersect, intermingle, interact, and interplay. The union of Yin and Yang is always interesting, as life is a possible outcome. You may say the twilight zones are where Yin&Yang engage each other vigorously with a relatively weaker Yang initiative and that it is about to fade into Pure Yin or that Pure Yin is expected to take over soon,…just as when the curtain of darkness drops Queen Night is in reign! On the other hand, dawn is the counterpart zone where darkness will soon disappear, and King Sun restored to his throne!

There are not a whole bunch of requirements to watch for as soon as you have that basic relationship of Yin and Yang down, neither is there a formula from which one should follow. What is to be emphasized is that in a Cezanne’s composition, there are Pure Yang with its subsets, and there are Pure Yin with its subsets. There is the possibility for creation when everything is in place, where Pure Yin and Pure Yang embrace,– and through the execution of an artistic genius, (think of the creation of the universe!) life can be a possible outcome! If his genius is immense, there will be more to it than the creation of a universe,–a new universe, or other new universes are being created all at once! In the playing fields of the great master Knox Martin, for example, you may begin to have a taste of multiple universes, which are totally unmapped, very much unlike the universe we are familiar with. Occasionally, the Alpha Seer himself also breaks new grounds and when that happens, the basement studio is in a festive mood, and his wife Kate will learn about it soon as she would think the dude is crazy!  For that reason, a composition should be defined as a playing field whereby Yin interacts with Yang, Yin and Yang penetrate each other, intertwine each other. Ultimately, Yin and Yang embrace and dance as one. Once the building blocks of life are in place, put there by the artistic genius, CREATION is complete! Yes, I emphasize “life” because at the hand of a mediocre person, there is no guarantee for life to exist at all! And I emphasize creation because the artistic genius has the ability to reflect godliness, which is everywhere in the ways of the universe. Look at the night sky in the fields when you are away from the metropolis. As the clouds depart, the ways of Yin & Yang is revealed to you like an open book. Be utterly amazed by this splendid universe of yours,–yes, it is your universe,–yours alone, because when you are not there, who is observing? Your universe is right there in front of you,–the whole thing,– not a single chunk is amiss!!!!! The way of the universe is the way of Yin & Yang! Under the orchestration of a master, with momentum expertly set, balance and harmony observed, and into that equation is installed the Supreme Mathematical Relationship, then like a miracle, there it is,– the first breath of life!  Cezanne’s composition is fully reflected in Picasso’s own. Such is the way of the Universal Composition! You don’t have to worry about Supreme Mathematical Relationship (SMR) unless you believe you are an artistic genius! Remember: just being talented is not enough! You have to be an artistic genius in this business! If you believe you are an artistic genius, SMR will become your next worry,– since if you are not what you think you are, soon you will learn that however hard you try, there is this SMR hanging over you in a mocking, disrespectful way… With that, everything begin to turn ugly. Should that happen, I have a remedy for you too: simply realize that you don’t have to be a genius to live well, just enjoy life! Count your blessings! An artistic genius may not be the happiest person in the world. (He can be,– but then you will be looking at more than just an artistic genius,– as the master of meditation is staring back at you! ) The regular artistic genius has a sensitivity so much more fragile than the average Joe that he is many times more likely to get into harm’s way if he doesn’t watch it,– un-curbed ego may become his downfall! The Alpha Seer had encountered many geniuses in his lifetime and oh,… had he also found many miserable, unhinged and deluded people! A miserable person is a jerk, a deluded  man is sick,– and you want to avoid those at all costs. Un-curbed desires can be a problem,– so one must reconcile with truth, and fraudulent ego must be dealt with at once, in order to restore peace! How you live your life is your own business, but the healthy life must reflect the Ways of Yin & Yang! Meditation is awareness. Meditation is simple: just let go and relax! You don’t have to prove anything to anyone! This is your life, if you aren’t, who is here to enjoy it?

The acquisition of SMR is not through any particular study or training, it must come to you as a First Nature. For Picasso, SMR is as easy as breathing, maybe easier! Remember what Matisse said? You cannot teach art,– that is what he said!No, I shall revise that! Of course you can teach art, that is what I am doing here, and why I am here!However, SMR is like an untouchable! It is the precise part that you cannot teach, unless your target student is an artistic genius himself, and then one must make sure that it is not any other kinds of genius, — but the artistic kind!

