8x10 in., oil on linen on panel, framed
Available: Email me for price list
Here's my last painting from the Tree's Place exhibition - I hope you've enjoyed my larger works. I love reading your comments, so if you have any thoughts on this painting, please leave them here.
This past weekend, I went to the Nakashima Foundation for Peace a cappella choral concert for peace by Mostly Motets. It was so inspiring on so many levels (here's a snapshot) -- I know I won't be able to adequately encapsulate it. The Nakashima Foundation (which was originally created in 1984 to collect funds to build Altars of Peace around the world as "small points of light encircling the globe") is raising funds for its fourth Sacred Peace Table -- made of black walnut through this remarkable process.
I really love these remarkable photographs that tell the story of the Sacred Peace Tables in NYC, Russia, India, and South Africa. Take a look -- I think you couldn't spend a better 20 minutes.
To give some background, this is George Nakashima's vision, "A while back there appeared a great bole of a tree, a Walnut...."
"A while back there appeared a great bole of a tree, a Walnut. It was about five feet in diameter (1.5M) at the small end, about seven (2.1M) at the flare, and twelve (3.6M) long, with extraordinary characteristics. In a small but firm voice the bole asked to be realized; two adjoining slabs opened to make an extraordinary table, roughly twelve feet (3.6M) long by the same dimension wide, weighing almost 1 ton. Gradually a few people became interested in the project and suggested we make six Altars—one for each Continent. It will be a symbol, a token of man's aspirations for a creative and beautiful peace, free of political overtones; an expression of love for his fellow man. We have become so basically disoriented with our blind faith in science and technology without spirituality, it brought us to our pit of madness.
A symbol is needed—something tangible, like the toe of St. Peter's statue in the Vatican. This symbol might be the object of a transcontinental or trans-world Peace March. At the end of this pilgrimage, a celebration: A rose or lotus placed on it; songs sung, each in his own tongue; Zen chants so strong; possibly the Day of Existence, a chant to music—spheric in line, spiritual and sad—composed by my 'brother' Ivan Wyschnegradsky; Sadhu friends from South India congregating; and monks and others from all over the world who are interested in a higher and deeper consciousness. There is little chance that peace can be achieved politically. There is, at best, a balance of terror; a balance of egos; a balance of demands. Enthusiastic contagion would be useful, as peace the world over is uppermost in our consciousness. It must be a joyous peace, not a fear or absence of war. It is a question of surrender. A surrender to the Divine Consciousness to end in a most beautiful aura of love."
George Nakashima
October 1, 1984
"Once the first Altar for Peace was placed by George Nakashima at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York, we looked to the broader George Nakashima vision for a world encircled by magnificent symbols of peace. We set our path to be most inclusive of all the peoples of the world – and the Altar for Peace became the Sacred Peace Tables, consecrated by clergy and aspiring to peace among peoples joining the American, Euorpean and South Asian continents. We look to the continent of Africa next as we proceed in placing the next Sacred Peace Table in the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre, Cape Town, South Africa." [link]
I hope you'll read more at the Nakashima Foundation's website here.
Visit my Current Painting Auctions
View All Available Paintings
