Monks Rule

Last summer I was fortunate enough to take a painting class from a Tibetian Monk. It was awesome. I learned to they paint a Bodhisattva, a thangka of Shakyamuni. I learned a lot about the symbolism of this particular deity and was briefly introduced to several others.

The word thangka indicates a portable scroll-like painting, usually on cloth. The paintings we did for the class (that's mine above) were on watercolor paper, which doesn't "scroll" though. I would love to paint one on canvas and make a real thangka of it. I have one planned and sketched now, I'm excited to start on it, but I still have to finish that mural first.

I was then inspired to create this really fun sculpture of Ganesh too, for which I won a thousand dollars at the Placer County AgroArt show. It paid for the beginnings of my website ! (I think that's the most I've ever made in cash for one piece).


Anyway, The Monks are returning to this area soon and I look forward to seeing them again. They are very smart, those monks.