Peaceful Abode

I spent January in and around Calcutta—City of Joy and India’s self-proclaimed cultural capital—learning about the West Bengal art scene and writing an article for Fine Art Magazine on the same. Calcutta is as close to a European (or rather, British) city that you’ll find in India owing to its Londonesque layout and architecture, and it was comfortable in many ways and perhaps too comfortable in some ways as well. I also purchased and equipped a 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet 350cc motorcycle (click for photo) which will serve as my main transportation for the remainder of my time in India. Realizing that my India voyage could easily slip away in a cloud of Calcutta art gallery openings, music festivals (both jazz and Indian classical music festivals in January), parking hassles, and the city’s notoriously polluted air, I took the bike on it’s “maiden” long (200km/132 mile)* ride last Sunday to reach Shantiniketan (Peaceful Abode), where Nobel Prize-winning poet and (later) painter Rabindranath Tagore founded his school and then university.

Shantiniketan was recommended as a stop on my trip by Tawatchai Somkong in Thailand who was the first Thai artist to study his MFA here. He was followed by his friend and co-publisher of Fine Art magazine, Alongkorn Lauwatthana, and then by a succession of Thai artists who continue to lend/add to the diversity of the Institute of Fine Arts (Kala Bhavana) at the Visva Bharati (Place where the World Will be One) University.

While Tagore is not a household name in the West, his influence in Indian, and particularly West Bengali thought, is immense. Tagore (1861-1941) was an internationally celebrated mystic, humanist, poet, composer, lyricist, singer, educator, playwright, novelist, and, later in life, founder and inspiration of the West Bengal school of painting, a naturalistic style with roots in the countryside of Bolpur. Though Tagore was born to a wealthy Calcutta family, his inspiration came from village life, and his school was designed to revive the forest ashram tradition in education. Tagore and Rudolph Steiner probably could be discussed in parallel as sources of enlightened thought and writings that influence successive generations of progressive thinkers, and whose appreciation of the interdependence of humans and their natural environment stood out. The first Nobel Laureate in Asia, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 for his book of poems “Gitanjali” (Song Offering), his first work published in English in 1912. Knighted by the King of England in 1915, he renounced the title in 1919 in protest over a British Army massacre of peaceful protesters in Amritsar. At age 70, Tagore’s first exhibition of paintings was held in Paris and then throughout the continent.

The University he founded is also where I had the pleasure of finding Dr. Janak Jhankarnarzary, Chair of the Dept. of Art History and a talented sculptor whose work is very much in line with the Spiros Project’s line of inqury.

Let me backtrack for just a minute to explain that India’s contemporary art world is booming, and Calcutta is one of the centers of the boom. Fueled by a rapidly growing economy and newfound interest among investors, India has joined the world stage of nations with a significant fine art presence at auction and in the homes of collectors. A new generation of “art investors” have joined established collectors to propel India’s current generation of artists to newfound fame and art prices to new highs. In this Go-Go environment, Indian contemporary art is becoming less different from the rest of the world—more abstract, and more commercially aware. In this environment, the number of artists with a genuine interest in spirituality appears to be shrinking.

With this backdrop, it was a great relief to meet Dr. Jhankarnarzary, whose unique sculptural works elegantly reveal an authentic spiritual inquiry centered around the translation of primordial space into unique physical manifestations. By primordial space I refer to the vastness of the infinite, out of which (in Vedic and non-dual spiritual traditions) phenomena and physical forms arise. Janak approaches these questions beginning with the OM- the original cosmic vibration/ sound that, in Vedic philosophy, forms and attunes matter with the basic point of origin. This orientation developed studying Hindu philosophy as an undergraduate, and his sculptural works have successively tackled the difficult task(s) of exploring the vital force of life (a theme throughout his work); situating the human consciousness in the vastness of the infinite; exploring the dichotomy and power imbalance between the human and Divine aspects of the feminine; and exploring the five elemental forces.

