The Healing Art of Nature

Nature Bound, small collage by Donna Watson

Recently, some Japanese researchers set out to discover whether something special... and clinically therapeutic... happens when people spend time in nature.  In the early 1980"s the Forest Agency of Japan advised people to take a stroll in the woods for better health.  This practice was called forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku... and it was believed to lower stress.  Since then, a large body of evidence has shown that spending time in nature causes beneficial changes in the body.

I live on a cliff over looking a large body of water... and there are wooded trails around my home that lead down to the beach down below.  I also have created beautiful Japanese gardens that surround my home.

Studies have found that the quiet atmosphere, beautiful scenery, good smells and fresh, clean air in forests all contribute to lower stress, lower anxiety, and help symptoms like depression, heart disease and even cancer.

This is part of my moss garden...  there is a circular path around this moss garden where one can walk and meditate.  Plants and trees release compounds that protect them from pests; when humans inhale those compounds, it promotes healthy -- and measurable-- biological changes.

When I walk through my woods around my home, I love to forage and collect moss covered sticks,

fallen leaves, weathered wood, lichen...  and take to my greenhouse (Zen House).  This is where I also keep my fossil collection, rock collection, driftwood collection, bird nest collection....  and small bonsai collection.

Inside my Zen House

This is where I keep my moss covered sticks with a small bird's nest and ferns.  Research has shown that bringing bits of nature inside can also be very beneficial... even a plant in your room or just looking at trees through a window.

Here are some ferns with my crystal rock collection.

I planted bee balm in my herb garden this year, not realizing I would get these beautiful flowers.

Jizo, the protector of women, children and travelers

"The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it.  If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other species are our biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother, not an opportunity -- then we will treat each one with greater respect.  That is the challenge, to look at the world from a different perspective."  David Suzuki

Wabi Sabi Hare

Collage by Donna Watson

Wabi Sabi is the Japanese aesthetic of finding beauty in imperfection,  incompleteness and impermanence.  It is a beauty of things modest and humble.  It is a beauty of things rustic, simple, organic, worn, weathered... things affected by the passage of time.  It is also about the cycle of life and our connection to nature.  It is an appreciation of nature and all life.  This is how I view the rabbit.  A quiet, still, silent, gentle, harmless (unless you have a vegetable garden) creature.

THE HARE WITH THE AMBER EYES is written by Edmund De Waal, a world famous ceramist working in Porcelain.  He inherited a collection of 264 tiny netsuke.  He wanted to know and understand who had collected them and how they had survived World War II.  The book is a moving 

memoir and detective story as he discovers the history of the netsuke and his family over 5 generations.  The writing is artful, detailed, exquisite... beautifully written memoir... and deeply moving.  He writes not just about the netsuke, but about the art and culture in each generation.

Here is the famous netsuke, THE HARE WITH THE AMBER EYES

Netsuke are miniature sculptures first created in 17th century Japan to serve a practical purpose.

Robes, like kimono, had no pockets.  Men who wore them needed a place to store their belongings like money, medicine, or pipes.  They used a container (sagemono) hung by cords from the robe's sashes (obi).  This box (inro) was held shut by ojime, small carved objects or animals.  The fastener that secured the chord at the top of the sash was a carved, button like toggle called netsuke.

Over time, Netsuke evolved from being utilitarian into objects of great artistic merit and superb craftmanship, highly respected and collected.

It is the quieter side of life that inspires me, with the feelings that come with my connection to the natural world.  My love of rabbits is part of my connection to nature.

This is a rabbit temple in the heart of Kyoto.  I was very happy to find it.

Artist Unknown

Artist W. Tucker,  RABBIT GIRL,  website:  www.wtucker-art.com

As you see above, artists today depict rabbits and hares in many mediums and forms.  

photo image by Donna Watson

The above image includes one of my ceramic rabbits, and 2 mail art envelopes I created.

photo image by Donna Watson

photo image by Donna Watson

Mono no aware refers to a feeling of life's fragility, and relates to seeing beauty in this fragile, impermanent nature, and even grasping that without permanence, genuine beauty can not exist.

Bound by Nature

Autumn has come to my zen gardens.

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.
--- Henry Miller

Each of us literally chooses,
by his way of attending to things,
what sort of universe
he shall appear to himself to inhabit.
William James

I found this egret standing in the quiet, still water on the beach below my studio.

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child-- our own two eyes. All is a miracle. --- Thich Nhat Hahn

James Blackwell, from Australia, uses mixed media (natural materials) to create nature-based pods and vessels like the one above. Bushwalking in the Blue Mountains has become part of this artist's lifestyle. "I like to think of the valley floor as my art supply store!" You find more of his pods, vessels and baskets at his website here. He also has a wonderful blog here.

A broken bird's egg inspired these fragile paper bowls. Ann Symes lives by "woodland" which inspires her art works. "It wraps itself around me inviting close observation of textures, patterns, shapes, shadows... the opening and closing sequences of the seasons, decay and renewal."

