Coyote Wind watercolor, 17 x 22"

 

Last summer I painted this coyote gazing out into what? the future? Whatever it is, he looks happy to see it, so it must be good. The little shapes underfoot suggest the elements of life coyote & we depend on.

 

Earlier this week I hung this painting in a show with Victoria Whitehand at Quercia Gallery in Duncans Mills. Our show is called "Inner Light ~ Outer Music," & is a unique expression of Buddhists wandering in the world.

 

I first met Victoria in 1993 when she was curating an international show of Buddhist art. The following year she invited me to co-curate (the show was annual for 5 years). We became good friends, & for a time walked together every week at Ragle Ranch Park (in Sebastopol).

 

Not long after I met her, she went off north for a 3 year, 3 month, 3 day Tibetan Buddhist retreat. When she returned, she became lama of Gold Ridge Sangha, now called Kagyu Takten Puntsokling. Meanwhile, after 30 years of Zen practice, I drifted into something less definable & more Native (still cherishing my teachers & the Dharma).

 

Victoria's works in our show are bold, nearly abstract caves & canyons: inner light. Mine are mythic animals in odd situations: outer music. Yet they converse with each other. Our colors, our shapes echo, shine & dance together.

 

In the show, you can finally see what coyote is looking at: the glowing light of one of Victoria's beautiful canyons. The music of Coyote, the light of Dharma.