Customer Reviews

Zen of Seeing: Seeing/Drawing as Meditation

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was overjoyed to see this book back in print. I bought, devoured, and used this book in 1975 as an art student. Have you ever been so interested in doing an activity that time seemed to stand still? When you stop, it's almost like waking up from a pleasant dream or coming home from a long trip. That's what Franck is writing about here: the process of taking a tiny element of nature, a leaf or a stick or a seashell, and getting to know it in an unbelievably intimate way by drawing it. It absolutely does not require artistic "ability" to do this. Nonartists will be astounded what an adventure it is to take an hour or two and do this activity. It is therapeutic. It feeds the soul on a level that is akin to meditation, hence the title. My drawing teacher said, "I am not going to teach you to draw, I am going to teach you to see." Franck does this, and weaves into the text Zen stories and koans that shed light on the reasons for doing this activity in the first place. Enlightenment can be found in the art of tea, in the art of archery, in chanting and meditating, and Franck has shown us that drawing is a very valid method to add to this list. Thank you to the person who decided to reintroduce this classic. When so many books focus on creativity as a way to succeed in business, it's refreshing to return to developing creativity for its own sake. Buy this book, but promise to also plop down under a tree somewhere and draw!

Where has this book been? I started drawing and painting a few years back and have bought lots of books, but none like this! I don't think of myself as a Zen person or a mystic, but this book really speaks to me. The drawings are beautiful, but go beyond a superficial beauty. Even if one is not interested in drawing, there is lots in this book to recommend it. It is not just a book about seeing and drawing, it is a book about truly living.

Years ago when this book was in its infancy, I was enrolled in a philosopy class on Death and Dying. When asked what we would give to a friend who was dying, I responded, "The Zen of Seeing--Drawing as Meditation." Why? Because in a person's final hours I believed it could provide a peace that comes from seeing the world differently--more openly. Why wait for death to knock?

I've studied many of the how-to draw books out there on the market. And, I must say that this book is quite well written and easy to understand(it is actually handwritten and not typed). It teaches the reader to be more concerned with what he/she is observing than what they are putting down on paper. The author uses many examples to illustrate his points he is tring to get accross. However, this book will not be of any aid to those who are searching for actual techniques and drills (such as step by step excersizes). The lessons taught are somewhat similar in substance to those taught by Dr. Betty Edward's Book "Drawing on the right Side of the Brain". I would recommend this title to those who are interested in drawing for the shear enjoyment of it. So, in that respect I give it 5 stars.

This is a fascinating book that stimulates one to observe the beauty of life's everyday processes and to record these experiences in the form of simpledrawings-- sketches that need not be exact, are often indistinct, yet capture some intricate details to reveal the beauty of nature. This is a very "warm and friendly" book with a very rustic, imaginative style, and is very readable. The expressions in this book have stimulated the interest of almost all who have picked it up- my sons aged 14 and 8, my daughter aged 4, a computer programmer, a cancer patient in the ward, a nurse, and therapist and others from all walks of life - the artist within all of us !

What a revelation! This book is actually a way of life, a way of seeing world in a very different yet sobbering way. This book is for the artist within, those of us who are intimidated by our art-works and yet have a deep longing to express ourselves through them.
In this book, Mr. Franck shares his way of viewing the world and expressing it through his drawings and the process is very much spiritual, it is a way of life. When I picked up this book, I thought I'd learn some technique in drawing that can help me, but I gained so much more; all I needed to learn I already have inside. Now, I can't wait to bring my sketchbook and pencil everywhere I go and start drawing.

Is art about copying or creativity, has been and eternal question for aesthetes. Frederick Franck joins in this search for the kernel of beauty by using drawing as the means of Zen-meditation. He introduces SEEING/DRAWING as opposed to `subjects looking at objects, seeing less and less'.

If you know Zen, you will find in this book one more interesting practical implementation of Zen, like the famous "Zen in the Art of Archery". If you are a drawing artist or studying to become one, it will teach you that a bird is not an ellipse with head and tail added, but yet another form of your inner being, which you first have to identify yourself with in order to become a silent link of the creative flow. If you are looking for a step-by-step drawing tutorial, you will have to search for some other source.

Franck claims that the artist-within must exist in every man, for if man is created in God's image, it can only mean that he is created creative. While he admires an old man who says that `I am not an artist; I am just copying things', for him this kind of copying is not the same as consciously trying to make things look the same, but rather becoming part of the process itself. For Franck the inexpressible is the only thing that it is worth while expressing.

I love this book for its sincerity and deep mental approach to the art of drawing. While the book is full of his beautiful creations, Franck stays humble and being true to the Zen tradition he wants to be just a `True-Man-With-No-Label' drawing the `Ten Thousand Things'. This book is published handwritten, because, as he says, it is a love letter.

Although the whole `Zen and the Art of [fill in the blank]' shtick seems rather tired nowadays, this book was written back in the day before it had been done to death. And even though many of the insights in *Zen of Seeing* may now seem as trite as they are timeless, its hard to give this classic anything less than four stars, for it still manages to inspire, enlivened as it is by Franck's irascible spirit and sheer zest for life and the practice of drawing. What's more, this oversized trade paperback is filled with Franck's own uniquely beautiful pen and wash drawings--delicate, suggestive, almost calligraphic, they depict people, landscapes, animals, leaves, anything and everything that caught Franck's enlightened eye. And that's pretty much the point of *Zen of Seeing,* that all the Ten Thousand Things are worth seeing--and drawing--and by drawing even the lowliest insect or common weed, we see it and marvel at its inexpressible wonder for the very first time.

This is really not a book about creating "Art." It's a book about the reverence of life for those who would use a sketchpad instead of a prayer book. Franck doesn't teach you about perspective or negative space, anatomy or shading--he's not teaching you *how to draw.* He's doing something far more important. He's showing you the *why of drawing.*

You can draw on anything with anything and in the end it doesn't matter what your drawing looks like--or doesn't look like! What's important is the act of drawing itself, the quiet contemplation of the thing drawn that engages you fully in the moment and opens your eyes and your heart to the world around you. Have you ever seen--really seen--a sparrow, a turnip, your child's face? Chances are you haven't until you've sat with them, a pad on your lap and a pencil in your hand, and traced their outline as if you were touching them with your heart's own flesh. Chances are you'll see things in each that you've never seen before, that you'll never forget, that will become a part of you forever. For those moments when you draw an object, a person, or a landscape you become a part of what you see--and it becomes a part of you. In this way, drawing becomes a form of meditation, the Zen of Seeing.

For those who already love to draw, this book will serve as inspiration; for those who think they'd like to draw, it will encourage you to do so. For both, it's the sort of book one should have on one's shelf even if it sits there untouched and forgotten for many years. On a rainy day of the heart, on some idle restless afternoon of the spirit, it's the sort of book one stumbles upon again and maybe that's exactly the time you need it most, when what Franck has to say sets off that lightning flash of understanding and you pick up your pencil and begin to see for the very first time the heretofore invisible world all around you.

The Zen of Seeing is exactly what it says in the title: Seeing/Drawing as Meditation. It is not a "How to Draw" book. It is intended for artists who love to draw, but are stuck in the "academic" theories of Art. This book will teach you how to free yourself from your high-school or college art instruction, and enable you to look at the world in a more precise and creative way. In addition, it provides techniques that will introduce you to the subject of meditation, or enhance your current meditation process. I highly recommend this book!

I have recently revisited my passion for drawing and this book was very inspirational to read. It focuses on seeing and feeling what you are drawing instead of technical mumbo jumbo "how to" and techniques. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in drawing and slowing down to take it all in.