Frederick Franck’s guidelines for the creative life

 

These Ten Commandments on seeing/drawing were revealed to me on a mountain, but also in a meadow, on a beach and even in the subway.  For their revelation did not come all at once, but in instalments, as it were, over the years, and always while I was busy drawing, and invariably on holy ground.  But that may be because, while drawing, all ground is holy: unseparated from the Whole.- – – – Frederick Franck, The Awakened Eye

– – –

1  –  YOU SHALL DRAW EVERYTHING AND EVERY DAY

 

2  –  YOU SHALL NOT WAIT FOR INSPIRATION, FOR IT COMES NOT WHILE YOU WAIT BUT WHILE YOU WORK

 

3  –  YOU SHALL FORGET ALL YOU THINK YOU KNOW AND, EVEN MORE, ALL YOU HAVE BEEN TAUGHT

 

4  –  YOU SHALL NOT ADORE YOUR GOOD DRAWINGS AND PROMPTLY FORGET YOUR BAD ONES

 

5  –  YOU SHALL NOT DRAW WITH EXHIBITIONS IN MIND, NOR TO PLEASE ANY CRITIC BUT YOURSELF

 

6  –  YOU SHALL TRUST NONE BUT YOUR OWN EYE, AND MAKE YOUR HAND FOLLOW IT

 

7  –  YOU SHALL CONSIDER THE MOUSE YOU DRAW AS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE CONTENTS OF ALL THE MUSEUMS IN THE WORLD, FOR

 

8  –  YOU SHALL LOVE THE TEN THOUSAND THINGS WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND A BLADE OF GRASS AS YOURSELF

 

9  –  LET EACH DRAWING BE YOUR FIRST: A CELEBRATION OF THE EYE AWAKENED

 

10  –  YOU SHALL NOT WORRY ABOUT “BEING OF YOUR TIME”, FOR YOU ARE YOUR TIME,

AND IT IS BRIEF

 


Also see:

the Face of faces

seeing/drawing as meditation

Frederick Franck at the artisans’ gallery

 

Frederick Franck: The Awakened Eye

The Awakened Eye
– Frederick Franck

 


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