Esther Brown and Ada Lee team up to bring a new artistic series!!

ESTHER BROWN AND ADA LEE TEAM UP TO BRING A NEW ARTISTIC SERIES.

So, this is a sample of some of the new types of pieces that went to Coos Bay. Actually, if I remember correctly, this particular one got bought before it could even get shipped off to Coos Bay, Oregon. My mother, Esther, and Ada, Esther's soon-to-be daughter-in-law, teamed up to create a very unique series. This is a variation on their Meditation Rock Series. Some have one, others have two, per bag. Ada designed a small bag that is meant to carry the rock. Esther paints images on smoothly shaped and rounded rocks that are meant to inspire peaceful and tranquil thoughts. A person might hold it in their hand while they listen to soothing music, sit quietly on a beach or among trees in a park, and let it inspire them to think of peaceful thoughts.

Part of the inspiration for this comes from Baoding Balls used to help heal the hand and relieve stress. Baoding Balls are meant to be rotated in the palm of the hand. The variation on this comes in with the art work. My mother lays down a black gesso base to create a dark background on which the image and intense colors can jump forward to the viewer. She also uses images that will connect with different types of people. If anyone has ever been to a Koi pond and seen the water lilies floating in the water as the fish swim silently underneath in a tranquil garden setting, it is incredibly peaceful and energizing. In this particular example, there is only one rock, but many have two to allow the option of moving both around in the hand similar to Baoding Balls. For me, personally, I really love the images that my mother creates on these rocks. I would not risk moving them around and possibly chipping the paint. (They are heavily layered with a spray finish that should prevent this, and should be resistant to any type of chipping, but that is just me).

My mother and Ada have created many, many combinations for this series. Many of the items in this series will be posted soon. If you are interested in buying any of them, write us, or go by The Fellowship in Coos Bay, Oregon. The  Fellowship carries our work now and has an extensive inventory of these pieces as of this date.

Another use for these pieces is to simply sit on your desk or dresser or night stand and let the image transport you to a pleasant thought of memory. I think back through the history of art and how images have been used to inspire thoughts, feelings, emotions, and more throughout the ages. This variation is simply a more intimate source of inspiration. The idea of hold art in your hand makes you take more ownership of the piece. It brings you closer to it. If you want a message, it would be one of trying to get the viewer to identify with their emotions and subconscious because her work operates on an emotional level. Ada's bag that was created simply brings the utility and intimacy of the art object closer to home because the bag makes it more functional and personal. I really enjoy this series a lot and I look forward to sharing it more with everyone.

Stay tuned for more work to be posted!

Coos Bay, Oregon - the gallery that we show in!

COOS BAY, OREGON - GALLERY NOW CARRYING BROWN FAMILY ART WORK!

Well, we made our trip to Oregon to deliver our art work. It has been an extremely fast trip. The drive   from Chico was 7 hours each way. The gallery has 192 pieces of inventory for our art. The piece shown here is one of the pieces of inventory at The Fellowship (at 217 South Broadway, Coos Bay, OR). Don Carter has  a huge space for his new bookstore/gallery/cofffee shop. He is located on the main drag, which is  Broadway (and  also doubles as Highway 101). This gallery has a huge selection of books, art of all kinds, and a coffee shop soon to come. If anyone is familiar with Barnes and Noble and  the ambience they try to achieve with their set-up, then this would  be a good comparison. This is a gallery/shop that is trying to get its customers to come in, look around hangout, read, and stay awhile. I feel The  Fellowhip is well on its way to achieving enormous  potential. I may be slightly partial since my art and my family's art is set-up there, I believe I am selective enough that I am picking a qquality place that will give great customer service to the people. Our art is about reaching  the community. I believe that this place will reach the people because it is geared to reach the people. As with any place, we want to be able to reach the local community, as well as the tourists that visit there  as well.

As I type this blog I am in a moving  car going back to Chico, CA. What I can type here is  limited, but  I will give a full description and account of our experience once we reach  home. There are many   things to share and tell. Coos Bay has a strong resemblance to  another coastal artist community in California - Fort Bragg, CA. Fort Bragg, CA is a favorite vacation spot for my family and me. So,  we are even more pleased with  our opportunity to work with Don and his wife in opening this new gallery since it is like a place we love to visit and spend time.

With some perseverance, an art gallery and its artists can help resound as a voice in the community, as well as be part of that community. It is my personal goal to try to understand what the community and tourists would like to see and what ressonates  with them as we move forward at The Fellowship. Don tries hard to work with his artists, and I think artists should try to work wiith their gallery as long as they are able to stay within their own style.