These two earlier pieces- both from the 1970s- deal directly with the question of situating the human consciousness in a vast space out of which all phenomena arise. I find the treatment of the limits of human vision very interesting in the first. The second is more conceptual, perhaps, focusing more on the way that events arise out of this vastness.




This third image is from work on the Divine Feminine from the early 1990s. One might raise the question of whether a male artist should approach this theme so directly, but I think the observation is an honest one, at least, and the work interesting.



Finally, two pieces that say something about the life force itself through pretty innovative installations. Janak explained that on the first day(s) of the exhibition in which these pieces were shown, he watered the (dry) seeds that comprise the outer ring. By about the seventh day of the exhibition, they had sprouted and the pieces were, literally, filled with life.




The honest exploration and depth of Janak's gentle, whimsical, and non-didactic inquiry leads me to think of his work as adhering to a Karmic tradition-- in the sense that none of these works refers to the details or "facts" of a particular religious narrative, but all of them help the viewer better understand some of the elemental forces of the universe and shed light on basic questions of existence. After a bit of a hiatus from spiritually-focused art, Janak was a great find. Specifics from his interview will be posted shortly in the artists' directory.

So...now in South India, Pondicherry to be specific, and set to begin meeting artists here tomorrow. There may be at least a few new updates in the coming weeks...hopefully they will cheer your February.

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*For those of you unimpressed by this description of a “long”ride, a note: 132 miles on Indian highways took about 4 ½ hours. Average cruising speed of around 37 mph, falling to 5mph often. Sketchy road conditions, dodging oncoming traffic and the occasional cow, and recently re-built engine limiting speed.

India: Engima with Flowers…

Happy Holidays to everyone from Varanasi, India, Hinduism’s holiest city, sprawled along the West bank of the Ganges River. Varanasi (formerly Banares, from British times) —a city where Shiva (the Hindu Deity of destruction/renewal/transformation) is constantly worshipped—for many contains the archetypical Indian experience. The medieval old city is a network of alleys populated by small temples, silk vendors, small restaurants, music academies, vedic astrologers, cows, goats, neighborhood water spouts, and garbage. The riverside, where pilgrims bathe, bodies are cremated and ashes scattered, and where people seeking salvation come to die, provides almost endless opportunities for contemplation of the meaning of life. When Mark Twain visited Varanasi, he wrote something to the effect of, “the Parthenon, the Coliseum…Varanasi is just as old and looks twice as ancient.” Walking through this city, the quintessential scents of India are upon you. It is truly amazing that the electricity works for the five or six brief hours a day that it does, and that the city has not been wiped out by plague in recent memory.

After nearly a month traveling (for recreation and photography) in the Rajasthan and Punjab states of northwest India, and to cities including Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaiselmer and Amritsar, research on contemporary spiritual art re-started here in Varanasi. On Sunday, I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Dr. Anjan Chakraverty, who is a professor of Art History at Benares Hindu University and a talented painter working in what has been described as the Visionary tradition of spiritually-influenced art.

Dr. Chakraverty’s work—layers of pen sketch, watercolor, gouache, varnish, various techniques borrowed from printmaking, and embellished with miniaturist detail invoking Rajasthani artistic traditions, was a refreshing start to research in India. Hindu symbols are present to suggest or invoke, but the totality of the image tells a much more personal story of the individual’s spiritual journey, so the images of the Devi (Goddess) and the Saddhu (Wandering Seeker) are portrayed in metaphoric narration of the individual’s spiritual journey—scenes of meditation in the ivory tower isolated from a disarticulated nature (The Monastic Cage, 1999), the imprisonment by ritual symbols (Ritual Bound, 1999), and the dance of life interacting with nature (The Orchid Grove, 2004).






