The Heavens Are Cruel Wise Men Are Cruel

The full quote for this passage is, "The heavens are not kind and treat all creatures like straw dogs. Wise men are not kind and treat people like straw dogs." I like these passages from the Dao De Jing that challenge the part of me that would like to find peace and harmony in my inspirational texts. The Dao De Jing, as much as anything, tries to describe and honor the true nature of nature. There are predators and prey in the natural world and humans are part of that. The idea that wise men are not kind is amusing but should be taken together with all the other descriptions in Laozi's text about how wise men behave. This illustration is an unnatural, whimsical narrative of the cruel nature of creatures. The cat has my eyes.

Useful Emptiness

`When a vessel is formed, it's use is in the empty space.' In my style of painting, the empty space on the paper is as important as the space filled in with line and color. I wonder what's more valuable a diamond or the space around the diamond? The illustration for this quote features many vessels; the flower pot with lotus plans, the gas pipes, the building throught the window, the glass, the wine bottle the human body, etc. Think of what all these things are filled with.