Description
My background is traditional Tibetan thangka painting. I like to have a historical reference for projects & found a rare thangka in the London museum showing both Green & White Tara. That was the affirmation I needed to create this artwork. The setting is the Big Island Hawaii with Hualalai Mountain & a breaching whale in the background. Tara is a female Bodhisattva & an important goddess deity in both Buddhism & Hinduism. Tara represents the fundamental female aspect of the universe, which gives birth to warmth, compassion & relief from bad karma as experienced by ordinary beings in cyclic existence (samsara). She engenders, nourishes & has profound sympathy for all living beings & acts to relieve suffering wherever she can. Tara traditionally holds an utpala, or blue lotus, in her right hand at chest level, which simultaneously displays the vitarka (teaching) mudra. The utpala is a night-blooming flower. Tara protects at our time of greatest fear, during both the physical night & while we exist in the darkness of our ignorance. The lotus is renowned for its purity, remaining unstained in even the most contaminating of environments. This is a very large mokuhanga woodblock. It is quite difficult to carve & print a block this large. Mokuhanga is the traditional Japanese style of woodblock prints. The block is printed onto Japanese Kozo or mulberry paper by hand rubbing with a barren. The inks used are sumi & watercolor inks. Mokuhanga is a labor-intensive old school printmaking practice. I hand painted this woodblock after printing. Title: Two Taras Artist: Faith Stone Size: 30x26 inches titled, numbered, & signed by the artist Taras, Two Taras W Breaching Humpback Whale, Green Tara, White Thangka Art, American Buddhist Art, Faithstoneart, Mokuhanga Woodblock