Chakraverty’s attention to naturalistic detail beyond the simple invocation of lotus flowers also reveals a sensitivity to life itself as the ultimate spiritual narrative. This sets Chakraverty closer to the great Indian mystic tradition of Rabindranath Tagore, who was highly attuned to the interdependence of the natural and human-made world, than to the Tantric or Iconic art with tendencies towards self-referential images. Central to this enterprise is Chakraverty’s intention to dissolve the specificity of symbols in the singular state of mind of love, peace, and passion…mystical ecstasy. Says Chakraverty, “This is the zone where spiritual aspirations bloom into the higher lotus out of which I find completion.”

The next stop is Calcutta (Kolkata post-independence), high-culture center of post-independence India where, Chakraverty declared, “they will die for art.” As the former British Imperial capital of India and the seat of the Indian independence movement, Calcutta promises to be a bastion of contradictions—high art and high rates of poverty alongside each other. Nearby is Shantinektan, where Tagore founded his university town—perhaps India’s “Princeton” is a good analogy. I plan to visit the Bela Academy of Art and Culture in Calcutta where Chakraverty has shown, and to follow a few more leads provided by Dr. Banerji and by Tawatchai Somkong as I spend Christmas in Calcutta.

That’s all for now. More on India travels and the road so far next time.

Destination, India

Welcome back to the Spiros Project Blog. As many of you know, I’ve been back in the States for the past four months after a very successful first trip to Southeast Asia, where I focused on contemporary spiritual art in Thailand and Bali, Indonesia. Many of the artists I met on the last trip are now listed in the new Artists Directory. Take a browse—this directory just went live last week and will continue to grow.

My next destination is India— the cradle of world spirituality—where, along with Nepal, I’m expecting to spend the coming six months. On Tuesday evening I’ll get on a plane bound for New Delhi (from Chicago) and get started on Phase II.

India is in the throes of globalization and rapid economic development, and the majority of contemporary artworks that are garnering international attention deal with issues more common to the western art world—globalization, national and individual identity vis the media, gender issues, etc. According to many I’ve spoken with, there is a turning away from spiritual art, at the very time that the west is looking more intensively towards the East for spiritual inspiration and insight. Nonetheless, I expect to find that those who continue to work on spiritual themes, with declared spiritual intent, and in communities of mystic and spiritual practice to have interesting things to say through their artworks. There is also a relatively large community of Western artists treating spiritual themes in their work living in India today, and these too will be an important component of this phase of work.

My research on India suggests that the most active areas for contemporary spiritual art—at least that which is known in the West—is concentrated in Benares (aka Varnassi, Hinduism’s holiest city), in West Bengal (Calcutta and Santineketan), and in the area near Chennai (formerly Madras), where the Sri Aurobindo Ashram (Pondicherry), the Auroville community, and the communities near Arunachala/Trivunamali have attracted and launched a number of recognized artists who create works dealing in spiritual themes. So, after some time exploring Rajasthan in November and early December, I’ll head east from New Delhi to Kolkata and then south towards Chennai (Madras), perhaps stopping in Puri (Orissa) on the way South. Following what I expect to be a few weeks near Chennai, I will continue southwest into Kerala and then turn north towards Goa, where I look forward to a week or so of rest. From Goa I’ll head to the Mumbai area, where I hope to visit the Ganeshpuri Ashram and Osho Dam, two communities that have had (and passed) their moments of notoriety, but where art and spirituality continue to intermingle…by design.

From Mumbai I expect to head back to Delhi and then to Nepal, where a concentration of contemporary Himalayan artists (especially Vajrayana Buddhist thangka and neo-tantric artists) are apparently working. One gallery in Katmandu also represents a number of Tibetan artists of note.

Following time in Nepal, I will return to Delhi and travel to Rishikesh, cradle of yoga, and then to the far-north country where part of the Tibetan exile community is concentrated. I’ll visit Dharamasala but am particularly looking forward to Mandi/ Rewalsar Lake, where Lama Wangdor Rimpoche, a much beloved Tibetan master, heads a community of monks that educates and cares for young Tibetan refugees, as well as providing a spiritual community.

