Customer Reviews

Zen Seeing, Zen Drawing: Meditation in Action

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is one of the few that has had a profound impact on my life, and one of the very, very few which will always have a place on my bookshelf. I go back to this delightful book again and again when I need to be inspired and refreshed.

"Zen Seeing / Zen Drawing" is neither a primer nor a thorough discourse on either zen or drawing technique, and thank goodness - the last thing we need is more "talking" about zen or "how to's" about art. This book, plain and simple, is about the experience of SEEING, truly seeing, not just with ones eyes, but with all of ones senses, ones heart and ones spirit.

If you have always wanted to draw but somehow never have, then this book may be just what you need to get started, especially if you have any inclination towards things "zen" or spiritual.

This book changed my life. I can now "see". As a begining art student, I was having difficulty "seeing". I read this book 3 times in a row when I first got it. It changed the way I look at everything. People, places, life. Such a passion for life, drawing and humanity comes through Frederick Franck's drawings and words. Frederick Franck is an amazing conduit. I'm grateful he wrote this book. Highly, highly recommended.

No, it's not a book about Zen or drawing, but it is an ispiration for both. This book inspires the reader to see the world for the first time, not just look at things for the sake of avoiding them while driving. Franck's style is not bombastic, but his entusiasm for drawing, for life, and for awareness shows through every word he writes.

Why I am reviewing a book known as a classic by an author with an eighty year pedigree as a artist and teacher is beyond me. As a beginning drawer he gives me confidence to keep on firing away and allowing nature to gradually improve me instead of a rule book on how to do it right. Although that is not that he is without opinion! for instance call yourself an artist and you rate is resounding contempt. You draw, other people decide if you are an artist. Very little here about technique, a great deal about encouragement and perspective. And his tossed off the top of the pen drawings gradually soak in their quiet beauty. They proliferate like daisies scattered through the text.

A joy. I have read it three times and it stays on my coffee table tempting me to set aside serious matters and just enjoy it one more time. Maybe learn from it to.

If you are looking for a book about Zen, then Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind is a better bet.

If you are looking for a book about drawing, then Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a better bet.

This book is a collection of thoughts on Zen, meditation, and drawing. It is an interesting juxtaposition of several drawings and a description of the processes (physical, mental, and spiritual) that lead to such drawings. It is a diary, not an instruction manual.