There's nothing to know here
Claregalway Friary, County Galway, Ireland. May 2025.
Do you enjoy abstract art? My mind tends toward knowing [a thing] because survival in the old days but which is less important now and now my mind still tends toward knowing [a thing] and once it thinks it knows [a thing] it believes that [the thing] is that thing and sometimes even that [the thing] is only that thing as the mind originally experienced. Very limiting. They say meditation helps with this very thing, that it may be the most personally valuable aspect of meditation but it seems too that meditation is a process through which we can connect to life around us as it is rather than what we think it is which is to say the same thing in another way which some suggest is great for teaching but I’m just trying to say how much I love that when I experience abstract art it subverts this thinking-knowing and allows me an opportunity for a legitimate experience that I have to evolve with. For example, the photographs of Susan Mikula, particularly the National Seashore series, compel me to take time to really look at the images, to see the scenes but to feel the image beyond that too. There’s nothing to know here that isn’t experienced. And that’s beautiful.
These things too inspired me recently…
The Last Polaroid Artist? - Christopher Bonanos on the photography of Susan Mikula.
Twins speaking in unison in unison - Did you know this!? I had no idea! How much is this like the Aurora Borealis and Australius sharing ions despite being perceptively two distinct phenomena on our north and south poles?
I Just Want to Ride - Lael Wilcox and the 2019 Tour Divide - It’s biking season and if you’re inclined toward endurance riding and bikepacking, I think you’ll find this short documentary pretty inspiring.
Recently listening to…
Max Richter - 24 Postcards in Full Color
Gerry O’Beirne - The Bog Bodies and Other Stories: Music for Guitar
Olafur Arnalds - some kind of peace