From times immemorial, every artistic genius has his metaphors expressed within this framework of Yin & Yang relationship. Our postmodernist friends do not understand it, they have chosen to ignore it,–and my observation is, they can never have understood it! Not in a million years! The crude, unrefined mind tends to disregard the subtle need for composition, treating it as plain silly “atelier” shits,– to be regularly discarded or laughed at,… According to such mindsets, time has changed, and with our technological breakthroughs, given any other combination of upheavals in man’s psyche with his mundane activities, for example, a devastated ego resulting from a recent revolution or war, political, religious or otherwise, and they will react to it, informing you that a “new” form of art must be installed in place of the “old,” in order to correctly signify and reflect the contemporary movements. This types of dissertations can go on without end!  Ahh…, the egoistic man is not the center of the universe! Where is everyone when Galileo announced his last finding? That is why our postmodern friends have elected to behave like a deluded dog, a stray dog, going round and round chasing its own balls, rather than trying to find the proper placement that is implied in the eminence of a Cezanne’s composition.

I have seen it coming, the Postmodern Era is one of fantastic and massive wastage, with million of young people pretending to be artists and to lead the ” artistic life,” which has no more depth or substance than self-deception appointed to reassure a listless ego. The Postmodern Era is a self-destruct, self-hate era, a self-deceiving and defunct era without spiritual significance. There is no real creation in this era, and not unlike the Taliban who had had the gigantic Buddha statue blown to pieces, postmodernists even begin to blame their own impotence on the artistic genius!

Why have our contemporaries taken such a sad turn of affair? At first glance, the contemporary philosophy seems to have perched on various high grounds: liberation and liberty has persuaded us, they would say. Time has changed, they would say, and art should therefore also change, in order to reflect this flux in time! What gibberish regurgitated nonsense! Little have they realized that certain things in life is timeless!  Beauty is one such thing. Art is for the expression of Beauty, and because of that, we can easily establish the timelessness in art. Art may then be viewed as the shadow of Beauty. Art is also the servant for Beauty and its shadow as well! Lo, I really like that, shadow and servant! Then quite often do I hear this cynical saying, that Beauty is in the eyes of the beholders, and I have seen many folks repeat it all the time, as if they cannot get tired of the absolute helplessness implied therein,…Cynicism is the symptom of a diseased soul!

Well, my reply to that is simply this: Beauty is! To the extent that Beauty is also Truth, it cannot be in the eyes of the beholder at all! NO WAY!!! If Truth is in the eyes of the beholder then it immediately ceases to be Truth!

Why are young people of our time getting so allergic to the rule of Cezanne’s composition?  That puzzle is not difficult to solve: in order to orchestrate what they call “atelier” shit, one needs tremendous energy in reality, and without a doubt profound genius as well! The building- up of a composition cannot be through simple, mundane  organization,–it is  beyond organization,– as  masterful orchestration of relevant elements is involved, whereby life is the essential outcome! If a gem can be found only in existence in Nature, but not man-made, then art is the  gem created through artistic genius, to the extent that artistic genius is Nature, his art can never be artificial! The postmodernists can only afford the cheap artificial stuffs, as that is all they can understand! Like blind beggars scrambling frantically for food and ticks, their life is a constant struggle, what can one expect from sheer poverty? Ahh, try passing a Russian diamond from the production line to me, and I will demonstrate to you how fast it will land in the trash!

Don’t you know? GENIUS is precisely what our postmodern friends do not have! They may be the ones making the most noise out there, but can’t you tell such noise is talentless and without merit? So Andy Warhol may have shouted at us with his bloody Monroe silkscreens, or sickly Campbell soup images, Rauschenberg may have shattered our ear-drum  with his thrown- paint technique and soiled bed-cover, or Pollock may have stomped on our sensibility through his paint-drip procedure…. but if you are smart enough, you can always tell with a glance that those people are just playing games in the name of art. Then I would say to you, “Congratulation ! You have a refined mind!” On the other hand, there are folks who do not have a single clue in their own existence, and out of herd instinct or stupidity, or a combination of the two, they have found themselves applauding the trick players in their shameful transactions, which are just dirty tricks to scam the greenbacks out of some fat cats’ pockets,– if you are foolish enough to fall for them…   The bottom-line is, you can only get what you deserve! YOU ARE THE OWNER OF WHAT YOU SEE, and you get what you see!

One may elect to set up a composition crudely, dully, mundanely, obeying every rule in the book written by an atelier academic, but you are condemning yourself to no life. On the other hand, the artistic genius is capable of executing a fabulous job, gem-like in all aspects, with extremely vibrant calligraphic quality,  perfection, life, and godliness, such as what you would expect from the likes of Wang Hsi-chih (Figure 5), one of the greatest artistic geniuses in China from the Sui Dynasty. There is little doubt in anyone’s mind that Wang’s calligraphy reflects timeless beauty, truth, and godliness! you don’t have to live in the Sui Dynasty to enjoy his work! You don’t even have to be Chinese to feel his immense artistic energy radiating out from his calligraphy!

If you have paid attention, you may discover that all of Picasso’s compositions here are created from a delightfully simple field wherein Yin and Yang interact like man and wife. You can also see that Cezanne’s composition is intimately linked to Picasso’s through that common thread, of Yin and Yang interactions. Soon you will come to the conclusion that composition is no more than the universal embrace of Yin and Yang!  If you have paid even closer attention, you can see that both Cezanne and Matisse are doing the exact same thing in their respective compositions, that Titian and Velazquez are doing the exact same thing, Rubens and Frans Hals, doing likewise, Van Eyck and Adriaen Brouwer had not been doing anything differently either, nor had Picasso or Hokusai, nor had the ancient Egyptians or the ancient Chinese… Alas, artistic geniuses across the board, from times immemorial, had been doing the dictates of Yin and Yang in building up their composition! (Don’t listen to me, believe no one!– but please do yourself a favor: find that out for yourself! Doing art may not be on your mind, but as a human being, you are obligated to that duty! Here’s my question for you: If the artistic genius would go out there to create the civilization for your Age, as a citizen in the wider scope of things, isn’t it your honor, as well as your duty, to play the supporting role?  For that reason alone, you owe it to yourself to find out about what I have just pointed out, and do so soon enough because we may be running out of time! Postmodernism is a toxic weed that strangulates Alpha Art, the only art of the artistic genius!) The differences between each and everyone of them, which are as varied, and as diverse as the profusion in life-forms on Earth, confer upon each and everyone of them the dignity of his uniqueness, which can be detected in their outward artistic expressions, and they are, in and of themselves, molded by the artist’s very individuality.

The fact is, artistic genius can only be found in extremely small portions in the vast human gene pool, and its uniqueness is as varied as its own DNA configurations. That being said, sure, you can teach anyone to write Chinese correctly, or play the violin with the right grip and so forth, but you cannot train him to produce calligraphy the way Wang Hsi-chih would have it, nor can you teach him anymore to create tunes that are fabulous gems plucked from Mozart’s draft-book!

He who is capable of demonstrating good calligraphic genius, who can compose excellent music, is an artistic genius. Viewed from a different angle, however, he can also be seen as a freak of nature, since so much power has been concentrated in so fragile an individual! It also implies that little protection is afforded him and such a being can easily step in harm’s way!

Has the Alpha Seer mentioned anything at all referring to color in this lecture?

NO, sir! Only black and white, the other names for Yin and Yang, have been mentioned here!

Many people are conditioned to think that artists should deal with color, and they must!

I can tell you right now: that is not a necessary condition for art!

Now you are in doubt…

To be in doubt is the correct attitude, and I don’t blame you.

Just don’t believe in authority, or you are totally screwed!

The last time you believe in authority, academics thrived… .

With rare exceptions, the academics’ main interest is not in learning, but power struggle!

Postmodernism is an extension of that, a form of academic corruption.

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Gautama Buddha says:

All colors are emptiness, and emptiness, colors!

TINTORETTO:

Color is painful.

DEGAS:

Had there not been the demand for colors, I ‘d be happy just to deal with black and white all day.

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THIS IS YOUR UNIVERSE.

YOU ARE ITS SOLE OWNER!

YOU ARE THE ONLY OBSERVER HERE.

WHO IS OBSERVING IF YOU HAVE NO REALITY?

WHO WOULD EVEN KNOW YOUR UNIVERSE EXISTS?

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Figure 2: 0211 by Pablo Picasso

Figure 3: 0213 by Pablo Picasso

Figure 4: 0214 by Pablo Picasso

Figure 5: 0203 by Wang Hsi-chih

Figure 6: 0209 by the Alpha Seer formerly known as Ben Lau

THE CLARIFIER, formerly known as the Alpha Seer, or Ben Lau

Connect these two Picassos with the Knox Martin below, then compare them with the Chinese calligraphy by the great Sui dynasty calligrapher, Wang Hsi Tzi.

Why, simply connect the dots! (I apologize for the terrible reflections, but reflection is exactly what I want to tell you at this point,…)

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Finally, ask yourself this:
What is the common thread that provides the linkage for those 4 magnificent images?

Once you see that linkage, or lineage, REALLY SEEING IT,…no pretense at all in this business, no self-deception: like: Oh, I can see that…oh, yeah, there it is, staring out at me, etc…– remove your ego,– if that is at all possible, but rather, seeing it as a child would discern an unadorned truth, vulnerable, surrendering, pure, without worldly meaning,… no language, no thought, no memories,…no intellectualizing,…no reference,… just the singular sweetness, the simplicity upon the sighting of a metaphor in a great poem, the delicious surprise in the seeing of the bull’s testicles, feeling that sacred wonderment within Picasso’s  creative power, seeing the teats in Knox’s woman, and imagine for a moment how deeply Knox must have immersed himself in the well of bliss afforded by such a gorgeous creation,– or seeing the copulation in the Alpha Seer’s art, (http://alphaseer.artists.de, or www.mnartists.org~alpha seer) while immediately recognizing that, as though a child would have seen it for the first time in his life, the perfect union of the Yin and the Yang,…..

–then perhaps you will see nothing else but the way to Greatness.

Seeing the way to Greatness is feeling for the first time,

The way to Beauty.

Feeling for the first time the way to Beauty

Is understanding the Tao to Godliness….

This is not to say that all Alpha Seers are necessarily godly. It may turn out that in real life he can be as much an asshole as anyone else…. just that he is the one holding up the sacred mirror, so that godliness can be  reflected.

Since that godliness is also in you,– if only you knew it!

—
THE ALPHA SEER

Woman with Red Shoes II, 2010, Acrylic on linen, 80 x 65 inches

BY the great master Knox Martin

Figure 1: satyr and nymph series 170

Figure 2: satyr and nymph series 171

The realized one essentially exists in the fetus stage, innocent, without prior conditioning, surrendering, vulnerable…– Nothing is for him pure or impure, neither is there enlightenment, nor darkness, noble or ignoble, — whereby the observer is also the observed, and color is emptiness, and emptiness, color… . For such a being it is learned and understood that anything seen, heard, received, acted upon, thought about, tasted, is nil but emptiness.

He cannot be categorized as born, nor can he, characterized as unborn…. since he no longer has anything to do with this brief life, mere sojourn,– a blip on the radar of Timelessness,–which is Emptiness itself. He suddenly finds himself bathing in exuberant Bliss on the other shore, so much richer than your kings or presidents, who, to him are no more than pitiable beggars!

He has arrived!

Going into this fetus stage, or Samadhi, or deep meditation,– can be truly easy for some,–almost like a crow casually flapping its wings, just to take flight in the next instance,– but so extremely hard for many others,–as though moving the Himalayas with a spoon is even easier,– yes, there is still hope for the Himalaya to be removed after many lives! — unfortunately, the growth in strength of his spirit can still be expected to remain in Block One… ! Unchanged after so many lives!

For those who are deeply attached to the spurious comfort of money, power, passion, and competitions, as if everything in life depend on it: even after so many lives later they still would fail to learn the lessons of suffering… . Such folks must be moving in circles, or walking about in dreams!

The Alpha Seer

Figure 1: Satyr and nymph 168 (upper) and Satyr and nymph 169 (lower)

PROFESSOR LEANDER S. HUGHES

ON THE ALPHASEER

More than a decade has passed since I first met Ben Lau, but I remember the occasion well. I was a student at the Rudy and Lola Perpich Center for Arts Education, and Ben was a special guest at our school, invited to present before our entire student body. Things got off to a rocky start when Ben put a black and white copy of a Cezanne and one of a Pissarro side by side on the overhead and asked the audience which was a better composition. Ben never had a chance to move forward from this initial question, as students around me jumped up in protest: “How can you say one work of art is better than another?!” one student shouted, “It’s just your opinion!” Soon the hall was consumed in chaos with students interrupting Ben, talking over each other in their self-righteous tirade against this apparent act of artistic discrimination. For all of their talk about equality and mutual understanding, my classmates showed themselves to be thoroughly bigoted in their refusal to even allow Ben to explain himself. So, the first time I ever spoke to Ben was when I went up to him that day to apologize for the rude treatment he had received and to tell him that I would have liked to hear what he had to say. A year later, Ben came back to our school offering to be a mentor to anyone interested. I applied straight away, and Ben has been a mentor and good friend to me ever since.

There was no sudden enlightenment studying under Ben. I was a very skeptical student in the beginning. I did not see the beauty in his work. In fact, I did not see beauty in anyone’s work, including my own. Sometimes I liked a painting because it got me fantasizing or philosophizing about this or that, but my ability to take pleasure in something at a purely visual level was close to nil. Gradually though, over countless Saturday afternoons spent with Ben looking at the paintings in his many art books- engaging with Titian, Hals, Matisse, Van Eyck, Hokusai, and Knox Martin to name just a few- I began to feel something in those works: the way the dark and light embraced and intertwined, the energy and certainty of the brush strokes. Slowly, I began to taste, if ever so slightly, the dynamism and vitality of those great compositions, and in time, my appreciation went deeper- to a level which may well be impossible to explain: when a painter takes something essential to the human experience and reinvents it in the two-dimensional space of a canvas, letting the power of that thing guide each line and tap out the rhythmic dance of dark and light, then that painting becomes a thing onto itself- a small universe into which we can step and exist indefinitely, if we wish, simply by giving it our full attention. If this isn’t Beauty with a capital “B,” then it is at least one very important kind of beauty- one that has added immeasurable richness to my life and one that is clearly present in some paintings more than others.

