ABOUT

“The world is a numinous vessel”
Liu An

I draw deep inspiration from the example of philosopher artists - who join the practice of art with philosophy, which James Hillman calls “the most complex and profound demonstration of thought.”

Primary influences in my work are from the western European tradition of art, from Asian philosophy, particularly the teachings and practice of Tibetan Buddhism, and from the deep and vast river of artistic traditions throughout the world. In the European tradition I find the discipline, indeed the yoga of perception in the practice of drawing and painting. The Buddhist teachings provide a path to work with perception and the nature of the mind. The arts of cultures throughout the world are a living, continually flowing ancestral current, inspiring and nourishing those of us living in the present. As artists, we are continuing the work begun by our ancestors.

All my life I have been discovering octaves of vision. I gaze into the radiant heart of phenomena, hearkening to the pulse of dark and light, stasis and change, becoming and dissolving, sensing the beat that becomes a pattern, the pattern that becomes a form, the form that becomes an image. I seek the shimmering pathway between perception and thought as much as between phenomena and noumena. I venture into what is not yet born, calling to the invisible world to reveal its stories, and to unfold the wisdom and luminosity curled immanently in its heart.

VITA PUBLISHED ARTWORK (Selected)

  • Illustrations for Fire and Stone, Ursula LeGuin author, Atheneum 1988.

  • Illustrations for The Wizard of Wind and Rock, Pamela Service author Atheneum 1989.

  • Illustrations for Lissa and the Moon’s Sheep, Eli Goldblatt author, Harbinger House 1991.

  • Writer and illustrator of The Girl Who Changed Her Fate, Atheneum 1991.

  • Pomegranate Publications

  • The Sun Magazine

  • The Shambhala Sun

TEACHING

  • Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado.

    • World Art: a survey of the art of the world from a global perspective

    • Figure Drawing

  • Private classes and courses

EXHIBITS (Selected)

  • Nalanda Gallery, Boulder, Colorado.

  • Josefa Sudka Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic.

  • Indigo’s Art Gallery , Denver Colorado

  • Boulder Public Library

  • Naropa Gallery, Boulder, Colorado

  • Maclaren Markowitz, Boulder, Colorado

  • Highland Gallery of Art, Boulder, Colorado

  • Alpha Gallery, Denver, Colorado

RADIO

  • 23 years as a host of radio programs of World music, storytelling, and the Humanities on KGNU, Boulder’s community radio station - http://www.kgnu.org/.

EDUCATION

  • Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, California. Ph.D. in Mythological Studies. My dissertation is entitled The Jeweled Net, Sacred Landscape, and the Vision of the Heart .

  • University of Colorado at Denver. Master of Humanities. Interdisciplinary studies in World Art, Music and Literature.

  • University Without Walls, Loretto Heights College, Denver. Bachelor of Arts, Fine Arts specialization.

  • L’Academia di Bell’Arte, Florence, Italy.

  • Studio Simi, Florence, Italy.

  • Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland.