Pink Buddha
Aqua oil on canvas, 48″x48″
Yesterday I finally finished the Pink Buddha. I began this painting back in November 2013. It is an actual scene I sketched of a Buddha in front of a house here in the neighborhood. When I first sketched it, the Buddha was a bronze patina. One day I walked by it again for closer study only to find the Buddha had been painted pink. I pondered for some time whether to continue my painting of the Buddha in bronze metal, or to paint the new pink Buddha. Eventually, the pink won me over: the soft, feminine color of the heart superimposed upon this masculine wisdom intrigued me.
It is rare a painting sits on my easel for more than six weeks. The pink Buddha commanded almost five months. It morphed through many stages and changes, and seemed to carry me through equally as many shifts in my own transformation. The pink Buddha summoned a large presence in my studio which often spoke to me of calmness, tranquility, clarity, compassion and letting go. I surrendered to this presence until it spoke of completion. The Buddha’s essence took me on a journey, not only in its creation, but with its vibration and message as it mutated into life.
I sat across the studio gazing at its final resolve. I noticed the way the pink Buddha was poised as the gatekeeper to the entrance of the dark interior (black doors); the way the flowering bougainvillea and tropical leaves (nature’s wisdom) framed the portal into the unknown; and the way the Buddha glowed and seemed to float effortlessly above the water (emotions) below it. I thought about how the pink light of love is always surrounding us even when we descend into the dark night of the soul; how nature is our teacher gifting us with Her deep wisdom and beauty in uncertain times; and how humanity’s true nature is designed for us to glow and flow with ease above our perpetual human dramas.
While this pink Buddha has not spoken one audible word, I have managed to hear its voice across all eternity. It has spoken the language of the heart.