Ann uses rusted papers to create collages for her Autumn series. You can find more of her wonderful art works at her website here.

full moon at dusk (view from my window)

When you start on a long journey, trees are trees, water is water, and mountains are mountains. After you have gone some distance, trees are no longer trees, water is no longer water, mountains are no longer mountains. But after you have traveled a great distance, trees are once again trees, water is once again water, mountains are once again mountains. ---
Zen Teaching

Outside In

I created this painting several years ago. An image of bird eggs is embedded in textured pastes.
Above the image is a rusty hinge and above that is a weathered piece of wood.

I love to bring nature's gifts inside my home. This is a new addition to my dining room table.
I have arranged rocks, driftwood, balls woven with tree bark, and small Japanese boxes that I have collected over the years.

Nature has innate beauty that makes an artist of the viewer.

These are sacred lingam rocks from a river in India. I have arranged them in a bowl on a table.

"One of the most important aspects of design is integration: not only the relationship of design to the process of manufacture, but to life itself and the creation of an environment." --- George Nakashima

The above is two collections of rocks. The first collection includes agates and crystals and quartz. The larger collection includes round beach rocks and grape vines.

The above fossils (ammonites and sand dollars) are arranged on top of a desk in my library. You can also see my favorite weathered balls and my love of rabbits.

The above are the former nests of gila woodpeckers in Arizona. They form their nests in the cavities of saguaro cacti. The sap from the cactus hardens the nest so these birds can use them more than once.

The saguaro boot nests have been added to my collection of bird nest, eggs, rocks, and drift wood in a container placed in my greenhouse.

A bird's nest and beach rocks and drift wood in a container

A fellow artist and master gardener, Betty Dorotik, has renamed my green house ZEN House which I like very much. The above arrangement is in a container in my zen house. To see pictures of my zen house (green house) go to my previous blog post here.

"The quality that we call beauty must always grow from the realities of life..."

--- Jun'Ichiro Tanizuki, In Praise of Shadows

Bonsai are Japanese dwarf trees. These miniature landscapes help convey simplicity, naturalism and harmony. These are a few of my bonsai that I have on my back decks and around my zen (green) house.


"One thing that was new to me in creating a Japanese-inspired garden was using many colors and textures of leaves, from light gray green to dark red, rather than using flowers for colors. The contrast adds depth and interest to the landscape, and the use of evergreens adds a timeless quality that is calming." Sakina von Briesen, Chado New Mexico

Nature's Best Work

Nature has all the elements of design: line, shape, color, texture...

"Nature contains the elements, in color and form, of all pictures, as the keyboard contains the notes of all music. But the artist is born to pick and choose... as the musician gathers his notes, and forms his chords, until he brings forth from chaos, glorious harmony. --- James Abbot McNeill Whistler

Line: Look at nature's calligraphy... Red winged black bird egg

NATURE'S COLLAGE: The bird used bits of newspaper and old found papers...
Rooted nature clings to nothing to be a new thing....

TEXTURE: These bird eggs were collected from one nest. The one spirit, silent, beats in every breath its name....

COLOR: Lingam rocks are found in a sacred river in India. They are believed to be filled with spiritual healing power. Look at the beautiful subdued, earth colors.

SHAPES, TEXTURE, LINE: Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to learn to understand art more and more. --- Vincent Van Gogh

SHAPES AND TEXTURE: Seed pods and remnants of plants... within my hands, what's lost is found....

THE READY MADE NEST: Some birds may use human-made materials to build their nests.

The age-old story repeats itself..

Below is an etching by Yoshio Imamura. He incorporates nature into his work in beautiful, subtle ways. You can see more of his work here.

"The beautiful is in nature, and it is encountered under the most diverse forms of reality. Once it is found it belongs to art, or rather to the artist who discovers it." --- Gustave Courbet

Some of the images in this blog post came from the book EGG & NEST by Rosamond Purcell.
It is a beautiful picture book that captures the intricacy of birds' nests, and the aesthetic perfection of birds' eggs. You can find the book at Amazon.com.


"The Artist has been the element of nature, and the arbiter of nature; he who has sat on a cloud and viewed it from afar, but at the same time has identified himself as one of nature's parts. The true artist views nature from his own time."
---- David Smith, (1906-1965)

The Passage of Time, part 2

I started a new series last week, based on the passage of time and how it effects memory. For several years, my paintings were based on the physical aspects of the passage of time in nature. I took digital pictures of some of my favorite collections from nature like bird nests, bird eggs, bones, fossils, and animal and bird skulls. I also used digital pictures of trees, rocks, and piles of driftwood. Now, I am exploring memory. The first thing I did was brainstorm a list of words.
Then I found an old list of words from several years ago (see The Passage of Time, part 1). I was surprised to see so much similarity between the two lists. Some of these new words have already become titles of my new paintings.

1. quiet memory
2. faded memory
3. traces
4. vestiges
5. fragments
6. remnants
7. recollections
8. fragile memory
9. a remembered moment
10. dwelling in light and shadow