In Bobby’s “The Beautiful Nothing” Documentary what he is saying is reminiscent of what Alan Watts was saying in his many great talks from the late 1960’s and early 70’s on Taoism and Zen. The overly simplistic message from both could be summed up as, be a good person and live your life in that way. But the message from Bobby and other spiritual artists is trying to tell us to understand that we are all connected to each other, to plants, to planets and everything. And so what should be obvious is to be kind to everything and everyone because we are all a part of this big experiment in the universe. But the current state of humanity is addicted to spreading fear of an imaginary adversary. This is the artistic puzzle of living in the USA in the 2020’s, how to be surrounded by the non-stop flow of negative events, and have your art not add to the spread of negativity. My solution is doing the opposite of what social media does. Staying away from adding “clever” condescending commentary in the art, and instead treating my art more like a documentary piece. In this case specifically I will be documenting the results of my project proposal “Zen – Vincent – Philosophy: An Exploration Through Painting”. Preparing for this proposal I am reading many books about Van Gogh’s art and life, who also died way too young. I’ve learned that being a really thoughtful artist consumed more with mother nature and humanity in the art rather than focusing on making a pretty thing can be a heavy lift emotionally and often not immediately understood. A good example of this is Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” painted at the Asylum a year before his death. Inheriting all of Vincent’s artworks after his death, even his family did not appreciate or want to keep this painting.

Even though I’ve been an active Artist for several decades, I’m still trying to find my path. But at its core perhaps creating art is what connects humans to our original selves, our original caveman. Or the better analogy is an idea from Zen author Masao Abe, where our “original selves” refers to what we were before we were born, before our parents met. And the visual result of that “time” would almost have to be childlike and seem simplistic at times, expressionistic, abstract, maybe even caveman-like. The goal is for the result of my artwork to take that creative direction when documenting “Zen – Vincent – Philosophy: An Exploration Through Painting”. 

Learning more and more about Bobby from the BAS Foundation, he was and Is an awesome human being. Thanks to you, his life force, his chi will continue on this loving creative journey. It would be my honor and privilege to continue creating artwork devoted to interconnectedness with the influence of Bobby, with the help of the Bobby Anspach Studios Foundation.

Thank You
Christopher James Kull
January 2026