I just returned from nearly two weeks in Oaxaca, Mexico, where art is everywhere. I am not talking about Precious Art that you only see in galleries and museums, often separated from daily life by entrance fees and a tiresome aura of cultural superiority. I am talking about art that lives in the hearts of local artisans and is expressed through the creation of beautiful objects for everyday use: prints; jewelry; ceramics; weaving; embroidery; wood carving and metalwork. Vendors could choose to sell any number of foreign-made trinkets to visiting tourists, but when possible, the vast majority prefer to create and offer their own work .This artistic pride stretches back to pre-hispanic times. Oaxaca was always a major center for skilled and sophisticated art production.

Is that one of my drawings on the cover of this book?

The answer is no. The image is one of many remarkable photographs of the invisible "vibrational world" made visible, taken by Dr. Hans Jenny, a Swiss medical doctor, natural scientist, artist, musician, and philosopher. His book, Cymatics, (after the Greek "Ta Kymatica", matters pertaining to waves) documents the extraordinary research of this modern day (1904-1972) Renaissance man.

On a visit to the Arthur Sackler Museum in Boston few weeks ago, I discovered that paintings by my seventeenth-century Chinese art hero, Tao-Chi, were all in storage awaiting the completion of a new museum. Many other excellent painting and calligraphy pieces were available for viewing however, and I passed the afternoon in blissful study. In the photo, I am following my usual custom of physically recreating the artist's calligraphic brush movements in order to feel the rhythm of the work even better.

It had been an in-person encounter with Tao-Chi's paintings in the British Museum, many years ago, that had placed me on a path of artistic pilgrimage to search out his work wherever I could...