“A professional artist is someone who understands what they're doing and are just going to do what they understand.
An amateur is going into something with the understanding you're going to get lost.” - Jason Dodge
Jason takes us on a delightful walk through the life and work of Ryokan, the famous wandering poet monk of Edo Japan, while holding up Ryokan’s poetry as a mirror to reflect on how Zen has informed his own work as a professional artist, and how practice can both fuel and confound the work of any creative. Along the way we get practical advice for the Zen artist in all of us, poetry battles between brothers, trippy verses written on skulls, and what happens when a lover leaves Ryokan’s best texts on read.