End of Summer

(WARNING: the image has nothing to do with the content of the post below. It is merely being used to add colour and a sense of importance. The image is from a few years ago in 2008 (?) when the Karmapa from Dharamsala came to visit the Rubin Museum of Art and I was asked to give him a tour even though I no longer worked there since the prior summer of 2007. It was a choice of this image or one with me and Lobpon Tenzin Namdak. I didn't think anybody would know Tenzin Namdak except for those rare Bon followers and scholars. The Karmapa won the contest of recognizability).

Well, it is nearly the end of August and the end of summer according to a school calendar. It has been a very fast two weeks in Vancouver. The real reason for coming was to attend the IATS Conference - International Association of Tibetan Studies - held at the University of British Columbia (UBC). For me it began on Sunday the 15th and ended on the 22nd. It was long, it was grueling, mostly because of the difficult, over-lapping and confusing, schedule along with the required late night socializing - in modern language called networking. There were many people that I new and many people that new me or either the HAR or SRG websites. During the first few days it was easier being anonymous. HAR is very popular with the younger scholars. The Bon scholars were there in force and the Bon panel was excellent bolstered by the likes of Samten Karmey, Tsering Thar and Marc Des Jardins amongst others.

I was able to acquire some new images for the HAR website along with promises from others to send images. Some of the images have already been put up on the site. Check the HAR News page.

As I return to New York I must of course think about bedbugs. Yes, they are still there. The management company sprayed again on the 18th of August. Apparently there have been more complaints from tenants. I can understand as I have been talking about this since February, officially since March. As long as they think they can deal with a porous apartment building with topical applications of pesticide based on the subjective complaints of tenants then the problem will never be resolved. I return armed with good double sided sticky tape. I couldn't find any good tape in New York. The tape is crucial to my plan of survivability in a bed bug infested apartment building.

There have been a number of issues, topics and news items that have come up in the last few weeks that I have not responded to but they are things that I definitely want to react to - pro or con: the King of Shambhala living in Canada, the very harsh review of the Tibetan contemporary show at the Rubin Museum of Art, and various other things that will come to mind at the right moment.

Pre-showing at the Joshua Liner Gallery

Today I had the good fortune of viewing the new art show at the Joshua Liner Gallery. They were busy hanging the remaining paintings and making ready for the official opening tomorrow night. I unfortunately will not be able to attend the opening because of another obligation in another city on the other side of the continent. However, today I was able to see most of the works. First of all, it is a much stronger show than the Barnstormers exhibition this past March. The caliber of art is much higher with a high degree of skill and talent immediately noticeable to the eye. Some amount of care has been given to the curating of the show in general and to the specific location and hanging of each piece. Pema Rinzin's two pieces are excellent and fit in very well adding to the over-all quality and the tremendous variety that this show offers. This opening has fewer pieces than the March exhibition and more space provided for each of the works. It is a real treat to move from piece to piece and explore the individual artist's subject, composition and creativity. There are a number of wildly, brightly coloured, and imaginative pieces that draw the eye and don't let go. You will have to experience that for yourself. This is surely an exhibition for the three general groups of people that attend art openings, the interested public, artists and the connoisseur collectors.

Art Opening - Saturday Night - Aug.14th

Remember, if you live in the New York area, the opening of the Joshua Liner Gallery Summer Group Show is on Saturday August 14th at 6:00 p.m. Pema will have two new works of art on view - abstract fine art. To see three other abstract works by Pema Rinzin visit the Rubin Museum of Art for the Tibetan Contemporary exhibition, closes October 18, 2010.

Joshua Liner Gallery

Joshua Liner Gallery: Summer Group Exhibition 2010, August 14 - September 4, 2010. See two of Pema Rinzin's new works of art at the summer show.

Hijacking Himalayan Art!

A response from the Tricycle Magazine Editor's Blog about Looking at Art on the HAR website and "We Live in Hope" on this Travel Blog.

"We Live In Hope"

What an uplifting article in yesterdays New York Times. I of course never open the newspaper unless a friend recommends an article of importance. Thank you Emma.

Have you ever thought to yourself that some paintings look better than others? I have been waging a personal battle now for several years where I believe that the study of Himalayan and Tibetan art has been hijacked by other academic disciplines such as Religious Studies (and the study of iconography), Anthropology and Ethnography. Here is an article about that exact same fight but in the European art world - data versus aesthetics and connoisseurship. Let the new battle begin.

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs & More Bugs

Yes the bugs are back. I woke up unexpectedly to a slight itching in the palm of my right hand, the ball of my right thumb to be exact. Not a normal location for a bite but yes there it was. As I was slowly rousing from my dream and entering wakefulness with my attention drawn to my hand, and that feeling that now I recognize so well, my eyes opening slowly, I briefly caught site of something, a speck of darkness, moving across my body at stomach level, highlighted against a white T-shirt. The bug, had moved from my hand and was looking for an escape route across my body to the other side of the bed. I immediately wrapped the bug in the folds of the T-shirt and leaned over to my right side, the side table, to grab a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol kept next to the bed, always, always a bottle of rubbing alcohol. The alcohol kills the bugs on contact - stops them dead in their tracks. One shot, two shots, it was over quick, quickly dispatched to the other world.

The unfortunate thing was that I was having a pleasant dream and there were still several hours of sleep left. The good news, if it can be called news, or really anything to look forward to at all is that they, 'THEY', the exterminators, are coming in to spray the apartment again today.