“The teacher and the student walk the same path”

Nick Offerman may be most familiar as the government hating government official Ron Swanson on the TV series Parks & Recreation.  Aside from acting, Offerman is an enthusiastic and skilled wood worker, and in his latest book Good Clean Fun, though on the surface about the pursuit of wood working, he discusses one of theintersections of art and life that influenced him both as a person and a creator.

Offerman attended the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, and one of his instructors was a man named Shozo Sato. Versed in many Japanese art  forms such as kabuki theatre, sumi painting, calligraphy and tea ceremony, Sato was a prime motivator of Japan House, an institution that gave the opportunity for the broader community to study Japanese aesthetics and traditional arts to gain a deeper sensitivity towards diverse cultures.

Years out of college, Offerman still refers to Sato as sensei-teacher-and displays with pride in his wood shop two scrolls, examples of calligraphy executed by Sato that are great thoughts to absorb and ponder for any creative person-bonsai artists included.

The first translates as “The teacher and the student walk the same path”. It’s a potent reminder that whatever endeavor, we start as beginners, and our advances are usually due to guidance and instruction from others. The other scroll means “The Way of Art is the Way of the Buddha”.  Offer man suggests that this is a constant reminder that ‘ whenever I am creating art of any stripe, my honest labor should be assayed with reverence and devotion’.