Of course, this could all change or be re-organized quickly. From what I hear, India has that effect on travelers, and is a challenging and unpredictable place. I’m nervous—moreso than prior to leaving for Thailand last winter—but also very excited to visit India.

I want to send out thanks to a couple of people who have helped get me prepared for this voyage. First, Debashish Banerji, Ph.D. a Los Angeles-based expert in Indian art expert who curated “Divine Carriers,” the last comprehensive look at Indian contemporary spiritual art in 1996, and more recently… I would also like to thank Barbara Matilsky, Curator of Exhibitions at the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The Ackland Museum’s Five Faiths Project has been exploring the art of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism since 1999. Both Debashish and Barbara provided a lot of great information and suggestions that helped greatly in planning this trip.

And of course, to my many supportive friends and associates in Washington, Chapel Hill, Lawrence, and elsewhere, thanks for the encouragement and support. I’ll miss all of you!

If anyone has suggestions, contacts, or knowledge they’d like to share about India, please leave comments or e-mail me at spiros at spirosproject dot com. I’d love to hear from you all!

For those of you just joining, I’ve put in a gallery of images collected so far below, mainly from Thailand and Indonesia.

Images from the Spiros Project So Far

Flash Slideshow

Bali and Back

Yes, friends and readers, it has been a very very long time since my last entry on this blog.

In my last post, I announced that Fine Art Magazine of Thailand had requested three articles outlining what I had found in my research so far. In the end, it will be one long article appearing in the August 2006 issue. Writing this—perhaps I’d call it premature digestion—felt like two months, but in fact it was finished inside of three weeks and is now in the hands of the publisher. I’ve posted an advanced copy of the article here.

Have I been idle? No, definitely not. I’ve been from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, back to Koh Phangan, to Singapore, Jakarta and Bali, Indonesia, and now am back in Bangkok. Perhaps travel fatigue could be an excuse, but this is also not really the case. Lack of convenient internet access and full-on cultural disorientation in Indonesia are the excuses I’m sticking to. Delays have been aggravated by a nasty burn on my ankle from a motorbike tailpipe, lots of uncertainty about where I would be next, and work on the next phase of this website, which will include a searchable database of artists, are also part of the story.

In the course of this time I have met two great artists in Bali, shot a book for one, learned a new country, and spent the last few weeks of my trip working with Michael Messner on developing the concept and presentation for a new art museum project in Bangkok- a great opportunity, as Michael and his father Artist Ernst Fuchs are extremely involved in the world of Phantastic and Spiritual Art in Europe and Asia.

But back to the travels…While working on the article for Fine Art, I traveled to Indonesia on May 15 and spent four days in Jakarta before continuing on to Ubud, Bali. Bali is Indonesia’s most popular tourism destination, a land of beautiful beaches, mountains, and highland lakes. Unlike the rest of Muslim Indonesia, Bali is predominantly Hindu, and the island is so steeped in ritual- dance, music, festivals, etc.—that it is undoubtedly a very spiritual place. From the spirit houses that grace every family compound and public space to the daily offerings to the spirits made by households and businesses, to the frequent temple rituals including elaborate cremations, Balinese culture is steeped in its spiritualism. Here’s a picture of a temple dance ceremony I attended with one of the artists. I was happy to be the only tourist at this celebration, whereas others I attended were either designed for but empty of tourists or packed with them.

I chose to explore Bali at the urging of many artists I had met along the way who reported that among Southeast Asian places, Ubud Bali is one of the most important. On arriving in Ubud, it was clear that the place lived and breathed art. While I have many good things to say about Ubud, I had to admit that the art scene surprised me: as dense as it was, there were really very few serious fine artists making original contemporary artworks concerned with or inspired by spiritual themes. Bali’s island culture is steeped in art and craft, to be sure, and the handicrafts and carvings, for example, are second-to-none. Yet, with a few very notable exceptions, what I found in Bali was an art-culture obsessed with its own Balinese-ness: dozens if not hundreds of artists painting about Bali, and dozens more doing copies (or not very original originals) of contemporary, abstract works. Not everybody agrees: here’s an article that gives you a run-down of the scene there perhaps a bit out of date, but still illuminates the landscape.

