LIght in the Temple

The above photo was taken during the Buddha's birthday in Seoul about six years ago. It was quite a big deal that day and I am fond of this photo because it seems to capture the actual moment. Often times a photo captures a moment but it is not characteristic of what was happening when the photo was taken, take Cindy Sherman's movie stills as an example. However, this photo does, I feel it captures the event, there simultaneously solemnity and festivity. The temple was overcrowded with people but it was not the normal gawkers that turn up for a high holiday, it was an accumulation of all the people who go to the temple as a matter of lifestyle arriving on the same day. At that point of my life I was going to the temple several times a week to meditate, and my life, despite being totally out of control, had a simultaneous sense of peace. That is why I like this photo so much perhaps, the day it was taken, what is happening in the photo, and what my life was then are all the same.

Several time I attempted to make a painting of this photo, and it only worked once, then I tried to add black to my spheres and ruined it. So from here on in I will leave it a photo.

I went to a Lama temple today, in part because it is nearest to my home. In Northern China there are not so many temples and in China I have been somewhat turned off by the Buddhists. It is far more supersticious and most people are praying for things, normally money. I find the most devote Buddhists are old people (like any religion) followed by business men and then recent college grads looking for jobs. But I am bitching here and I really shouldn't, it is not my point.

Part of my reason for going to the Lama temple is because in meditation I felt I needed to go. Also Since I am ever on a quest for light I thought I might find some light, or enlight if I was really lucky. Sad to say I brought my distaste for Chinese Buddhism with me and in the end I didn't find any light, but I did find what I had been missing many times out of the year, and that was a sense of peace. Going through the inscense burning and kowtows quarantined my mind from distractions. I didn't notice the BMW's or the tourists or the college kids, I only noticed peace, my thoughts were quieted and to paraphrase David Lynch, the pool of my mind was deepened. And for the rest of the day I have been in a fine mood.

Seing as my visual art has been about light and its effects, I had the idea to look through the Bible, The Quran and other sacred texts for the word light, cut them out, and then paste them onto a canvas. My trip to the Lama temple today was a ploy to gather material and more ideas. However, God/Buddha or whoever it is calling the shots had thought otherwise.

Mode of Expression

Just wrote a lesson plan I think is great about different art styles and how artists use their language to express their view of the world. The idea is to have the students :

1. Understand their view of the world
2. Learn about painting techniques Ab/EX, Realism, Impressionism and Pop Art
3. Create a painting that reflects their view of the world/situation in one of those styles

It is helpful for me as well because it allows me to explore these since personally I have been working in the Cold Abstraction vein the last year or so.

I did some personal brainstorming today about my work because I have been focusing on finishing a larger painting and haven't done any deep creative work lately. While sketching/writing out ideas about the moon a news report came on the BBC about telescope makers and reflective qualities. This really intrigued me and I learned about the spook fish (if I heard that correct) that has eyes that have a strong reflective surface in their eyes used to catch more light. The get this by layers of protein and cytoplasm. This immediately calls to mind Chris Offili's paintings which are so thick with varnish that the painting has several layers that are all translucent. This effect is something that I've been going for in my own work. I did accidentally twice but despite experimenting with layers of varnish and supports I haven't been able to deliberately reproduce it.

I've always been drawn to the work of Wolfgang Laib, James Turrel, Anish Kapoor because I feel their work all has that other-worldly sensation to it and I want that same kind of experience from my own. I have not yet succeeded.

Getting started

I've been interested in the way we experience color through the sensation of light. I have also been interested in post modernism and I am putting the two together.