Yosem – LOVE TREE PRODUCTIONS

Windfall from the Apple Book

These are a few drawings and some notes from a sketchbook long unopened that I frequented during my studies at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland, the Auroville Community in Tamil Nadu, India, and later the Schumacher College in Devon, England. The first is a drawing of the Love Tree, with open-eyed radiance and hearts above and below. Next, my attempt unentered in a challenge to design a logo for the Auroville Earth Day, and then a drawing that was made at some point I can’t recall along with the words “Following a Movement More Implicit”. And last, one of the many pages of notes that I took during my study of Holistic Science with Dr. Stephan Harding (please forgive the typos). Love Tree s

– Joseph Stodgel, 1/27/14

The Great Baobab by the Art Building: UH Manoa

Painting

Another piece that I completed on the Uuniversity of Hawaii Manoa Valley Campus. This piece is of one of the many beautiful and stunning trees on the campus there. The trees were probably one of the most attractive parts of the whole schooling and educational experience there. This tree that I painted is a Baobab or “Dead Rat Tree” as they like to call them in parts of the English speaking world.

Seeing Through Scripture to The Sacred Mountain

Painting, Writing

I completed this painting as a student at University of Hawaii Manoa under the benevolent guidance of a painting teacher of mine there, Mr Jason Willome. During that time I was living up valley and would spend many afternoons sitting in a coffee shop drinking chai, eating homemade manna breads and reading The Heart of The World by Ian Baker. Many sittings I enjoyed with the thick book (just over 400 pages), and with every turned page grew more enthralled in the exploration and adventure as I followed the author on his great pilgrimage deep into the mysteries of Ancient Tibet. His journeys had led him to the foothills of Namcha Barwa, one of the tallest mountains in the world and the termination point of the Far Eastern flank of the Himalayan range.

Underneath that mountain the Tsangpo Gorge, deepest in the world, plunges four times deeper than our beloved Grand Canyon here in the USA. The legend contained in scriptures had it that a great waterfall exists there in the thick of the rhododendrons and mired chasms. Ian Baker set out to find it, and the book encapsulates and recounts his absolutely epic journey over many years in doing so. After I read it, I set out to portray the story in a painted fashion, and this piece was the result of that effort. I used a variety of techniques to achieve something akin to looking through torn scripture at the colossal landscape, and above you can see how I started with selective priming then continued with a series of washes and finally an inkjet transfer of Tibetan Script.

The piece was featured in Lotus Space’s video series entitled Inpo: The Art of Invisibility, which was broadcast on Hawaii public television. It is my sincere hope that I can one day visit the gorge and see the great Namcha Barwa. May all beings be in bliss. Om Mani Padme Hum.