The bright spots, however, were very bright. In my three weeks in Bali, I was able to connect with two very interesting artists, I. Madé Sumadiyasa (Madé), a leader of the younger generation of abstract (or semi-abstract) artists whose large-scale work is recognized around Asia as being truly inspired, and Dewa Nyoman Batuan. I have to thank Korney Choy of the Bamboo Gallery LINK for helping me navigate it a bit, and introducing me to Made as well as noted Malaysian artist Chang Fee Ming and for hosting me for dinner not once but three times. I will also publish another article in Fine Art about a third artist who Korney works with- J. Philippe Hauer whose recent exhibition in Jakarta was an important debut of a new style of permanent expatriate artist in Bali…more on this later.

I arrived to Bali soon after the Quest for Global Healing II conference, a project of the Institute for Notetic Sciences, an organization dedicated to “exploring the frontiers of consciousness.” (think “What the Bleep do We Know?”) founded by Apollo 14 Astronaut Edgar Mitchell.

The Institute had brought together including Bishop Desmond Tutu and two other Nobel Laureates, and a lot of media-friendly consciousness types. It was a big event for Bali, whose tourism industry has been suppressed since the 2002 and 2005 bombings. I mention this because I first saw Madé’s work in the catalog for his solo exhibition titled “One World, One Heart” from the first Quest for Global Healing conference in 2004, and was impressed by his work, though not sure exactly why.

As soon as I saw his works in person, it was clear—there is, as you might say—a lot of “juice” (choose your synonym: shakti,
prajna, chi, qi, current, life force) running through this painter and onto the canvas. Made is probably the most successful of his generation in Bali, and his grand-scale semi-abstract works are nothing short of overpowering at times in its depictions of dark/light, motion towards oblivion and salvation, etc. Although he and his gallery both insist that he should not be pidgeonholed into the category of “spiritual art,” they admit that his work attracts those recognized as spiritually connected and powerful. Made was chosen as (perhaps ‘elevated to’ would be more apt) the Artist in Residence for the Global Healing Conference, Bishop Tutu apparently stood in awe in front of the work that graced the conference poster.

Here are a couple of samples of his work. Just imagine these at about 3x2 meters- that’s over 9x6 feet—and you’ll get an idea of how impactful the work can be. These are This Blessed Land (2004) and Heart of Mind, Heart of Body (2003)





Is it spiritual? Well- it would be hard to deny that the idea of coming together in peace—One World, One Heart—rings some bells. I think there’s more to it, though. Made seems to channel something pretty powerful. Back in 1996, the Jakarta Post (Jakarta’s English language newspaper) ran an on his work around the time that, at age 24, he was shown at the Art in Asia exhibit in Hong Kong—Made’s premier on the international stage.

“The Balinese community, which in general still believes in mystic forces, is steeped in arts expressed by, among other things, irrational ways. What is referred to as the soul, the spirit, vibration in modern artists vocabulary, is called taksu in Balinese. Although not all agree, the composition of forms, the etching and brushing of colors by Made Sumadiyasa radiate vibration…
“An attractive empiric experience on vibration is perhaps found in Made Sumadiyasa’s painting entitled Sandhi Kala (Transition from dusk to evening) dating from 1994 and belonging to an unnamed collector. The owner admitted to having strange dreams and when he consulted a medicine man [sic] The latter said to return the painting to the painter’s house. It was said that after the collector did so, he could sleep soundly…
“Made Sumadiyasa says he does not intentionally express paranormal vibrations in his works. He is a vegetarian and practices yoga diligently. Pande Wayan Suteja Neka, the sponsor for Made’s participation in the Art Asia Hong Kong confirms that Made’s works are much sought after.”

Here are two pictures of Madé at the ARMA (Agung Rai Museum of Art) , where the conference is held.





