The First Bardo, the Span of Life

My thought was to paint a series of “death paintings”, that is to say, paintings that summed up all that I have tried to incorporate into my art up to this point in my life. If I die tomorrow, this is what I want to leave behind as an artistic statement. That isn’t really anything different from what I try to do with every painting, but the intention is focused and clear.

According to Tibetan Buddhism there are four bardos. The first bardo is the span of this life, between birth and death, where we all reside for our time on earth. The controversial teacher Sogyal Rinpoche wrote in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying that one of the central characteristics of bardos is that they are periods of deep uncertainty, characterized by continuous unnerving oscillation between clarity and confusion. That certainly sounds like the times we are living in now.

This painting reflects that oscillation between order and chaos. I hope you enjoy it!