Vipassana Meditator Portraits

 

 Opening into awareness,  I can feel my attachments unraveling 

All of life is the practice

 Portrait Sculpture of Buddha Siddhartha Gautama (commission)

 I have the strength to deal with anything now

Attention

 I feel more like myself

 Things are a little rough right now

A subtle, pleasant sensation is passing through

 May my actions benefit many

 Difficult moments never last forever

 No I, no me, no mine

 War on ignorance

 

Lalitasana

 

Areas to observe

 

 My flaws are a valuable teacher 

Still, against such wild variations

A calm and quiet mind.
 

These are not images of fully enlightened beings. They are contemporary people working through their struggles and making an effort to understand their minds.  Most of the sculptures here are portraits of my friends who have benefited from meditation.  The process of making them involved sitting together with each person and coming into an authentic and mindful state.  At a random moment in our sitting, I would quietly get up and photograph them as reference to later build the sculpture.  The titles reflect insights each person shared with me in conversations.

Practicing meditation is not always pristine, clear and beautiful.  Part of my intention is to make pieces that reflect the stoic, statuesque stillness and strength that these people maintain while facing different states of being.  Each piece reflects a single moment in a vast flow of constant changes in mind and body. Some moments are challenging, uncomfortable and mucky, some are simple and ordinary while other moments are blissful, expansive, and transcendental.  Regardless of what experience is sculpted into their surfaces, each sitter is making an effort to see clearly that his or her state is impermanent and to accept the moment as it is.  They are training themselves to be able to face any situation with grace and wisdom.

Recent Sand Cast Glass

May All Beings Be Happy And Free

Kuan Yin

This Prism head is designed so the face can be seen in an internal reflection from the top.

Clear Laughter

Prism Smile

Imaginary Self Portrait


Dancing

The Open Heart

These are two of my first experiments using colored glass powder on the back of the piece.

Sometimes the vision for a piece is so clear, yet the process forces a new set of problems to be solved. In this case I was trying to make a hollow figure in the round inside a solid block of glass by making a sand core to pour around. It took about 4 full ladles of glass, and somewhere around the second one, the fluid molten glass broke the arms off the sand core and floated them up to the top of the piece where they blew glass bubbles. In my efforts to roll with it, I ended up sawing off those corners and polishing the sides. This is what emerged.

This one made it through with the arms in the intended expansive posture, yet this piece couldn't be cast in the round because the sand core arms actually broke before the pouring, so the whole figure is slightly embedded in the sand to keep the arms in position.

Inspired by those powerful moments when one feels that there is no separation between the body and the vast expanse of all the space in the universe.

Namaste