I do not paint about politics; however, I have some paintings that reflect historical events. In the Solidarity Series portrayed below, I use the colors of the American flag to invoke the call for solidarity. 

I see so much division over mundane topics, and division over larger topics. I would like to see more understanding where the individuals involved in the disagreement agree to disagree, and the fundamental of respect, friendship and solidarity do not get damage because one does not agree with the opinion of the other. 

From upper left clockwise to lower left, these paintings are:
1) Solidarity I 
Medium: Oil pastel
Surface: Acid free paper
Size: 17x14 inches
$400

2) Solidarity II
Medium: Oil pastel
Surface: Acid free paper
Size: 17x14 inches
$400

3 Solidarity III
Medium: Oil pastel and acrylic paint
Surface: Canvas
Size: 20x16 inches

4) Solidarity IV 
Medium: Oil pastel and acrylic paint
Surface: Acid free paper
Size: 17x14
​$400

The second chapter of the Dhammapada talks about vigilance as being the path of long life versus negligence which is a direct path to premature death. The fourth verse of this chapter can be paired with the Eightfold path titled "Right Mindfulness."

The verse goes like this:

"Glory grows for a person who is
Energetic and mindful, 
Pure and considerate in action,
Restrained and vigilant, 
And who lives the Dharma."

In the West, the concept of mindfulness have been overused and misused to the point that it became a money making industry. 

The Buddha's intention of the concept of mindfulness is as simple as "consideration in action." Being mindful means to be fully aware of how our actions carry consequences like the ripples on a lake.  We want to conduct ourselves in such a way that those ripples we produce with our actions are not harmful to ourselves, to others and to the environment. 

Practical examples are: 1) You are on the waiting room of a heavy traffic place, such as an airport or a hospital or even at a park bench where there are runners and walkers passing in front of you. A mindful person sits down without extended the legs out because those legs could cause someone to trip and fall. Be present in the moment, consider the action and how it could affect others; 2) You want to be able to travel with your dog so you buy a service dog vest online, and voila! now you take your untrained dog everywhere. It is convenient to you but it is absolutely not mindful. A fake service dog puts the public at risk. This is a negligent action and not a mindful behavior. 

I invite you to practice this during this week. Be 100% aware of everything you do (being mindful and present in the moment), and think about what kind of ripples those actions will create. If they are harmful to you, other or the environment, then, avoid it. 
​

In this abstraction, I explore textures using toothpicks to represent the eyes and nose of the upside down face. 
On a purple background, I am using short strokes of orange and gray payne, and in white I create the shape of the face. 
This is a serendipity painting because I realized I have done an upside down face after I signed it. LOL

Title: Upside Down Face
Medium: Acrylic paint and toothpicks
Surface: Acid Free Paper
Unframed
$300 - Free shipping in the USA

If you have been following these blog posts, then you know that I live as Zen Buddhist. I have also talked about how I like to paint dichotomies. 

When I was thinking about the topic for the philosophy section of this post, I thought of the first chapter of the Dhammapada which is titled Dichotomies! 
​
In the next 26 blogs, I will talk about a section of each chapter and how to bring that into our current lives.

The Dhammapada was first introduced to the non-Buddhist modern world during the second half of the XIX Century. After reading and living by the Dhammapada, one experiences self-reliance, self-mastery and liberation. 

By understanding the Buddha teachings, one can understand the path of liberation he teaches to attain spiritual freedom, and to attain happiness and welfare in this life.

The first verse of Dichotomies goes:
"All experience is preceded by mind, 
Led by mind,
Made by mind.
Speak or act with a corrupted mind, 
And suffering follows
As the wagon wheel follows the hoof of the ox."

The last sentence clearly states the inevitability of influencing your world with your thoughts. You cannot have the ox pushing the wagon in the same way that you cannot expect to have a peaceful environment around you if you do not control your mind first. 

This verse also refers to one of the eightfold path - Right Speech.  

