Beej Series (2003)

“Walking a pilgrim’s path I saw these dusty seeds underfoot: dry, brown, cracked, silent, encapsulating a past unknowable. I gathered them and brought them home. In time I saw them filled with new beginnings and future becoming. I sensed in them songs unsung, hidden ragas and notes unstruck. So it was within me too, possibilities not yet realized.

“As hard shells crack, break-open, fall apart or are riven asunder by tragedy we grow again, find new directions, new life. We seek and find the right conditions: moisture, air, breath, companionship, guru, faith, hope so as to spring forth, make new shoots, find laughter, song and joy. Within us all there are the seeds of kindness, compassion, peace and joy, wisdom and Buddha nature.

“The paintings in the Beej series are meditations and a celebration of the life within a seed, of the possibilities within us, of the starburst energy of growth, of new beginnings and new life.

“These paintings are in scrolls, which like seeds, enfold and unfold, hide, seek and reveal. Moving away from the usual framed picture is also a response to being back in India and using a form that is closer to our Asian traditions: softer, organic, flowing and sensuous.”

Here, six of the twenty-five works from the Beej series are presented.