Sunday, October 17, 2010

Uroborus


Christina Fernandez, Lavandaria #8, 2002, Copyright Christina Fernandez, courtesy of Gallery Luisotti.



By Gillian Cummings



Starkness: in the dogwood a robin’s nest
the bottom of which has become unwoven from the top
 
so that, looking up, you saw a frayed O
and through it the dusk color of sky
 
before a night when it would snow.  It made you think
of the shadowed ceiling of a church and white
 
candles burning and what it feels like when the body
is trying to teach the mind stillness.  There is an O
 
in Buddhist calligraphy that has the quality of being
finished and unfinished, as if endings and beginnings
 
only brush each other lightly, or as if a break
runs through perfection making it more
 
luminous.  The dragon swallowing its tail
in alchemical texts is similar but not the same.
 
Seeing the nest, you paused, then walked down the path
to the laundry room where your clothes had stopped
 
tumbling in rough circles.  You wanted to remember
how your life had come to this point, but you couldn’t
 
so you folded.  The brief heat of dried cloth.
The solace taken, in winter, from something worn,
 
warmed, freshened.  The open space at the center.
The gesture.  The open space that surrounds.

 
***
 
Gillian Cummings is a member of the Empty Hand Zen Center, and would like to thank the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Foundation for their generosity in providing her a grant, with which she was able to write this poem.  

Tremendous gratitude is expressed towards Christina Fernandez, whose  photograph accompanies Gillian's poem.  An exhibition of her work, "residue/residuo," is currently on view at Gallery Luisotti in Los Angeles.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Sweetcake Enso: Works in the First Exhibition at the Empty Hand Zen Center

These works at the Empty Hand Zen Center in New Rochelle, NY are in the first of the series of Sweetcake Enso exhibitions. They are all available for purchase and to benefit the participating zendo. For more information about these Ensos please contact Catherine Seigen Spaeth at catherine.spaeth@gmail.com.






Miya Ando,  okyoo [sutra 108], 16.5" x 88', liquid graphite on paper, 2010
 Photo courtesy of Ivory Serra.  Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.

Miya Ando, okyoo [sutra 108], detail.  Photo courtesy of Ivory Serra.







Sanford Biggers, B-Bodhisattva Slipmats, silkscreened polyester felt slipmats, 15x28", 2001.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.








Nonin Chowaney, No Birth, No Death, brush calligraphy written on handmade meadow grass paper, 31x25", 2004
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.





 
 Noah Fischer, Endless Circulation, wood, wax, metal leaf, 20" diameter, 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.








 Carolyn Fuchs, This and That, cast iron, wood, metal, acrylic paint, 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.






Max Gimblett, Sweet Cake, sumi ink, Thai Garden embossed handmade paper, 22 1/4x30 1/2", 2001.
Proceeds to benefit the San Francisco Zen Center.






Gonkar Gyatso, Buddha in Modern Times, silkscreen print, 22x19", 2009.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.






Gregg Hill, Enso for Thay, paint on steel, 22" diameter x 4", 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.






Anne Humanfeld, 100 Different China, acrylic transfer, 30x24", 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.





Anne Humanfeld, Eggs and Babies, acrylic transfer, 30x35", 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.







Anne Humanfeld, Eiger Enso, acrylic transfer, 35x30", 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.






Liz LaBella, Enso Dawn, mixed media, 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.




Jeff Schlanger, Lens, acrylic on Whatman paper, 30x22", 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.





Jeff Schlanger, Maija Wheel, acrylic on Whatman paper, 30x22", 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center. 





Jeff Schlanger, Planet, acrylic on Whatman paper, 30x22", 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.




Jeff Schlanger, Ring, acrylic on Whatman paper, 30x22", 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.

 




 Fran Shalom, Untitled, oil on wood on panel, 11x14", 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.





Fran Shalom, Untitled, oil on wood on panel, 12x12", 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.





  Fran Shalom, Untitled, oil on wood on panel, 11x14", 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center. 







 Karen Schiff, Pointing at the Moon (all through the night), gesso on paper bags, 20x16", 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.






Karen Schiff, Pointing at the Moon (under a mackerel sky), gesso on paper bags, 20x16", 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.





Bridget Spaeth, Pull,  gouache, graphite on spliced paper, 12x16", 2005.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.




 

 

Michael Wenger, Untitled 1, 2, 3, 4, sumi ink on paper, 2010.
Proceeds to benefit the Empty Hand Zen Center.