I also met I. Dewa Nyoman Batuan (Batuan), an elder of the Ubud art scene and artist community whose zany mandalas reflect his unique approach and dedication to traditional Balinese spiritual practice. Batuan is the founder of the Pengosekan
Community of Artists, which, in the 1960s and 1970s, was a hotbed of training for young artists and craftspeople in the area in painting and basket-weaving, principally. This was before university art studies were widely accessible to Balinese youth…and before most artists in Bali were earning a living wage. So, believing in the power of collaboration, this teacher—who could not feed his family—moved to Pengosekan village in the south of Ubud and began a mutual support and teaching community for artists. They developed a characteristic floral style that is today known as the Pengosekan style, but Batuan—a very spiritual man whose English fluency is outdone only by his passion and prolific production of artworks—had another mission in mind.

I’m not sure that I can do justice to the teachings that Batuan layed on me—about oneness, about love, about the essential unity of all religions and spiritual traditions, and about the “rule of threes” (there is a before, there is an after, so there has to be a now). Truthfully, I don’t understand why his mandalas reflect this Trinitarian approach, but I don’t really need to… Maybe because I am have spent so much time with them (keep reading)…or maybe because they made me laugh and cry and sometimes both…I’ll get back to you on this, dear readers, after you look at a few.





There are more. Many, many more. After our initial meeting, Batuan asked me if I could shoot more of his works for a retrospective book that he would like to publish, so I did. I spent one of my last days in Bali shooting over 70 of his pieces with a student of his assisting me. A fun and stressful day that tested my limits of natural light fine-art photography. However, his “thank you” gift- a 1987 painting depicting his response to the overdevelopment of Bali’s beaches- will be a cherished part of my collection for years to come. Pictures when it is unwrapped.

A third, extremely prominent senior (or master, depending on who you ask) artist of Indonesia I. Nyoman Gunarsa (Gunarsa) had agreed to meet with me, but was hospitalized on the day our meeting was scheduled. I didn’t get word in time, so arrived at Gunarsa’s museum (which provided me with a clue to his eminence) escorted by Made Sumadiyasa and his family, but did not get a chance to meet the artist. Try this link for a google image search to get a good idea of his work.

A local blogger at Stranger in Paradisewrote of Gunarsa: “Gunarsa is now the Napoleon of modern Balinese art and museum—building; his wife a noble and ever-youthful Josephine. Over the past decade, Nyoman has survived a stroke, slander by Idanna Pucci in her new book and, the adoration of Claire Wolfowitz (the art-loving wife of super-hawk Paul). He has emerged as Bali’s most prominent artist. His museum, near his ancestral house on the outskirts of Klungkung, now occupies a huge 5 hectares with a three-storey museum full of classical Balinese art. There are expansive gardens, pavilions and ceremonial gates.”

I was particularly interested in his recent works from a book titled “Moksa,” which refers to “the final aim of life, the ultimate dream of a Hindu..the final union of his soul with Brahma.” It has been pointed out that Gunarsa survived a stroke and gave his next major series this title without changing his style or revealing anything particularly new. Hmmm. This may deserve another blog entry at some point, but basically, I wonder whether Gunarsa is toying with us, or if he has achieved liberation only to realize that it is only here and now? Here is a link to an announcement on the exhibition for the book, released in 2004.


Two other artists I would have liked to meet- I Wayan Sika and Made Wianta escaped me on this trip. They may, in fact, have been around Bali, but I didn’t find them. With the exception of the magnetic Made, the fierce Batuan, and the enigmatic Korney and his excellent cooks and somewhat not-so-excellent dog, a lot of Bali eluded me. Hopefully next time.

This work I've been doing on the museum project has put me back in steamy Bangkok mid-summer. Honestly, I am surprised by the fact that Bangkok, for all of its lore, is not that much hotter than Washington (or Chapel Hill, for that matter) in the summer. Rains almost every day…but not so hot. I return to the States on July 9 for a couple of months at least before proceeding to India. Looking forward to seeing my many friends and those who have sent well-wishes.