Ben has a website at www.thealphaseer.com upon which he refers to himself as the Alphaseer- I laughed when I first read this self-bestowed title, but the title is not a product of an enflamed ego: Rather it is an honest appraisal of Ben’s own ability. Ben could see Beauty (yes, I think it deserves a capital “B”), whereas my art school classmates and I could not. Now thanks to Ben’s mentorship, I too can catch a glimpse into Beauty’s secret chambers, and for this I am truly grateful, but Ben remains light-years ahead of me- he can actually CREATE Beauty consistently with every new work he produces. Thus, I think “Alphaseer” may actually be a shade too modest- Ben, to me, is the Alphacreator: he creates Beauty on a daily basis and that Beauty is a gift to everyone willing to take the time to really see it. If I had the money to be Ben’s patron, I would buy up all of his work in an instant- not because doing so would be a wise investment (as it surely would be), but just so I could surround myself in the timelessness of his art. For now though, I can only offer this humble endorsement along with my heartfelt thanks to Ben and my hope that, in some small way, I may help bring to him the wider recognition he so deeply deserves.

Professor Leander s. Hughes is currently teaching at Saitama University, Japan.

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Lee,

That was a beautiful statement, Lee, thank you for writing with such
heartfelt honesty. It’s always good to hear about my dad’s work from
someone else. Growing up in a household where I’m constantly
surrounded by these works and where the Alphacreator is also my dad
(you know how that is), I often take for granted my seemingly
effortless ability to discern Beauty from non-beauty – but I realize
time and again it is only because my dad raised me this way, so that
seeing art is like a native language.

I hope this can be published some day.

Love,
Isabella

Isabella is the daughter of Ben Lau, a.k.a. the Alpha Seer

Karen Monson to me

show details Dec 6 (2 days ago)

This is so Beautiful and so true, Ben.  I remember the first time I met you … and that day very well.  Thank you for sharing this.  Karen

Karen M. is the lady who, in Leander Hughes’ youth had brought about the meeting of the latter and the Alpha Seer.

Figure 1: Blind Man’s Buff by the Alpha Seer

A master is one who has arrived. He is the one you should surrender to if you want to understand a discipline.

What is to be surrendered?

Your own ego!

In Japan, the Zen practice may show a master relentlessly beating an inattentive initiate with a cane. Folks here in the West are shocked, and think that is barbaric, unbecoming, or rude….one man beating another with a cane as though he were just an animal? That is unsightly!

It is NOT rude, unbecoming, nor barbaric at all! On the contrary, that is precisely where the beauty lies,–the surrendering of your ego,– precisely there is this exuberant beauty in the surrender of your ego!

In a master-disciple communion, surrender is a most subtle thing!

You cannot surrender even if you have wanted to. You cannot simply say to yourself, “I want to surrender!” or “I desire to learn, so I must surrender!”

Well, it just never happens in the way you want it! You cannot surrender even if you have a desire to do so. It is not a question of what you want, or what you desire,…You cannot desire a mountain to be moved, or an ocean emptied,…. If it is ever moved, or the ocean emptied, it is a happening!

When an initiate surrenders to the master, it cannot be his will- power in play!  Only if you have total trust in your master, with a beating heart vulnerable and innocent like a new-born baby, then and only then is this most beautiful thing in life called surrender extending its welcome to you, like a lovely breeze in Spring filtering into the entire fiber of your being!

When it is there, you and the surrender melt into one.

You are the surrender!

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This Alpha Seer surrendered to the great master Knox Martin as a young man. He had become a disciple. Disciple comes from the word “discipline” and it is one step closer than simply just a student, as he is getting closer to the truth, which is the discipline, or the inner working of Truth.

Because I have not been a particularly brilliant learner, and a rather lazy one for that matter, –always lacking in attention or awareness,(– imagine that!)– many outstanding issues, like hanging chads, had resulted in my career as disciple, the learner of Truth. But as I  was gradually maturing, they had managed to resolve by themselves. And today I could still, fairly legitimately, proclaim myself a real master in painting,– with confidence !

Again, it has nothing to do with the ego! All realized masters are aware of how fictitious the ego is!

The academia continues to hand out  the so-called “Master of Fine Art” degrees every year,–to thousands of young people, but the recipients of that degree are hardly masters! That is the irony of it!

I have an MFA degree myself, owing to an ill-advised decision to go back to graduate school,– out of the shabbiest of intentions, i.e. to be able to teach art one day in college, with an horrendous lack of awareness,–and if you care to check my recycle bin, it is still lying around inside somewhere,–and if I ever have the desire to fool those who are stupid enough to believe in its magic, I can always say,

” Hey, I am Mr. Ben Lau, MFA, from such and such college,…  And by implication there is clearly, without a  doubt my authority, over the rest of the world on art…!”

That is exactly how societies in the West have fed young people’s ego and tricked them into compounded fools.

Hey, I may even be inclined to think that the rest of the world will be fooled by the MFA title,– but that is basically self-deception backfiring on the self!

