BKK garland offering #3
Larger scale , 56cm x 76cm painting/drawing on 300gsm watercolour paper.
Using Japanese Ink, dry pastel, pen and acrylic paint. (Please select shipping with tube local or international)
These 3 works I began when I returned from Bangkok at the end of 2024.
In a physical sense the city offers so much, the parched concrete, massive pylons and sweat and aroma of all things divine and alive. My whole body cries and relaxes and invites in the city.
But the influence on these works is more than that. And the answer/reason is tricky to explain as it also is when people are perplexed about my love for the city of BKK. “Why don’t you go to the islands?”, “Why do you stay in one place?”
What you imagine is the answer can’t be the answer because the answer is something I don’t even know until I draw and paint the essence of something and even then how does it compare. Art sometimes comes close to the invisible tendons and sinew of existence but other times it will be a portion of it. A sign post to it.
These works are signpost to this but also to my love affair.
A visit prior to this one we were at one of the Wats (Buddhist temple) in BKK and we were wandering around admiring the traditional Thai flowers arranging. A complex threading of flowers together to make garlands that often cover parts of building or sculptures. Like a blanket of flowers. Tiny jasmine flowers and chrysanthemum woven together. We were rushed away soon after as the Wat was being vacated in anticipation of the King’s visit the next day.
So this recent visit we returned to take the temple in more thoroughly. This time we sat in one of the main halls with a giant Buddha that we sat down in front of to take some time .. We sat for quite awhile until my eye caught a monk sitting making small garlands gesturing me over to receive not just one but two. He placed one on the front of my bag and one on the back and then blessed me with water.
It was funny.. because it was odd and part of the world.. water and tying up something, the awkwardness of it all.. the language barrier.. the heat..but i felt like I was one of my shrines at home that I offer flowers to and light incense at. I somehow became a devine thread .. I was a component in many that thread together.. I was a part of the garland that now extended to me.
As we moved through the city afterwards the scent of jasmine from the garlands made a private home of divinity.
So when I returned I was trying to articulate that to myself ..
like many experiences it takes time for us to assimilate them and find them within the broader picture of our lives.
As I began to lay down ink for these drawings I could feel the parts of the arrangement, they were forming this greater garlands. A garland of air and earth and plant and animal and ether..
Threading us together .
I offer these garlands to remind me and maybe you of our interconnectedness.
Larger scale , 56cm x 76cm painting/drawing on 300gsm watercolour paper.
Using Japanese Ink, dry pastel, pen and acrylic paint. (Please select shipping with tube local or international)
These 3 works I began when I returned from Bangkok at the end of 2024.
In a physical sense the city offers so much, the parched concrete, massive pylons and sweat and aroma of all things divine and alive. My whole body cries and relaxes and invites in the city.
But the influence on these works is more than that. And the answer/reason is tricky to explain as it also is when people are perplexed about my love for the city of BKK. “Why don’t you go to the islands?”, “Why do you stay in one place?”
What you imagine is the answer can’t be the answer because the answer is something I don’t even know until I draw and paint the essence of something and even then how does it compare. Art sometimes comes close to the invisible tendons and sinew of existence but other times it will be a portion of it. A sign post to it.
These works are signpost to this but also to my love affair.
A visit prior to this one we were at one of the Wats (Buddhist temple) in BKK and we were wandering around admiring the traditional Thai flowers arranging. A complex threading of flowers together to make garlands that often cover parts of building or sculptures. Like a blanket of flowers. Tiny jasmine flowers and chrysanthemum woven together. We were rushed away soon after as the Wat was being vacated in anticipation of the King’s visit the next day.
So this recent visit we returned to take the temple in more thoroughly. This time we sat in one of the main halls with a giant Buddha that we sat down in front of to take some time .. We sat for quite awhile until my eye caught a monk sitting making small garlands gesturing me over to receive not just one but two. He placed one on the front of my bag and one on the back and then blessed me with water.
It was funny.. because it was odd and part of the world.. water and tying up something, the awkwardness of it all.. the language barrier.. the heat..but i felt like I was one of my shrines at home that I offer flowers to and light incense at. I somehow became a devine thread .. I was a component in many that thread together.. I was a part of the garland that now extended to me.
As we moved through the city afterwards the scent of jasmine from the garlands made a private home of divinity.
So when I returned I was trying to articulate that to myself ..
like many experiences it takes time for us to assimilate them and find them within the broader picture of our lives.
As I began to lay down ink for these drawings I could feel the parts of the arrangement, they were forming this greater garlands. A garland of air and earth and plant and animal and ether..
Threading us together .
I offer these garlands to remind me and maybe you of our interconnectedness.
Larger scale , 56cm x 76cm painting/drawing on 300gsm watercolour paper.
Using Japanese Ink, dry pastel, pen and acrylic paint. (Please select shipping with tube local or international)
These 3 works I began when I returned from Bangkok at the end of 2024.
In a physical sense the city offers so much, the parched concrete, massive pylons and sweat and aroma of all things divine and alive. My whole body cries and relaxes and invites in the city.
But the influence on these works is more than that. And the answer/reason is tricky to explain as it also is when people are perplexed about my love for the city of BKK. “Why don’t you go to the islands?”, “Why do you stay in one place?”
What you imagine is the answer can’t be the answer because the answer is something I don’t even know until I draw and paint the essence of something and even then how does it compare. Art sometimes comes close to the invisible tendons and sinew of existence but other times it will be a portion of it. A sign post to it.
These works are signpost to this but also to my love affair.
A visit prior to this one we were at one of the Wats (Buddhist temple) in BKK and we were wandering around admiring the traditional Thai flowers arranging. A complex threading of flowers together to make garlands that often cover parts of building or sculptures. Like a blanket of flowers. Tiny jasmine flowers and chrysanthemum woven together. We were rushed away soon after as the Wat was being vacated in anticipation of the King’s visit the next day.
So this recent visit we returned to take the temple in more thoroughly. This time we sat in one of the main halls with a giant Buddha that we sat down in front of to take some time .. We sat for quite awhile until my eye caught a monk sitting making small garlands gesturing me over to receive not just one but two. He placed one on the front of my bag and one on the back and then blessed me with water.
It was funny.. because it was odd and part of the world.. water and tying up something, the awkwardness of it all.. the language barrier.. the heat..but i felt like I was one of my shrines at home that I offer flowers to and light incense at. I somehow became a devine thread .. I was a component in many that thread together.. I was a part of the garland that now extended to me.
As we moved through the city afterwards the scent of jasmine from the garlands made a private home of divinity.
So when I returned I was trying to articulate that to myself ..
like many experiences it takes time for us to assimilate them and find them within the broader picture of our lives.
As I began to lay down ink for these drawings I could feel the parts of the arrangement, they were forming this greater garlands. A garland of air and earth and plant and animal and ether..
Threading us together .
I offer these garlands to remind me and maybe you of our interconnectedness.