Thanks for reading! This was a long one. :- )

Fine Art Magazine (Thailand) Requests Four Articles on Thai Contemporary Spiritual Art to Publish in Sequential Issues

Great news from Chiang Mai. Yesterday visited Tawatchai Somkong, artist and publisher of Thai Fine Art Magazine, which published my piece on Ernst Fuchs' Bangkok visit in the April issue. The article can be viewed here. It is a 5.5 MB download, so for those with slow connections be warned! In any case, the article looks great and has led to an offer from Tawatchai to write FOUR more articles for the magazine, which will summarize what I've found in Thailand and be published in four sequential issues. I'm very very excited about this development, since it means that the basic 'structure' of the book (as I see it now) will be out there for comment and discussion sooner rather than later, and, of course, it is good incentive to get the writing done as well. Also, a productive conversation with Michael Ernst Messner, son of Ernst Fuchs, whose efforts to build a large-scale cultural attraction in Bangkok are described in the linked article has me planning to stay a bit longer in Thailand for work and learning. Michael is, in his own right, a respected arts entrepreneur specializing in visionary and fantastic art, and the possiblity to learn from him for the month of June is very exciting.

So, as of now, the schedule appears to consist of Chiang Mai for the next week, then back to Bangkok, and a trip (quick) to Singapore around the end of April. May is uncertain- Thailand or Bali, but it looks like I'll be in Bangkok again in June, with a return to the US around the 4th of July weekend- if American Airlines cooperates with alllowing my return date to change.

In any case, Thailand has been a positive and affirming place to start this experiment and research. I really couldn't ask for anything more out of a "proof of concept" trip. Thanks to all for your support and well-wishes.

The Wrap Koh Phangan, and Back in Chiang Mai

The last three of weeks in beautiful Koh Phangan, Thailand have been quite different from the voyage so far. I have been experiencing art as ‘creator’ here in addition to observer. In my last post I shared my plan to spend some time at the Agama Yoga Center here. While the school’s methods are not for me, I met some really excellent people- students, ex-students, teachers, and affiliates, as well as plugging into a great community on Koh Phangan.



Two events of the past three weeks are worth mentioning around the project. One was the synchronistic way I met Tamara Bondi, a German spiritual artist whose work is probably the most intentional I have seen among the non-psychedelic movement in trying to capture the multiple realities of objects. Our meeting was synchronistic because we exchanged names only on the first day I arrived to the school. Over a week later, I saw her walking and offered her a moped ride up the road to one of the school’s studios. There was barely enough time to recognize each other in this meeting, but one series of Tamara’s work depicts the ways that people instantly scan each others’ energies and how interactions effect the human energy field change with interactions. This was how we met…

In her own words, Tamara paints (depicts) invisible entities using invisible media… More specifically, she focuses on the multiple realities of particular objects by depicting them on transparent media using multiple layers to capture the light and energy that are not visible in static, single-layer depictions. Regarding another series of her work, she observes that in contrast to the stability of past eras, in the present day, objects almost have to be moving to be perceived. Our conversation was one of the most in-depth interviews I have done so far, and evidenced Tamara’s depth of contemplation of the spiritual in art at deeply personal, experiential and at an intellectual levels. In the video which will be uploaded soon (click to begin a 112 MB Download- it will take a while, but is worth it!) hosted on the Spiros Project website, she explains her work in some depth, but admitted some hesitancy in confronting the German “Art World” with a full and complete description of the spiritual context and content of her work, and she expressed enthusiasm about joining a more deliberate effort to unite contemporary spiritual artists into a more coherent “force.” I look forward to her participation with great enthusiasm.