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There are other kinds of genuine masters,– being a real master in painting you have to be born with certain attributes,– something granted to you by Mother Nature. Your DNAs have to be in the right configurations !  Yet there are other disciplines too, where the  prerequisites are less stringent, and conditions certainly not as demanding, for example, a Shiatsu master, a master chef, or a Karate master!

And I actually know a certain Shiatsu master myself,–those who had experienced her splendid administering of Shiatsu have reported back that,– Wow, what a wonderful, healing touch….!  Her finger- works can easily melt you into a meditative mode, the experience of which wondrously resembles a fetus fully secure of love, resting in its mother’s womb….  As I had that experience myself I can testify to the amazing quality of her practice. Her Shiatsu is pure compassion! Her mastery truly impeccable!

When you are capable of transforming energy like that, which is both magical and mysterious, then you can be called a master too, with real mastery.

What about “Master of Fine Art” ?
For crying out aloud, where is such “Mastery”, and where on earth is the “Art” part…?
Unfortunately, it is both a fiction and a fraud! It is the stupidest lie that the academia has come up with for deceiving the public and self-delusion.

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If you have come in with your ego, with all kinds of conditioning, (for example, you hate explicit sexual expressions in a piece of work,)  or your mind is essentially a querulous, argumentative, or agitating one, that is often prone to the influence of emotions or the sway of moods, you will miss out in a big way and you won’t be able to feel the significance of this, which is indeed the holy grail of universal harmony. But if your mind is pure, innocent, malleable, or vulnerable, then even though you may be just a kindergartener, there is always the window of opportunity for you! So this master-disciple communion is designed to help you enter the portal of a discipline and guide you through its inner workings and informing you on how much you have become enlightened.

Intuition is the highest form of intelligence! You must rely fully on that, not the cognitive part of your brain.

Woman with Flowers, 2010, Acrylic on linen, 18 x 22 inches

Woman with Red Shoes, 2010, Acrylic on linen, 75.5 x 62 inches

Young Woman, 2010, Acrylic on linen, 18 x 22 inches

Bathsheba, 2010, Acrylic on linen, 18 x 22 inches

Woman with Flowers, 2010, Acrylic on linen, 18 x 22 inches

Grapes, Lemons and Tomatoes, 2010, Acrylic on linen, 58 x 44.75 inches

Woman and a Plant, 2010, Acrylic on linen, 18 x 22 inches

Woman Looking, 2010, Acrylic on linen, 18 x 22 inches

Mary Ellen, 2010, Acrylic on linen, 18 x 22 inches

Knox Martin
Woman: Black and White Paintings

September 15 – November 13, 2010

For nearly 60 years, Knox Martin has produced a singular visual language with roots in both the Old Masters and that great upheaval in mid-20th-century American art known as Abstract Expressionism. Now 87, he continues to paint with undiminished vigor, as the more than thirty paintings in this show—mainly from 2010—attest.

Martin came of age as an artist in the 1950s, alongside some of the leading lights of that era, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. But he has at intervals in his career wrestled with the ghosts of the Western tradition, most recently in a series of unframed drawings called “Caprichos” in honor of the fever-dream etchings of Goya. The paintings in this show also hint at other influences, ranging from Titian to Matisse, but ultimately Martin’s voice remains private, euphoric, and a tad inscrutable.

His fondness for the female body is everywhere apparent, from the high-heeled shoes to the outlines of a comely derriere to the repeated circular shapes that are sometimes breasts and other times possibly a pair of looking eyes. The works invite comparison with de Kooning’s “Woman” series, but Martin has a more playful touch; his attitude is one of admiration and light-hearted lust rather than ferocious ambivalence. At points in his career—such as murals he has done for Neiman Marcus and outdoor spaces in New York—Martin edges away from allusiveness to extreme metaphor, but he always seems to come back (at least in easel-sized efforts) to a more easily seen iconography that is about an amorous and playful sexuality.

He is also comfortable with both large and small formats, miraculously adjusting the content to suit the size. The largest paintings in the show, Grapes, Lemons and Tomatoes and Woman with Red Shoes “breathe” with bold passages of white space. The smaller works are often busier, more claustrophobic, sometimes threatening to burst out of their confines, as though the chaotic bustle were too overwhelming to be contained.
It’s clear that Knox Martin is very much a painter’s painter: the viewer can sense his repeated emendations to the canvases, the numerous pentimenti that show him backtracking to paint and repaint passages until he gets the surface looking the way he wants it to. But he also brings to his work a collage sensibility: sections look as though they could be made of cut paper and pasted to the canvas. This balancing act may be part of what contributes to the liveliness of his vision, or, as the critic Arthur Danto remarked 12 years ago, “The brilliance of [his] works lies in the drama of overlapping forms, in playing a painting’s depth against its surface.”

