NO MIND II, ink on Nepalese paper, 2.4 x 1.77 x 56 inches

After six months living in Houston I didn’t know what a huge honor it was to be selected for The Big Show, with juror Toby Kamps, former Curator of The Menil Collection and soon-to-be Director and Chief Curator of the Blaffer Art Museum. As usual, I didn’t enter for the competition but because the theme was interesting and it gave me a chance to exhibit one of my scrolls locally.

The scrolls were made in S. Korea and they were initially 3. Today they are over 20 pieces. They are by far the most humble works I have made yet the most important, meaningful and fun. They are part of my own meditation practice by handwriting with ink the words “no mind” repeatedly. This practice remind us of the Japanese Zen monks who in ancient times drew Enso circles of enlightenment with ink as part of their own meditation. The circles, like the handwriting, do not need to be perfect as they reflect the state of mind of the writer at the moment of performance. The dream is to show them together, as the last series of 15 pieces explores the use of mindfulness in the healing process of the mental illness.

Of the 3 initial scrolls mounted on antique wood spools one became part of the permanent collection of Kent University Special Collections and Archives in UK after “Prescriptions” exhibition at The Beany Museum in Canterburry. The other piece is currently in Venice after a recent exhibition at The Scuola Internazionale Di grafica Venezia and will stay there as part of a travelling exhibition of “Scrolls” in Italy.

This year’s organizing Theme
It is a truism that life moves fast and that change is a constant. In the 21st century, rates of change in our ecological, economic, and political lives are accelerating and increasing at breakneck speed. Even consciousness itself is under constant pressure as new technologies transfer images, messages, and memes from the screen to the mind at the speed of light.