The picture of Tamara here leads nicely into the next report. Why, might you ask, is she shown in mirrors? And what is that thing? An effort to depict my own primary intention around personal growth came out in Koh Phangan in the form of a Mandala… Tamara’s work focuses on very refined methods of depicting light and energy to reflect the depth of human spiritual and energetic experience. My means are admittedly much cruder (I don’t really claim to be an artist and am not trained). Nonetheless, the idea of the spiritual aspect of the individual resolving its relationship with the immediacy of his or her experience—their Gestalt, in short—really came to the front of my mind while testing out the Agama School, which approaches spiritual and personal development from a much different—I would even say contradictory—perspective. So out popped the Mandala of Koh Now (the Island of Now).

Previously, I had found a great energy place in Koh Phangan- a coffeeshop called Blue Top that offered wireless internet and just had a great vibe. The day before the Mandala came to me, I suggested to the owner, Carlo, that he install some kind of Talisman or Mandala in the space to help hold the energy in. The next day I returned with a full design of the mandala and offered to build and install it in the space at the cost of materials. He agreed, and we were off. While the island placed some limitations on materials, it was eventually possible to build it pretty much as it was designed. We held a small ‘opening’ on April 9 (Sunday), and photographed it extensively. By way of futher explanation, here is my artist’s statement.

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The Mandala of Koh Now
In Vajrayana Buddhism (the Diamond Path), “the mandala is usually a symbolic representation which depicts the qualities of the enlightened mind in harmonious relationship with one another. A mandala may also be used to represent the path of spiritual development [or serve as a] symbolic representation of the universe, in which a mandala representing the universe is offered to the Buddha.”

Great teachers from the present and the past, including Eckhard Tolle, J. Krishnamurti, Ramana Maharshi, and Dzogchen master Dudjom Rimpoche, have pointed to the immediacy of our experience- the Now- as the instantly accessible portal to the eternal, formless realm of space and light. We can access our Higher Selves and the self-liberation of Enlightenment…

Not later.
Not tomorrow.
Not by an act of Parliament.
Not after arduous preliminaries, whereupon we are judged to be ready.
Not as a reward for following the rules, or for being “good.”
Only NOW.

The Mandala of Ko Now, built for the space it occupies, is offered to residents of and visitors to the enchanted island of Ko Phangan in the hope that they may reflect with awareness on the present moment- the viewer in the immediacy of his or her experience.
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Above is a picture of Carlo with his lovely wife Nit observing their immediacy in the Mandala.

Today I returned to Chiang Mai to wrap up my time in Thailand. I already miss Koh Phangan- such a great place- and hope to be back there soon. I will report on new adventures and plans soon, as the near future appears to hold a lot of time sitting at this computer putting together a draft of the book structure and filling in the Thailand contents I’ve collected so far.

Ko Phangan...Close to Paradise

Out of Bangkok after only 3 days (and not a moment too soon), I'm now in Ko Phangan, Thailand working on the Thailand chapter of the book, the research for which is basically complete, and enjoying a more relaxed environment. I've enrolled in a yoga and meditation course at the Agama Yoga Center, which was, I think, a good step. While Thailand is famed for its beaches and relaxing vacation spots, the last two months have been solid work, and a week of twice-daily yoga practice and a community of a hundred or so people- many of whom have intelligent things to say about what I'm writing about- seems like a good place to synthesize my recent experiences. The photo here is borrowed from the Internet, but I will send/post some "postcard shots" soon!

In the next few weeks, the plan is to get a draft of this first chapter (or the first material), together, take care of a few business details in Thailand (permission from artists to use their images, etc.), and then head back to Singapore before departing to Bali, the other "major" southeast asian center for contemporary spiritual art. My plans to spend a few weeks sniffing out similar art in Vietnam have been deferred, as a number of art collectors have concurred that it is not near as fertile a discovery ground as I had hoped. So...as soon as I can drag myself off this island, the next phase begins.

A side note- my article on Austrian Fantastic Realist painter Ernst Fuchs and his vist to Bangkok comes out in this month's issue of Fine Art Magazine (Thailand). Very excited to have already generated a publication of both words and pictures, and as soon as I have a link or a .pdf, I'll post it here.