What may be most thrilling about these paintings, however, is their freshness. Martin’s style has its roots in a movement that goes back six decades, but he nonetheless makes the viewer feel part of an ongoing tradition—one that, in the right hands, has a lot of life left to it. Knox Martin’s paintings have a vividness and timelessness that is perhaps the most compelling characteristic of all great art.

Recent features on Knox Martin – Woman: Black and White Paintings:

“Paintings of Women by the Handful,” in L Magazine by Benjamin Sutton

“Knox Martin: Black and White Paintings,” in City Arts by Valerie Gladstone

“Knox Martin at Woodward Gallery, Robert Wilson at Paula Cooper, Charlotte Schulz at Smack Mellon,” in Best in Show, The Village Voice by Robert Shuster

THE ALPHA SEER’S COMMENT:

FINALLY SOMEONE IN NEW YORK CITY

GETS TO HAVE A GLIMPSE OF THE GREAT

KNOX MARTIN!!!!

KNOX MUST HAVE BEEN INVISIBLE ALL THESE YEARS AND MONTHS,….

WHAT IS TAKING PEOPLE SO LONG TO RECOGNIZE A TOP GENIUS?

ANSWER: WHEN ONE WALKS DIRECTLY UNDER THE HIMALAYA, ONE CANNOT IMMEDIATELY SEE ITS PEAKS AT ALL,–AND THAT IS WHY YOU CANNOT READILY SEE AN ARTISTIC GENIUS WITHOUT THE DISTANCE OF TIME AND ASSESSMENTS.

LOOK ON, FRIENDS,…TO FIND OUT WHY KNOX IS SO GREAT. SIMPLY ASK YOURSELF WHY THE OTHER ITEMS ON VILLAGE VOICE ARE JUST PLAIN SILLY SH-TS ,–THAT WHICH HAS COME OF THE MIND,– AND TOTALLY WITHOUT CREATIVE  MERITS. CERTAIN UNHINGED INVENTIVENESS MAY HAVE BEEN CHAMPIONED HERE IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM, BUT THEY MUST RELY SO UTTERLY ON MEANINGS!

WHERE IS POETRY?

WITHOUT POETRY, WHERE IS BEAUTY?

WITHOUT BEAUTY, WHERE IS ART?

WHO ARE STILL LOOKING FOR MEANING HERE IN A PAINTING, LIKE A BUNCH OF SILLY SCHOOL KIDS?

“ALL MEANINGS ORIGINATE FROM THE REGURGITATION OF MEMORY, AND MEMORY IS DEAD!”

THUS DECLARED J. KRISHNAMURTI,–ONE OF THE GREATEST MASTERS OF MEDITATIONS OF OUR TIME.

AND YOU CANNOT HAVE THE CONCEPTUAL AND ART AT THE SAME TIME, AS IT IS ANTI-INTUITIVE,–A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS.

WHAT IS ANTI-INTUITIVE? LET’S SAY IF YOU CAN REALLY ENJOY A MATISSE, (AS DISTINGUISHED FROM THOSE WHO PRETEND THEY CAN ENJOY A MATISSE…,) AND PROVIDED THAT YOU ARE NOT TOTALLY INERT TO THE POETIC PERSUASION THAT A MATISSE CAN ACT ON YOU, MASSAGING EVERY FIBER OF YOUR SOUL,– THEN YOUR DISCERNMENT OF THAT WHICH IS ANTI- MATISSE, OR ANTI-INTUITION,– SHOULD BE IMMEDIATELY EVIDENT.

DON’T GET ME WRONG HERE! I AM HARDLY AGAINST SUCH REGURGITATION AT ALL! WHY WOULD I, INDEED?

STRANGELY, FAKE STUFFS HAVE, MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, FOUND THEMSELVES REFLECTING ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE THE REAL THING, JUST AS AN IMPOSTOR ACTUALLY POINTS TO THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TRUE SEER.

THE ALPHA SEER

FIGURE 1: WOMAN AND CAT 054 BY THE ALPHA SEER

Not all ideas are instantaneous.

Some of the greatest ideas in the world may have been there, being incubated, so to speak, for many years.
Knox Martin’s most recent work at the Woodward Gallery have been in his studio for no less than 10 years. Each time I visited him, I was surprised to find so many a beautiful motifs that I last saw were still lying around,–still being worked on.

And a completely clueless person would sometime comment on how extraordinary a masterpiece would fetch in price at the auction, etc. Let me provide an answer to that :

The beauty of the thing itself is already priceless,–what with the great mind behind making it happen, the great invention therein, the heart break, the delights,– and the labor of love,– and all that combined with a 10 year incubation period, as in the case of Knox Martin, how much is not too much?

