April 15, 2014

April 15, 2014

   All photos are mine unless otherwise noted.

   To see photos full screen click on any image. All photos were taken at Colby except for the owl which was shot at the L.C. Bates museum. (See last week's post.)

    At another visit to the Colby College Meseum of Art in Waterville Maine last weekend we spent a few hours with the Tibetan Monk Losang Samten who was creating a sand mandala called "The Amitaba," after the famous Sutra of the same name, which is a  teaching of the Buddha in the Buddhist Canon. (Many translations are available online.) He was delightful, spoke excellent English, and told us that he can finish the Mandala in a day or two but talking with all comers it takes him a week. At its completion a ceremony is held and the Mandala is swept up and poured into a body of water, the ocean, lake, etc. 

    The Namgyal Monestary in Ithica New York is the home of many monks who travel the country and the world to create these temporary works of art. The symbolism in each Mandala requires too much space to even begin here. I invite you to research this art form and see if, like any great work of art, you are moved in those places where another's creativity meets ours.

   Here are some images of this meeting at Colby.

    

The Sand Painter's Palette

I suspected and asked if the pretzels were useful to the painting -

his reply, "Sure. I get hungry for a snack often."

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    Bridget, our daughter, is pregnant and I am sure she is more beautiful than ever, as are all women who are carrying a child. The statue above is for me an excellent metaphor for the serenity that emanates from pregnancy if one looks closely enough. 

   I include the following poem by Nancy Wood for Bridget and her remarkable husband Rudy.

- Earth Roots –

What are Earth Roots, my daughter asked

     when she was just a child,

examining each flower in its home.

Earth Roots are a special connection,

     a sacred thread that joins our spirits

     to every living thing, I said. Earth Roots

Join me to you, and you to birds and flowers.

In her hand my daughter held a sparrow

     with a broken wing. She said:

Can Earth Roots make the sparrow fly again?

The sparrow can become a rose, in time,

     just as the rose takes wing, I said.

Earth Roots make all things possible.

My daughter did not understand these things

     until she had a child of her own.

     Then she saw the way Earth Roots join

     The sparrow to the rose.

                                                                  Nancy Wood

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Three Sufi dancers of the Mevlavi Tradition.

Moving visual art at Colby

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   I am not one to wax emotional at everything that is labeled as 'art.' On a wall at Colby two lines, one red, one blue, and a green circle, along with four paragraphs explaining the value of this as a 'work of art',  greets and disarms as one ascends the stairs between floors.  My comment on this wall is contained in what can easily be called "nose clip art"  in the next image. 

"Two lines and a circle?"

"Oh be wise dear owl, not a wise ass!"

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Some humor:

            Peace until the next post

                                            Bill Lagerstrom