September – October Artist on Display

Daishin McCabe

Eric Daishin McCabe was first inspired to write Zen Calligraphy when he saw a demonstration by a Japanese Rinzai Zen Master, Fukushima Keido Roshi, at Bucknell University in 1993. His first teacher of calligraphy is Mariko Tachihara, a Japanese teacher of English, whom he met while teaching English in Kakogawa, Japan in 1995. Since then he has had the opportunity to study with several calligraphers including Nonin Chowaney of the Nebraska Zen Center and Kaz Tanahashi. Daishin is a Zen priest. His name means “Great Faith”, and it was given to him when he received the Buddhist precepts. He goes by both “Daishin” and “Eric” depending on who is asking.

He teaches Buddhist philosophy, meditation, yoga, and calligraphy to people of all walks of life and spiritual paths. He was ordained in 2004 and given permission to teach in 2009. He is fully ordained in the Soto Zen tradition and is a recognized teacher both in the Association of Soto Zen Buddhists and in the Soto Zen Buddhist Association. Daishin undertook a 15 year mentorship with Abbess Dai-En Bennage of Mount Equity Zendo, located in rural central Pennsylvania. During this time he trained at various Soto Zen Monasteries in Japan including Shogoji, Zuioji, Gotanjoji, Hosshinji, Hokyoji, and Kappa Dojo. In France he trained with Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh. He also practiced in California at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and with Rev. Nonin Chowaney at the Nebraska Zen Center. He is a certified hatha Yoga teacher through Integral Yoga. Daishin studied at Bucknell University where he received a BA in Religion and Biology in 1995. He completed 5 units of Clinical Pastoral Education at Wellspan York Hospital in August of 2014, where he worked as a Chaplain in Behavioral Health. Just prior to this he taught meditation and yoga for two years to clients at White Deer Run, a drug and alcohol rehab in central PA.

Daishin has ten years experience as a Guest Teacher and speaker at Buddhist meditation retreats, yoga centers, colleges, and multi-faith gatherings. You can visit him at his website at: zenfields.wordpress.com Daishin presently resides in Ames, Iowa with his wife and family. He is available to offer Zen calligraphy workshops and retreats to individuals and groups in the Ames vicinity and beyond.

Visit him at www.zenfields.org or email at [email protected].

Isaac Prior

What if? That question has always been a driving force of inspiration. If there could be a creature on this planet that can create light, with a chemical reaction in its thorax to attract a mate (a lightning bug), or the ability for a fungus to infect the brain of an ant, and turn them into a mindless, light seeking, insect (Ophiocordyceps unilateralis), why couldn’t there be a tortoise so large it could have a mountain on its back, or a bird that has command over fire? The universe is limitless and the thought of what is possible is incomprehensible. With my art I focus on this and expand it even into the abstract realm of creativity.

With my artwork I try and create a feeling of serene beauty, as well as raising an eyebrow to get people thinking about the “What If?” I use a variety of materials but I have found a passion for pen and ink. It’s an unforgiving medium, but stunning and precise. Mistakes are easily seen and are hard to cover up. Most of my artwork doesn’t happen quickly, I spend weeks and sometimes months creating a piece. Some pieces have well over thirty hours of work in them.

I do not see art as a choice or as something that can be ignored. All humans are creative and show creativity in different ways, and if looked at every profession or line of work is creative. Art isn’t something that I choose to do, art is something that I am compelled to create. It is second nature, just like why a fish swims, it is its way of being.

About the Artist:

Based out of Iowa, I am a full time Jeweler, and fine artist. I have been trained for Diamond grading by GIA (Gemological Institute of America) and have the ability to grade stones at a professional level. I can create, and repair jewelry in Gold, Sterling Silver, or Platinum.

I attended school with a major in Graphic Design. I have been Illustrating and getting into the public and galleries since 2012, although I have always been creating (as all creative people say). I have Had my work accepted into several art institutes around the country, and I continue to grow my influence.

I mainly focus on abstract artwork, created on paper with alcohol based inks, with some exceptions of pigment based and water based ones. I have been heavily influenced by mythology, with the classics of Roman and Greek, but also recently with Norse myth.

Anna Bland

May & June 2023 Community Artist on Display

Artist Statement

My current body of work is primarily in fluid painting. I am inspired by the natural world, by the sky and water. I am moved to response by the light, power, and beauty I see in the sky, and the fluid art medium lends itself beautifully to its wild freedom and unpredictability. For similar reasons, I’ve worked with images of water and the idea of viewing the earth from high above. All these themes evoke a sense of wonder at the vastness of creation and our relative smallness within it, both humbling and elevating us as we meditate on it. I find that this perspective shift helps to pull my awareness up and out, away from a narrow, small focus of my own daily life and into the world around me, into the beauty and fragility of creation that takes my breath away. This idea is at the heart of my Earth From Above, Shores, Iowa Skies, and Space series.

I began using fluid acrylics as a way to adapt my art practice to my chronic pain and health conditions that prevented me from sitting or standing at an easel for traditional painting techniques. My disability required me to find a medium that could be created quickly during times when I was well enough to be up. As my health improved, I have been able to expand this practice into larger pieces.

I explore the formal elements of art such as color, movement, contrast, texture, and composition juxtaposed with this very fluid, informal and free medium. It’s like a joyful, delightful collaboration with physics. I spend a lot of time working with the interplay of what I can choose and manipulate, and when I should just let go and let it do what it will.

My newest series is entitled Transcendence, and it’s all about the glimpses of beauty, spirituality, and transcendence through the mundane physical world. The life of the spirit in the midst of the life of the body. The beautiful things that show through the cracks of daily life if we have eyes to see them. This series utilizes a large amount of negative space, with color breaking through in different ways.

Anna Bland Art