How you can practice right speech - For example, if someone you are talking to is not behaving properly, do not insult the person. You can say "your behavior, whether intentional or not, resembles the behavior of an asshole/moron/etc." Believe it or not, there is a big difference between calling a person a moron and saying that the behavior the person is adopting at that particular resembles the behavior of a moron. 

Imagine a wall that you punch in anger, and then you patch it and paint it over. The truth is that the whole, even though now masked by the paint, will always be there. It is a permanent hole. 
When you insult a person, the hurt in that person's soul will always be there even though if you apologize a million times. 

Virtual Art Exhibition - Wednesday, June 30 2021 - 5 pm Pacific Time -
Free registration at https://www.ceciliaanastos.com/event-registration.html
This is an exhibition of contemporary abstract paintings by Cecilia Anastos. There will be an opportunity drawing of a painting. 

Liberty Station - August 7-8, 2021

Little Italy - October 2-3, 2021

La Jolla Art and Wine Festival - October 9-10, 2021

I do not drink alcohol for philosophical reasons. I am a Zen Buddhist and I do not agree with putting things in our bodies that alter the regular state of mind. 

Nevertheless, I have created a series of paintings of wine bottles. I will be exhibiting them at the La Jolla Art & Wine Festival on October 9-10, 2021. 

Why did I start painting this collection? In part, it is because I often find inspiration of my art in dichotomies of life. Even though I do not drink, once I had a job where I would offer tours of wineries. LOL I do not drink however I know a lot about wine and I was successful in introducing clients to the type of wines they really liked. 

Then, in 2016, I was organizing art events at a local restaurant called Pappalecco. The restaurant carries the Castellani wines and their bottles are gorgeous so I painted some of those. You can find my entire wine bottle collection here.

The painting of today is titled Limoncello (2021). The medium is acrylic paint and oil pastel on acid free paper. It is a figurative stile life of two bottles, a glass and lemons. The objects drawn with white oil pastel and painted with an orange palette are set on a purple background defined by triangles drawn with white oil pastel and painted with yellow oil pastel. 
Size is 18" high x 24" wide. It is sold unframed. I framed for the studio with a black frame and white mat and board. It will enhance the look of any kitchen and/or tasting room. 

Do you bring you work problems into your personal life? You arrive home from work after having a rough day and you treat everybody at home rudely and your excuse is that you had a bad day at work. 
Are you having problems at home? Then you arrive to work and everybody has to put up with your lack of consideration, bad manners, etc. and your excuse is that things are not going that well at home. 
If these two scenarios describe you, then it is time for you to learn about the cubes of life, and how to compartmentalize each one of them. 
The photo below shows some of the cubes we encounter in life.

I left two blanks intentionally so you can add any other environment you navigate in life, and that it is not already mentioned above. 

Each one of these cubes/squares have their own dynamic. At work, you are required to maintain certain behaviors and sometimes to swallow your thoughts instead of telling a boss or a co-worker to go foxtrot themselves because you know the consequences are termination and loss of income. 
Situations like this create stress. If you have not developed a healthy channel to release that stress, you often carry it onto the other cubes. 

This stress carried onto the relationships/children/pets/family members cue can lead to your snapping at them, hitting the pet, hitting the children, screaming, excessive drinking, etc. None of the members of these cubes have done anything wrong to you and there is no reason for you to take your anger accumulated at work onto them. 

The Health cube/square also gets affected because the saying goes that stress kills. 

How about driving an encountering a collection of knuckleheads that cut in front of you, etc? You arrive to your destination with all your muscles in a knot because the stress is consuming you. Then you lash out to whoever is the first one you encounter. 

How do you fix this?
You must deal with the problems you encounter in each one of these cubes/square within those boundaries. If there are problems at work, go to HR department if needed, or kindly ask a co-worker to stop doing whatever that person does that bothers you. When you leave work, leave the feelings that arose in the work place there. 

When you arrive home, whether it is a peaceful or also a stressful environment, be present in the moment of the feelings that belong to that place exclusively. Do not bring in the feelings created at work or when some knucklehead cut you off in the freeway. 

