Reid Stowe -- Zen Sailing

Word comes from the deep blue sea that Reid Stowe has started a new art piece far from the sight of land. He's using an intriguing image to introduce the concept --


I'm guessing that the artwork above is made from a nautical chart from this or from one of his many previous voyages. The path it describes meanders in all directions. This is perfectly in keeping with Reid's description, which I'll excerpt here:

In the ancient orient, the story goes that when a man reached a certain age he was free to go on a 1000 day walk. This was his reward for a life of worldly duty. Now he could wander from town to town, into the nature or wherever he pleased. I often spoke of this story over the years as I tried to explain one aspect of the 1000 day trip I am on. I delved into many forms of spiritual knowledge and I kept Zen in mind.

A sailing writer called what I do "Hands off Sailing". That title is too mundane to describe such a hard won sacred act. I decided I must try to explain "The Art of Zen Sailing" and the steps I took to discover and learn. As I balanced my boats and learned to make them go where I wanted, I often used "Body English" the way a golfer uses body English to influence his golf ball. This is skill combined with an unstoppable urge to use invisible forces.

Read the entire entry at 1000days.net.

The artist has put his vessel under the control of wind and weather, influencing it only slightly through the movement of his body on board. It's a pure act, a performance streaming from a finely-tuned consciousness.

Don't settle here for the cliche of one's life as a vessel lost at sea, under control of the elements. That's way too Hemingway, way too embedded in the art historical narrative that Danto and others assure us is long past.

Consider the social identifiers that seem like an outer skin to you: your name, relationships with lovers and family members, your vocation, personal history, religion, preferences and so forth.

All of these are like a fairly idiosyncratic and somewhat beaten-upon twin-masted schooner, rolling across the waves of the South Atlantic. You need these identifiers to survive in any way that's meaningful to the rest of the world. They both invite people on board and also form a reasonable defense against the elements.

As solid and important as these socially-determined structures might seem, they aren't you; they're not who you are. Your essential being lies pure, radiant and glistening within. You can take charge, move this amalgamation of structures in the direction you desire, or you can force desire to take a back seat and allow the elements to control things and move these structures around.

This latter course requires a high degree of trust, the kind that comes from a deep-seated realization that the forces that course through your consciousness are the same ones that course through all of life, through the economy, the political sphere, through every element that touches you. They're the same forces influencing the sun, the atmosphere and the oceans, causing heat and cold, movement and calm, storm and silence.

Reid's Zen Sailing image shows his meandering course surrounded by thangka-like Buddhas or bodhisattvas. They appear as guides, each influencing the schooner's path. I also see them as guardians of a realm of security Reid has drawn himself, through his beliefs and, really, through pure faith. This small artwork is a reflection to me of the much larger one surrounding the artist, a kind of living mandala he's created on the high seas.

Is this the performance art of the new narrative?

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