The Director’s Wall
During the Artists’ Studio Tour this Spring, a friend suggested I approach Jonathan Burger, the director of New Bern’s Bank of the Arts’ gallery, to see about exhibiting my work. I convinced him to drop by my studio, which was still set up to show my work, and got him to agree to let me show my Asia pictures there during the month of September.
Asia in September
So here we are! I delivered a carload of acrylic paintings and watercolors to the gallery, and while they should be visible by the end of this week, the official unveiling is at Art Walk, the evening of Friday September 14. Here’s the announcement from Craven Arts Council’s monthly publication, “Arts Luminary.”
While most of the paintings and watercolors will be quite representational/realistic, the centerpiece of the exhibit will be Overwhelmed, a 36-inch square acrylic and gold painting that illustrates my reaction to the cathedral-size shrine to Buddha in Thimpu, Bhutan. It is known for its huge Buddha Dordenma statue (see Wikipedia article) but the inside of the monument is what affected me the most, particularly the central collonade, with its four-faced Buddha, surrounded by four Bodhisattvas.
It was also the centerpiece of my studio’s display:
Balloons over Bagan
Another painting in this newer style is Balloons over Bagan, a 40-by-30-inch acrylic painting with a mixed theme. To me this is a painting that I did in an attempt to understand and come to grips with what I had experienced and seen during that balloon trip.
Bagan was a once the capital of the kingdom of Pagan, which was a precursor of the modern Myanmar. As long ago as the 13th Century it dwindled into a tiny village. Its homes and palaces, we were told, were made of perishable materials — wood and bamboo — and are long gone. But about 2200 shrines and temples still exist of the more than 10,000 that were once there. Some are still very active, others exist more or less neglected in the middle of farmers’ fields that now take up the space. So it is still a religious center, and the government of Myanmar has recognized its tourism value. Early morning hot-air balloon rides are a hugely popular attraction.
The farmers living here are poor, still using cows to plow their fields and grind their grain. Floating over this area in a posh balloon, looking down on the amazing mixture of monuments — some glittering with gold, others moldering away — and struggling dirt farmers, I had a curious mixture of feelings: enjoyment of the experience and the sights, and a sober realization of the real distance between me and those people on the ground below. Among other things.
Monuments on Fertile Ground
During my travels abroad I’ve seen an intriguing relationship between the special structures that Man has built (whether they’re religious, governmental, etc.) and daily requirements of life, like in Balloons, above, or with the natural world. This has prompted me to create a series of paintings, two more of which will be in the exhibit:
Banyan trees are often planted near or even next to Buddhist shrines. In the case of this neglected shrine, a banyan seed must have been deposited at it top, and has let down its roots to take over the shrine itself, lifting its “umbrella” even higher into the sky. At first glance, it was hard to make out what I was looking at, a tree or a man made structure.
Leaving Myanmar for Cambodia, another, far more famous case of trees taking over ancient buildings featured in the Tomb Raider movies. Here the conservators of the ancient center of Angkor are in a quandary: in some cases, removing the trees that have grown into the ancient ruins may cause the buildings to collapse! So I call this painting Tomb Guardian.
I hope what you’ve seen and read here will prompt you to come by and take a look at the display. The Bank of the Arts is at 317 Middle Street in New Bern, and it’s open Tuesday through Sunday. Hope to see you there!
