How Living in Mexico is Like Zen Practice: 1008 Paintings Project Update #6

A Jesus-shaped bottle of holy water watches over my paintings in progress

Well. I’ve fallen off the wagon as it were. A little. Or maybe a lot.

I just checked the date on my computer calendar and am startled to realize we’re well into the first week of February.

Which means January has come and gone and now it’s time for an official accounting of paintings completed. This will be easy, because the number is:

Zero. Ten. I painted ten in the few days between starting to write and finishing this post.

When I settled in to my apartment in Oaxaca, it was already the last week of January. And if I was going to meet my self-imposed goal of completing 200 paintings per month, I had to do all of them in about six days.

This only served to overwhelm me more than I already was. So of course, I did nothing. Eventually, I painted a little. In starts and stops. I got about 40 paintings in process that week. But didn’t really feel capable of more. It felt like I would have to exert superhuman effort to do more.

Instead, I found myself painting a lot in my visual journals, taking photos of my strange and wonderful new surroundings, and allowing my thinking/doing self to take a back seat for once.

my unfurnished apt. came with a full set of 1992 encyclopedias, which make a great press for flattening the cardboard for the paintings

My theme for this year is

2010: Plenty Zen

I’m living in Southern Mexico, which is a perfect place to practice being in the moment and allowing the flow of life to be more gentle, non-linear, and more ambiguous. You know the concept of being on island time? Well, there is such a thing as being on Mexican time. And I’m not referring to time zones or daylight savings time. Time and space and human interaction happen much differently than in the American urban centers of achievement and commerce where I come from.

Even the Spanish language and communication style is much less direct than English. Getting straight to the point is a very English-language thing to do. When we English speakers try to communicate like that in Spanish, it comes off as being rude and insensitive.

Picture of Juan on my Creativity & Courage altar. Polaroid art is by Chinako Miyamoto*

I joke about all this with my boyfriend, Juan, a native Spanish speaker who also knows a thing or two about Zen. (He’s a senior dharma teacher at a Zen center in Northern California.) I affectionately refer to him as: My Own Personal Zen Master, inspired by that Depeche Mode song from the 80’s, Personal Jesus: “Your own — personal — Jesus”.
Ringtone of “Personal Jesus” by Depeche Mode

Anyway, Juan has also lived in Mexico and kindly sympathizes with me during our nightly Skype calls about how living in Mexico can be so much like Zen practice. Only a lot noisier.

I actually take notes during our calls to help me remember the bigger picture when things are happening that push all of my buttons. That’s code for: when I’m freaking out.

You see, there are things that will likely always freak me out, no matter how much I meditate. Like when a winged cockroach the size of a hummingbird flies in through the screenless window, and buzzes over my head like a bush pilot before landing (right on the yoga mat, of course) and then walking right toward me.

After sweeping the bugger out, (while screeching like a girl all the while) I refer to my Zen notes from Juan and sip some water with a lot of Rescue Remedy in it. Come to think of it, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have something stronger in the house for situations like this. Like Tequila. Wonder what Rescue Remedy would do in a shot?

Today’s Zen Note from Juan:

“It’s about being able to laugh at yourself and your expectations and your plans and all the ways you think things should be.”

My Expectations/Plans Regarding 1008 Paintings Project (as of December 2009)
Paint about 200 paintings/month to so I’ll be finished with the paintings by May 1, 2010.

The actual outcome so far as of February 10, 2009

Paintings Finished: 225-ish
Additional Paintings in progress, near completion: 30

Amount I’m behind: according to original schedule: about 130.

So…I’m recalibrating my project goals to match what is actually happening in my life now. Which fits in neatly with Part 4 of the Strategic Planner series, which I’m just putting the finishing touches on.

*The “Let Love In” Polaroid is from the amazing Chinako Miyamoto.

Related posts:

1. Adrenal Glands (Take Refuge): 1008 Paintings Project Update #5
2. Disorientation: 1008 Paintings Project Update #4
3. A Block and a Breakthrough: 1008 Paintings Project Update #7
4. Creativity as Teacher: 1008 Paintings Project Update #11
5. 50 New Works + A peek inside my project journal: 1008 Paintings Update #10