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This painting was done entirely with a variety of palette knives. As I often do, I consulted the I Ching when searching for a title. I was led to the 53rd hexagram, "Developing." The passage in the text that moved me to name the painting as I did is, "A step-by-step process in developing your position is the key to success no." Appropriate, at least for me, at the time.

For twenty years I sought to enter the state of “mushin” when I paint without fully understanding what I was seeking or having a name for it. Then I stumbled on the name and found resources that helped me understand it and enter it at will. Mushin is a Japanese term and Zen expression, also used in martial arts. It refers to the mental state, the mindset, I seek when painting. In that state I rely not on thought and judgment, but on my trained instinct or what I feel intuitively in a moment. In English, mushin means “no mind.” It is shorthand for the term “mushin no shin” which means “mind without mind.” In the state of mushin the mind is not empty, but is free of distractions such as planning, analysis, criticism, fear,...