“Sacred Places (11),” Print, 8″x11″, $5.95 Ea

Love is an enlightenment story available to everyone, and that story includes being attacked by demons as well as being showered with roses. Love and enlightenment are both fatal discoveries. The painting depicted a colossal Buddha and His chief disciple Ananda on the north wall of Cave 20 at Yun-Gang Grottoes, Shan-Si Province, China, 460 – 490 A.D., 45 feet high. For over thirty years from 460 A.D., thousands of stoneworkers created such sculptures and carved out cave temples and cells in the Yun-Gang cliffs. This project was proposed to the Northern Wei Dynasty rulers in 460 by the monk Tanyao. The imposing, squared face may derive from the styles of the Gandharan regions. The pattern of the clothing worn by this colossal Buddha derives from artistic tradition found in Pakistan and at sites, such as Kucha, along the Silk Road. Despite that His hands had been damaged, the combination of the figure’s colossal size and equanimous gaze seems to elevate this Buddha to a spiritual plane that is beyond human time and place.