Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Dear Friends,
Tomoyo ( the mountain otter in the cave).
Crossing
Wishing Tree
4 Rivers, 6 Mountains
Crying River
Dream
Greetings from the foothill of the Himalayas. It has been almost one month since I arrived here. I rent a part of the beautiful studio of a wonderful Thanka painter, Karma, and also live there like a hermit (alone with monkeys on the roof at night), with a little bed and curtain protected window. My Vancouver days fade away as green trees and leaves soften my heart.
While my heart is calmer and stabler being here, sad news of people giving their lives away for freedom, human rights and peace in Tibet increases. Since I arrived, 5 people have set themselves on fire. Now the death toll by self-immolation is at 57 (since 2009). Every time this happens, here, at the core of the Tibetan community in exile, vigils and prayers for the lost precious lives are organized immediately.
There is now a sense of fear in the community consciousness about when this may happen next. Pain and sadness are always there but at the same time, I realize these earthy, compassionate and courageous people of the land of snows will never give up their belief and devotion. Suppression only makes them stronger.
I continue to draw one drawing when a self-immolation happens. I read news, see pictures of the self-immolated and make a drawing in a couple of hours. I've made it a custom and this is one of the small things I feel I can contribute as an artist and human being for the people, land and world I truly love. The essence of art is elusive, however it does speak its own way and permeates our bodies and souls. I do not feel it is me who made these drawings. I believe those who devoted their lives to the wholesome cause moved my hands.
When I draw, I think about life, death and offering.
I hope you have been well and happy at your end.
Love and Peace,
Tomoyo ( the mountain otter in the cave).
[from Dharamsala, India, on Monday, October 22, 2012]
Crossing
Wishing Tree
4 Rivers, 6 Mountains
Crying River
Dream
Tomoyo Ihaya, 2011-12.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Agency is taken, not performed.
Evil is that moment when I lack the strength to be true to the Good that compels me.
Are you connected?
To the extent that necessity is socially dreamed, the dream becomes necessary.
An event changes not only the real, but also the possible.
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
One must speak for a struggle for a new culture, that is, for a new moral life that cannot be intimately connected to a new intuition of life, until it becomes a new way of feeling and seeing reality.
Are you connected?
Are you connected?
Boredom is always counter-revolutionary.
Professionalism is a powerful form of social control.
Events are interred by representation.
Are you connected?
From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back.
Jeremy Todd, 2012.
