Speaking…or Not

Blanka Mateno

In a normal day we hear many sounds…radio, smart phones dinging, news of unnecessary shootings, international unrest, life’s hustle bustle….

It is important to find solace amidst the chaos.

DO NOT SPEAK —– UNLESS IT IMPROVES ON SILENCE.

                                                                                                             – BUDDHIST SAYING

Padma

Lotus pond, China
Author: Hedda Morrison (German, 1908-1991)
Date: ca. 1933-46

Hedda Morrison studied photography in her native Germany, and from 1933 to 1938 managed Hartung’s Photo Shop in Beijing. From 1938 until she and her husband left China in 1946, Morrison worked as a freelance photographer, selling individual prints or thematic albums of her work and creating photographs for other people’s books on China.

Above is a photo of a man sitting idly with two children in the winter sun. It reveals more information than it seems:

“The empty wicker basket suggests that this old man and children are probably from a village outside Peking and have come into the city to trade. On the wall behind the children is a graffiti scrawl written in chalk which represents a play upon the opening words of the Thousand Character Classic (Qianziwen), which refers to the creation of the universe.”

The children in the baskets resemble the growth of the lotus flower,  it’s roots in the earth rising through the water and nourished by the air…beautiful  PADMA! – j. quigley

PADMAPANI

Flowers in the sky.

Flowers on Earth.

Lotuses bloom as Buddha’s eyelids.

Lotuses bloom in man’s heart.

Holding gracefully a lotus in his hand,

the bodhisattva brings forth a universe of art.

In the meadows of the sky, stars have sprung up.

The smiling, fresh moon is already up.

The jade-colored trunk of a coconut tree

reaches across the late-night sky.

My mind, traveling in utmost emptiness,

catches suchness on its way home.

1976

by Thich Nhat Hanh (1929 –

…from Call Me by My True Names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh by Thich Nhat Hanh

Hiroyuki Hamada: Sculptor

Hiroyuki Hamada

I always get excited when I find an artist whose work I want to follow.  Hiroyuki is one of them.  Richard Gailbraith wrote an article: Japan:Creative – Introduction, on CEMENTUM in August 2012, in which he included a statement of Hiroyuki’s work.  I cannot say it better then him, that Hiroyuki’s work “oozed sci-fi whilst retaining an intrinsic ‘Japaneseness’ about it.  It connotes to me Zen gardens and the post apocalypse at the same time.”  Jeff Hamada, from Booooooom,  ‘randomly came across Hiroyuki Hamada’s work, following a link from Newstoday.’  He shares the same name but in terms of immediate family they are completely unrelated. After seeing his amazing work he thought it would be fun to contact Hiroyuki and see if he would allow him to interview him, I mean how could he say no to family?