SEEDS & SPROUTS 1

Once upon a time, when I was young, I was studying art and I was very passionate about reading books, I received a small book: Man and His Symbols. It was the last book of Jung, a book that included several essays about his work written by his students.

Since a dear friend gave the book to me, I was very eager to start the reading journey. The first page I laid my eyes on had printed an image of a Tibetan mandala. I was intrigued and liked it immediately.

The image stayed with me many- many years, like a seed that was waiting hidden in a dark corner, waiting to sprout. More than ten years passed.

One day, I was invited by a Chinese friend to take lunch at a small restaurant in Beijing. She was going to meet a person whom, as she told me, I would be joyful to meet. I agreed, happy to join them. I was hurrying through the narrow streets of a hutong while curious and not knowing what to expect.

While waiting for the noodles to be served, I was scrutinizing the person whom I have met and who was sitting in front of me. His round face with vivid and curious eyes and a childish open smile. His presence was completed by genuine laughter that warmed my heart – that really sounded like the one young children often have when they are joyful. He was a young Tibetan, who was spending just a couple of days in Beijing. He was wearing his dark red robes gracefully, as much as his status of a young Tibetan monk. I was delighted to find out that he openly answered my questions, honestly and thoughtfully.

We chatted like old acquaintances. At the end of the lunch, just before we were going to depart, he decided to make me a gift, to take with me home. With both hands in a gesture of respect, he gave me a small thangka painted with a mandala of Manjushri. I was so happy and surprised by his generosity in giving me such a valuable and unexpected gift, that I do not know how I said thank you, for sure, not being able to express well enough the gratefulness I have felt.

The powerful feeling I had regarding the mandala was equally matched by my appreciation of the generous gesture. The desire of being able someday to understand more about the mandala has shown up in my heart. It took less than ten years till my desire was fulfilled. I have seen a sand mandala for the first time in a museum. I even learned a bit about it, though the language barrier had made me lose parts of the explanations.

Since the time I had, did not allow me to go into too much depth, most of what I found out then, has vanished in time, leaving just a deep appreciation for that form of creating art.

I was fortunate enough to see a small old temple with images of mandalas painted all over its walls. I was fortunate enough to see a sand mandala lighted by the butter lamps of an old temple while listening to the chanting of the monks. The desire to learn in-depth how to draw and paint a mandala still stays with me. I just wonder if the next window of opportunity will open up for me soon or not. Right now, maybe I am just planting the seeds for things to come.

In the meantime, one of my artistic interests lately, has been to create impermanent sculptures – very simple texts written using perishable materials. I do not claim in any way that they have the power or deep meaning the Tibetan mandalas have. The way I see them are like small but useful tools in getting acquainted and accustomed to the continuous change that occurs in our lives.

IN SOME HOUSES ECHOES, 2021 - The text is the title of a poem I wrote in 2021 in Romanian language.

This work was made from common modeling clay, placed into the garden, and left to be melted by the rain and wind, and it was the first one of a series of impermanent sculptures.

In the meantime, I made several pieces similar in approach with this. I am presenting here just two of them.

As you might see from the images, I am still coming to terms with the grasping of our ephemeral existence and our continuous change at the most subtle level, which I am most often resisting than not resisting. However hard it is for me to acknowledge it, I am doing my best to sow the seeds for the next windows of opportunity to arise. My feeling is, I still need a lot of work and a bit more renunciation, but since this is a tough subject to handle, I keep postponing it, at least for writing a blog post’s essay.