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Memento Mori/ Memento Vita
This body of work evokes the long history of “memento mori” images with a twist; focusing on the inevitability of death we become conscious of the vividness of life.
Looking at these paintings provides the pleasure of investigating how the techniques of a painter can fool the eye into believing a flat surface is a three dimensional form created by painted light and shadow. The painter magician’s trick of creating visual illusions is fun but also serious. What is the nature of reality? Are the constructions next to the paintings that are the subject of the paintings more real than the images? In what way are our lives real, since all the physical, emotional and mental aspects of us are constantly shifting? Like my earlier altars, these images emerged as part of my spiritual journey and study of Buddhism, but my hope is that they are images that will bring you delight and opportunity for personal reflection.
Quotes from two Buddhist texts on the nature of reality, time and emptiness.
The practice of true reality is simply to sit serenely in silent introspection. When you have fathomed this you cannot be turned around by external causes and conditions. This empty, wide-open mind is subtly and correctly illuminating. |
Hongzhi Zhenjue
(1091-1157 Chinese Zen (Caodong) master.) |
First of all, understand how life arises and accept your life as being at the pivot of nothingness. Accept that within this pivot the human world is a picture you create. Then you can use time; you can use your human consciousness and choose what to do. You create your life, which is interconnected with the life of all sentient beings, by your actions at the pivot of nothingness. This is the significant meaning of time in Buddhism.
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Dainin Katagiri
(1928 – 1971 Japanese Soto Zen teacher who founded the Minnesota Zen Center and the Hokyoji Zen Monastery, Minnesota. Quote from book of his talks, Each Moment is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time ) |
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