Of course, this brings to mind the controversial conversation about the meaning and message of art. Honestly, is their such a thing as "high art" and "low art"? Do we really have to get into that rotating  discussion about what  the message is about? Look, I read the art critics in the art journals. I look to see what is being displayed in the major art centers around the US. I realize if you show  in NYC or LA at some major gallery, you can garner a lot of recognition. However, I do not need a high priced art afficionado's personal approval to validate my art. I would value their feedback the same as a customer who pays $10 to get one of the pictures in my Trading Card Series. Any good artist will combine general feedback with their method of  operation and creating work in order to move forward and improve. For  myself and  my family, we are a family of artists who have been doing this for generations. We learn from each other and shape our work  and  message based on how we work together and respond to our environment and opportunities. Art is about connecting with your audience. We all choose our own genre of influence and that is how it should be. This is a chance for us to connect with the people and tourists of the Coos Bay area of Oregon. It is a chance for us to share our point of view and art with them. To me, that is what makes art worthwhile, just sharing the vision and message of each artist.

Next Sunday, I will be interviewing Don Carter for my blog. He and I will have a discussion about his gallery, the community of Coos Bay, and and what it looks like to bring art to a community and make a business thrive. I hope to also capture his unique point of view on what he is trying to create for both community and artists.

Stay tuned.

What does it mean to belong to an organization in martial arts?

 

 

To want to belong to a group or organization, or even a community, is one of the basic human tendencies. As much as we want to train alone or do our own thing, there is always going to be a time or place we want to connect to another person or group to share our art with. So, the question comes up about how to choose our associations within our art and training.

 

On an immedate level, this would be our school. On a larger level, this would include attending seminars, competing in tournaments (if that is something that you like to do), and what umbrella organization you want to affiliate yourself with. In my case, I am removed from my home school by a 3.5 hour drive, and I do not want to start my training all over with any other school. The question comes up about how do I approach this? For me, I have chosen to train alone and take lessons, when I can, at my school of origin, as I have done for the last 20 years. What has been the result? Unfortunately, I have done a lot of spinning of my wheels in the last 10+ years.

 

Be that as it may, I will get back to it. I want to continue on with the main point here, which is how we choose our associations. The school is important. It becomes a reflection of you, and you become a reflection of it. What does it give to you? You have to determine what you will get out of it if you attend another school and is it worth the time and effort you are putting in at the school? Tournaments and umbrella organizations are the same way. What do they have to offer to you and are they an accurate reflection of you?

 

How did I come to this line of thinking today? Well, I was doing some research about Kenpo. I have been at a cross-roads as to what to do with my training. I want to have access to a school nearby, but I do not want to give up the time and comfort and bonds that I have created by training with my original school, even though it is 3.5 hours away. How do I come to terms with my situation? We all have to ask, "What can this school, teacher, or training do for me?" I ask the same question. It is a very important question because it is time and money you put into what you are doing. In today's economy, we do not have time to make choices lightly.

 

In my research, I found that there is A LOT of organizations out there that associate themselves with Kenpo. You might ask yourself, "What is the difference?" There are many, but you have to be willing to look at them, and look at them objectively, to see what they can and cannot offer. For me, I have come to a conclusion that it is time for me to start integrating myself into some kind of community more, and I need to figure how and where I want to do that. In my research, I found at least seven Kenpo umbrello organizations trying to convince Kenpoists, and others, out there that there is a benefit to joining the group they had put together. Through my years of taking lessons and instruction, I have learned there are a lot of politics that go on in martial arts. I try to not get caught up in it all and look at things objectively. It has made for an interesting process of figuring out what I want to do. As an informed martial artist who has studied for 20+ years, I have some background in how to make a decision about these things. But, if you are new to the scene, you might want to ask yourself a series of questions to get started.

 

1. What type of teacher do I want?

2. What type of classes do I want and what do I want to learn?

3. How many classes can I take each week?

4. How much time can I put into my training?

5. Why do I want to study martial arts?

 

These are some questions to get you started. I find myself asking similar questions about what I want to do and understanding what I want out of an organization. What can the offer me and what can I put into it so I can get something out of it? It is a process of self exploration.

 

Take some time to understand the choices you make by understanding yourself more first. I think this is true in whatever we do. We need to understand outselves as we make important choices, whether it be in martial arts or in life.

 



Understanding the uniqueness of your martial arts training

(This photo's copyright belongs to Jesse and Gina Brown)

 

Understanding the uniqueness of each person's martial arts training and experience is important. My instructor, Chuck Epperson, stresses that Kenpo Karate is made to fit each person's individual style and preference. That is not to say we make up our own rules as we go. That would be erroneous, to say the least. It is more approrpiate to say that Kenpo is flexible enough to fit each person's unique style and personality and philosophy while strong enough to maintain a strong system of learning and application for each practitioner.