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Knox to me

Without a doubt Knox Martin’s brilliantly beautiful B/W paintings, further ripened with the years and replenished with steadier, fabulous wisdom, has arrived at a point of what is generally known as the crowning moment of glory in the artist’s career as well as for humanity, since Knox is the greatest artistic genius since Jan Van Eyck!

I do now look at Knox Martin differently as distinguished from the Knox I have known for 30 some years. By even a fleeting regard upon the wondrous stuffs on the Woodward Gallery catalog, I am already fully aware of the kind of revelation and promise that is in store for the fantastic feasting of my eyes!

It was like,…–Oh my god! And, zoom,…Lo! the familiar memory of the man is no more, somewhat like,… Hey! that is somewhat like the mapping of the course of an electron at flight, one that leaps to the beyond,– with speed of infinite immediacy!

So let the celebration begin, and the music, and the wine freely flow!

Some may not be able to dance now because they are completely blind, but I doubt not that this supreme festive mood can penetrate and infest even the heaviest Venetian blind of the spirit! Remember: you were not supposed to be blind. Recall yourself being a fetus still in your mother’s womb. Recall that spirit in case you want to resume that precious gift of seeing again. No one is born as an impure spirit,–not even the worst criminal of our time, such as Hitler or bin Laden. It is your own thinking ( automatic and usually chaotic activities of the mind ) that has betrayed you,– and all of us. Your thinking,–and nothing else. Have I not made myself clear enough?

Certainly no one can accuse the Alpha Seer of not seeing what is profanely hidden to the Joes, Jacks, and Jills,– of unenlightened spirits!

This is the Golden Age of Art, if only one can perceive the forces unseen by the casual,– general stock of humanity,– this show at the Woodward Gallery, ladies and gentlemen, will mark a supremely important moment in history,– that is, the unsurpassed glory being remarkably registered and fondly documented herein this brief statement, that of a singular peak being climbed, and what formerly impossible obstacles,– now nonchalantly dismissed by the supreme force of one giant and genius!

And, man, limping and hopping along in his ape-ly aspects, pitifully slumbering off since the death of deKooning, may once again proclaim his seat at the Council of the gods, in the partnership at the realm of Beauty!

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And to see the 87 Year old master beating a lawyer at her own games one day with what can be easily an overpowering round of words,– is itself a delight beyond words!

Frida Kahlo? Did she say she was an admirer of Frida? Ha, ha, ….! Did she also mention that Kahlo was to her,– more than just a name,– or maybe even some sort of heroine,–or an otherworldly, ghostly or UFO influence in the imagination of an idling and fanciful mind?

What an illiterate this!

One year at MCAD ( The Alpha Seer was an MFA candidate there,–BIG MISTAKE!!!!) I had a certain Professor Patricia B, one who had proudly claimed to her class, with the intention to impress certain minds un-hinged and without anchor,–and in all certainty, hearts that were hardly enlightened, –that she had her dissertation of 300+ pages and so forth,– written on the subject of one Henri Matisse and so on,– can you believe that… and Henri Matisse being her main man in the dissertation,…!?  Frankly, that meant a lot to someone like the Alpha Seer,–so touching, –you bet! Yet, lo and behold: no sooner had those words taken shape and solidified in the Alpha Seer’s ear-drum than she made a full 180 degrees turn-around, went on to exclaim anyway, with various gesticulations of sighs and admiration every now and then, punctuating what I would report as mundane academic theatricals, to finally arrive at her unabashed proclamation,– that “Mark Rothko” was “her god!” Had you been a witness on that infamous scene, you would have been bound to report that Professor Patricia B. had stopped the Alpha Seer dead in his track, the poor guy having been struck senseless, with no heart beat in evidence,– by so much of a deadpan in the erratic behavior, coming from a supposedly resourceful professor, –and one who had claimed to be a teacher of art too!

Is she a habitual liar/offender being caught often in the petty crime of making the comparison of the legs of a mosquito to a living and bouncing whole elephant, so as to usurp and consolidate that authority of professorship, especially when no one is seriously looking,– and expect to get away with impunity,–or is she simply a total idiot believing that everyone else in the whole wide world should be as dumb as her?

With due reference to the terrorists of our time, such folks as Patricia B, Ph.D. and our lawyer lady, the admirer of Frida Kahlo, remember?– can just as easily blow us away!

FIGURE 1: SATYR AND NYMPH SERIES

This painting has gone through many stages before it becomes what it is, a completed work, as shown in Figure 1.

Earlier versions show a composition without the proper Qi. It is obvious that the woman’s hair must be presented in a lighter tone in order to gain the required Qi.

The Alpha Seer

leander hughes to me

show details 9:32 PM (12 hours ago)

Reply

thetaland8@aol.com to me

show details 10:40 PM (11 hours ago)

Excellent! I see what you have done to complete it.

Love, Olivia

Master Olivia is the daughter of the great master, Knox Martin.