John Cage

Every Day is a Good Day: the Visual Art of John Cage
(Hayward Publishing 2010)

Where R=Ryoanji, drypoint etching 1988

His visual art-making integrated with composing, writing, performance, Zen practic
Use of 'chance operations' (using I Ching) downplayed the role of the self and displaced creativity and choice on to the questions he asked and away from outcomes.  They were a way of stopping wilfulness and anxiety from interfering in the process; 'the person is being disciplined, not the self.'  Led to solutions he might not normally consider. Able to delight in them more freely.

Did not resonate with the abstract expressionists. 'I wanted to change my way of seeing, not my feeling.'  

He had 10 words that acted like guideposts in his methodology: method, structure, intention, discipline, notation, indeterminacy, interpenetration, imitation, devotion and circumstances.

Wanted to create work that wasn't showy, that needed the viewer to pay close attention to it.

Ongoingly experimental including with technology.

Eninka 28, 1983

Had a lifelong small-scale practice of drawing and etching around stones, 'a form of meditation'.

Ryoanji 17, 1988

'Art is a way of life. . . Art when it is art as Satie lived it and made it is not separate from life (nor is dishwashing, when it is done in this spirit.'
'The attitude I take is that everyday life is more interesting than forms of celebration, when we become aware of it. That when is when our intentions go down to zero. Then suddenly you notice the world is magical.'
'I found through Oriental philosophy, my work with Suzuki, that what we are doing is living, and that we are not moving towards a goal, but are, so to speak, at the goal constantly and changing with it, and that art, if it is going to do anything useful, should open our eyes to this fact.'

Favourite saying Japanese 'nichi nichi kore ko niche' - every day is a good/beautiful day.