 

I read in an article where Richard 'Huk' Planas was asked about Kenpo and he said something to the effect that Kenpo was best described as a set of rules and principles and a set of ideas to be learned. It was up to each person to make the art their own. As long as the rules and principles were followed, the Kenpo being practiced would be sound. Here is the big question, how often do we follow the rules and principles. It sounds easy to just follow the principles and everything will be good. It takes a lot of time to just understand what the basic principles are and practice them right!

 

All of us follow principles and guidelines for our day-to-day life, whether we realize it or not. If we use our principles to live by, we might make a lot more progress. I think a lot of people just move from moment to moment and obstacle -to-obstacle. Many people do not think things through or have a plan. Kenpo, and any other martial art for that matter, asks us to practice and make it a way of life. Why else would we engage in the practice of something.

 

Lee Wedlake pointed out in his book, Kenpo Karate 101, that many people do not stick with what they start, whehter it be the gym or martial arts. It is a sprint and they burn out. Something like martial arts is about the journey more than the goal. The most meaniful experience you will get out of your martial arts training will be if you take it as a journey and understand how it shapes you and your perspective. That perspective will also change over time. So, be prepared to see and understand Kenpo in different ways as you progress through your journey. This is also true for anything you do. It changes for you over time. I remember I stopped making art for a time after graduate school. When I started making art again, I realized I had a whole new understanding of art because so much time had passed. Lee Wedlake talks about this in Kenpo training and in other things.

 

When training in martial arts, you have to understand yourself and what you want. It is important to know what you want. Martial arts styles are like clothes, you have to try them and see if they fit you. Each style has a different fit and is meant for a certain type of personality and goal, depending on the person.

 

When training with my instructor, Chuck Epperson, he tells me a lot of things.  One thing he told me was to look at the self defense techniques and figure out how I would finish them. The techniques are just ideas teaching principles, but it may not represent the ideal move for you. If you follow the principles, then you can make a variation that respresents your own style better. He talked about adding and deleting moves to make something more direct for him, because he likes to be direct. I have to agree that being direct is the best policy, but even with that, there are different ways to be dircet. If you are a martial artist, what is your direct way of approaching a situation? I like to look at techniques and ask myself how will this work for me.

 

One last thing I like to do for my own personal training is I like to focus on basics and basic combinations. I also like to practice both sides of a technique, literally. I know their are opposites and reverses of everything and we have category completions everywhere that we are supposed to think about. Those are outstanding, for certain, and they are truly an academic challenge to apply and understand. However, I just like the literal nature of doing both sides, opposite sides, of the same technique. It is a challenge that suits me. Will I ever want to use my weak side? Not really, but you never know when you are boxed into a corner and only your weak side is available, or the weak side of a certain move might only be available. In addition to that, I just like to the physical challenge when working out of doing the weak side. It gives me that much more to practice, and I really enjoy the journey of practicing the art of Kenpo.

 

Find your unique style in whatever you do, understand it, and let it help guide you to what you like to do most and enhance your training at the same time.

 

Train hard.

 

Jesse

A Split Stance

Photo by Gina Navarro-Brown. All copyrights belong to her. 2011

What is the problem with a split stance? What does it even mean to be in a split stance? Typically, what happens in a split stance is you do not commit to moving forward or backward in response to an attack. This leaves you in the same place you started and you are about to absorb the full impact of your attack that you are facing. 

Remember, in Kenpo, we train the coordination of movements between upper and lower body. That means footwork is essential. Your base is essential in order to move your upper body the way that you want to.

I remember having this conversation with Sensei Chuck. In Yellow Belt, there is a particular problem with splitting the stance on Attacking Mace. Often times people miss it because they do not have the self-awareness to feel their error. If you simply think about what you are doing more, the self-awareness of what you do right and wrong will be more evident. At Yellow Belt, we move back for a reason. We let the beginning student have tools to gain time to react. It comes back to the idea that timing and distance are essential in pulling off techniques. It's important to analyze timing and distance in all situations.

Five Swords: An analysis

Five Swords, an orange belt technique in the American Kenpo Karate System, is one of those techniques that you could talk for a long time about. I had started a series of personal journal writings on Yellow Belt techniques, and I was going to continue that originally, but then I found this great photo my wife took of me at the ocean doing Five Swords, so I thought  I would talk about that for one entry here.

Five Swords teaches a multiplicity of things and it seems it can be grafted with so many other ideas and techniques. I know training at my sensei's dojo, Epperson Bros. Kenpo Karate Dojo in Chico, California, we have gone over countless grafts with this particular technique.

I know some people may be asking at this point, "What is a graft?" A graft is when you take two or more techniques and blend them together. First, you have to know the original technique and what it does and how to perform it, but then the fun part comes in where you can go through a technique and stop part way through and ask, "What if?"

Let's face it, nothing ever happens as we plan it in a dojo. We have to expect the unexpected. So, it is critical for us to recognize positions and what if scenarios so we can think on our feet. Just stop for a second and do  the first move of Five Swords. How many different techniques can you move to from there. Or, if you don't like that, stop after the second move, the heel palm to the face, and ask yourself what other techniques do you recognize from there? Or, even better, how would you finish the technique? Everyone is different. They will see something different.

