Painting the Dao

45 inexcusable to confuse these two areas and use one to attack or belittle the other. 12 Through the lens of CC’s distinction we can see one of the negative lega- cies of the modern western revolution: surface results (breadth) delivered a circus of novelty, a dizzying succession of innovation that we took to be the essential nature of the future of art. This led directly to a vast quantity of surface banality, which is not a problem in itself; any creative response has its value and will find a matching and useful level of audience response, leading both artist and audience to the next rung of the ladder of meaning. Banality has its place, but we can climb the ladder faster with a clearer understanding of what it all means and of the purpose of the ladder itself. It is wise to focus on depth rather than breadth in any aspect of evolving consciousness. Essence in creativity resides far beneath the surface, but once accessed it transforms the efficiency of art as a metalanguage. In the Daoist interpretation the ultimate search for essence leads to the Gates of Wonder, through which the self is united with the Absolute. 13 media and formats In China the purpose of creativity led to sophisticated media in the arts. The ink-painting tradition developed tools and formats ideally suited to the ultimate goal of creativity; they were partners in the dance, not merely its venue, culminating in paper that was thin, absorbent and responsive, aiding the overcoming of intention and the exploration of invention. Xuan paper was developed more than a thousand years ago, hand-wrought from the bark of sandalwood and rice straw to make thin sheets. Paper, water- based black ink and the flexible and fine-tipped bamboo brush are the simplest of means, used to record household accounts and to fly the artist into transcending the medium and the process itself. Then there are the formats. The idea of the Three Perfections – poetry, calligraphy and painting – came through the recognition that the separation of art modes was a lower-level mist of an idea that evaporated with the shift to process aesthetics. The same applies to the lower-level distinction between artist and audience in the handscroll format. The viewer unrolls the painting bit by bit to view it, and is drawn into the process more efficiently than when bouncing off a painting hanging in a fixed position and in danger of becoming unnoticed. The paintings hung permanently in