In other words, do not poison one well with the nasty waters of another well. If one well (cube/square) has nasty waters, you have options. You can either leave the place, or talk about it with the members of that particular cube/square.

In life, when an event occurs, we can control 90% of it.  The 10% that we cannot control, we must accept it. In Zen Buddhism we say "what it is, is" and we leave it at that.
For the 90% we can control, we apply the eightfold path principle to ensure that we speak with kindness, we understand the other sentient beings, we do the right action with the right intention, we are mindful and present in the moment, we choose right livelihood, we put right effort on all we do, and we practice concentration (paying attention to our breathing). 

​Virtual Art Exhibition - Wednesday, June 30 2021 - 5 pm Pacific Time -
Free registration at https://www.ceciliaanastos.com/event-registration.html
This is an exhibition of contemporary abstract paintings by Cecilia Anastos. There will be an opportunity drawing of a painting. 

Liberty Station - August 7-8, 2021

Little Italy - October 2-3, 2021

La Jolla Art and Wine Festival - October 9-10, 2021

Have you heard of the The Wise Monkeys of Japan? The source that popularized this pictorial maxim is a 17th Century carving over the door of the famous Tosho-gu shrine in Nikko, Japan. I had the pleasure to visit the shrine in 2010. 

Hidari Jingoro did the carving following the philosophy of Tendai-Buddhist legend representing the three dogmas of the so-called middle school of the sect.

The three monkeys are names Mizaru (see no evil), Kikazaru (hear no evil) and Iwazaru (speak no evil)

I created three paintings honoring each one of these monkeys. The paintings are 24x18", acrylic and oil pastels on acid free paper. They are sold unframed. Each cost $550 including free shipping in the USA.  They are titled Say Nothing, Hear Nothing, and See Nothing.

I am very active in LinkedIn and in the last few weeks several of my connections brought up the subject of happiness. I was reading Harari's Homo Deus book where he addresses this same topic in the first few pages of the book. So... I thought it was about time I talk about happiness. 

Happiness cannot be bought, acquired by osmosis, and/or suddenly found when you meet someone new. Happiness does not come from external events and/or possessions. True happiness is present inside yourself. If you are walking through life saying that you will be happy the day that you [win the lotto, find the perfect partner, get the job x]; in other words, expecting that external factors will bring you happiness, you will probably live without satisfaction.

I am a practicing Zen Buddhist, and I believe that happiness comes from my inner self.  You might wonder how you find the seed of happiness inside you to make it grow and let it become the essence of your being. I recommend that you start looking for the most basic... focus on your breathing. Breathing, in particular during the pandemic we are going through, is a luxury that as of this writing 3 million individuals do not have the luxury to continue doing.  Take a deep breath and smile... that smile is watering the seed of happiness. 

Do external events affect me? Yes, of course. However, they do not erode my natural state of happiness. They act like icing on a cake. You could have the most amazing cake, and add some icing that gives an awkward flavor or one that enhances the flavor of the cake. Nevertheless, the amazing cake remains the same.  I have experienced loss, anxiety, fear, passion, and crazy love... all these were icing on my cake of happiness. 

In French, we have an expression that says état de bonheur permanent. This is how I live my life. 

Want to learn more about this philosophy? I recommend following Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh and his Plum Village Monastery in France.

​Thank you for reading and I see you in two weeks. 

Virtual Art Exhibition - April 23rd, 2021 - 10-11 a.m. Pacific Time at https://meet.google.com/wgu-nsiv-ehz - A display of paintings by Cecilia Anastos related to the concept of womanhood.
Open Studio / Gallery Art Exhibition in San Diego, CA.
Date:Saturday, April 25th, 2021
Time: 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. / 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. / 5 pm to 7 pm. Select a slot using the RSVP form below.
Event Title: Womanhood in Paintings - An exhibition of figurative paintings related to women (portraits, high heals, silhouettes, etc)
Location: Mira Mesa, San Diego, CA - This is an open air studio and well-fitted masks are required at all times. No more than 10 individuals at a time will be present during the exhibit. No walks ins. You will receive address upon registration.