In this photo, my wife caught be between unloading my chop/check and loading my final chop with torque and marriage-with-gravity. There is a transition stance that you hit at this point as you position your hands for the final move. You have the choice to finish, or what if the other hand comes flying around, even by accident? Then you have the right hand in position to throw another block and extend the technique, or even start a whole new one. In Kenpo, you always want to have a backup plan. Your other hand should always be ready to meet the "what if" possibility.

Here is another thing to think about with Five Swords. Think about which power principles you are using to add power to all of your blocks, strikes, and punches. This is a technique loaded with power principles and the ability to really unload a person's potential for power just based on the body mechanics alone. You have backup mass, on the first move, torque on the second move, then there is borrowed force, more torque and marriage with gravity that follow. This is an extremely powerful tool, and powerful knowledge, to think about as you train your Kenpo.

Just like professional athletes, it is important for us to analyze our art and our motion. That  is how we get better. You have to train it, but you also have to analyze it. If you like to study motion, then Kenpo may be the art for you if you are not doing it now.

I hope you have enjoyed the thoughts.

Jesse

Training in Kenpo Karate: A look at Unfurling Crane

This title sounds kind of obvious and lacks the excitement of another title meant to draw attention, but then again, Kenpo is not about fancy anything. It is about getting the job done. That is what I want to talk about. How do we get the job done? We work at it. Kenpo is not a fancy art, although I suppose it has the potential to be fancy if that is one's focus. It is an art that asks you to go to work every day and practice and not give up on your training. It is a part of daily life. Training must be made part of daily life so one can master it and, potentially save your life if it comes down to it.

How does one train in Kenpo? There are as many ways to train as there are people who practice it. It is up to the individual. It is an art of the  individual. What one must do is follow the principles of Kenpo and his or her training will be sound. Kenpo is a set of rules that are designed to protect you if you follow them in the course of your martial arts training and performance. What are some of these principles? There are many.

Take, for example the inside rule. The inside rule states that you can disrupt a person's base and cancel their height zone. If you cancel their height zone, then most of their back-up weapons (open hand weapons) cannot be loaded because they are checked by the fact that your opponent cannot stand up straight.

Take the photo above. My wife, Gina, did a wonderful job of capturing me in the middle of Unfurling crane. If you are not familiar with this self-defense technique, this is a great example of Kenpo principles. This particular moment, you see the Kenpo principle of economy of motion in effect because I am doing three things, actually four things, at once. The leg is completing a front scoop kick, the hand in the middle of the picture is keeping the imaginary opponent standing upright for the soon-to-follow blow of the hand cocked and ready to deliver a chop to the neck, and the foot is not only completing the motion of the kick, it is loaded for a downward side thrust kick to the opposing knee. This technique is one of the more advanced in the Kenpo arsenal. What I described is centered on one motion of three parts of the body. This particular technique is based on multiple attacks and is placed fairly high in the web of knowledge that Mr. Parker designed. 

But not everything has to be complex. Simplicity is at the heart of Kenpo. Complexity is what you choose to train if you like that. Sophistication lies in the movement based on the principles. I single move or concept can be more than enough. 

Take the simple concept and definition of a check. A check, in Kenpo terms, is the nullification of a weapon. If you pin an opponent's arm to his or her body, then that weapon is nullified until you release it. What is important when executing principles is to follow the natural movements and guidelines of the human body. When when you use common sense and logic in figuring out the execution of your moves, then the principles of Kenpo will be largely followed. This simple act can, and often will, be enough to give you that advantage or just avoid the whole situation. Economy of motion is the key. Don't do more than you have to. If you check and cancel all of the opponent's weapons with one move, that might be enough to make them think twice and walk away. You never know, but economy of motion is key.

Unfurling Crane is a great example of Kenpo going to the extreme to show possible combinations. Every technique is about teaching the practitioner a variety of ideas and to get them thinking on possible ideas. Kenpo is a thinker's art, for sure. It is up to each of us to analyze and create the Kenpo that works for us. If you are an athlete and enjoy motion, take Kenpo, because it allows you the freedom to think on your own.

I know from talking with my sensei, Chuck Epperson, he wants us to think on our own. We need to train and practice our art. I start with the basics and try to always reinforce the basics and the principles. That is where everything comes from. There is a reason yellow belt is the foundation of all other belts that follow. If you look carefully at yellow belt, it is an extraordinary training ground for every practitioner to begin with. It is the start of the web of knowledge for Kenpoists. Next time you sit down to train, take another look at that opening belt. What is even more amazing, it is the first thing that everyone is taught!

I hope you enjoyed the article and enjoy training.

Jesse