Tenzing Wangdak Lama: Teaching Buddhist Thangka Art Over Internet

BUSINESS STANDARD

Image of artist from Tibetan Artists blog

INDIA---The northeast, which has over the years produced many talents, has added another feather to its cap through Tenzing Wangdak Lama, a young Buddhist thangka artist from Sikkim, who not only paints but also teaches thangka painting through the internet. Earlier, Lama worked in the paddy fields for a livelihood. But that changed when he became fascinated with the traditional Buddhist art form. He studied at Tibetan Bon Monastery at Ravangla where he learned Thangka painting. Since then, painting has been a passion for him. "Those who are interested in Thangka painting can log on to my website, and I teach them for free. I have dedicated my whole life to making thangkas. Through this money, I earn my livelihood," he added. [link]

Read More

ArtPrize's Online Youth Competition ArtStart Names 10 From 53 Winners

THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS
By Monica Scott

MICHIGAN---The ArtPrize Education Team is calling ArtStart, an online youth competition launched this year, a success after drawing 53 entries in various art forms from around West Michigan. Ten unranked winners were recently named by artists from 1st grade to 11th grade. Besides an ArtPrize swag bag of items, students also received gift cards for art supplies or music, and a membership to the international art exhibition's partner of their choice, including Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. [link]

Read More

Ohio's Freedom Center Presents Largest Ever Exhibition of African American Quilts

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

OHIO---The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center will present its newest special exhibition,  "And Still We Rise: Race, Culture and Visual Conversations" beginning Oct. 12. The exhibition narrates 400 years of history through 85 story quilts curated by Carolyn Mazloomi, Ph.D., director of the Women of Color Quilter's Network. Planned for a national tour, "And Still We Rise" was organized by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and Cincinnati Museum Center.

"Lucy Terry Prince: The Griot's Voice" (2012) by Peggie Hartwell

(Above) Lucy Terry, an enslaved person in 1746, becomes the earliest known Black American poet when she writes about the last American Indian attack on her village of Deerfield, Massachusetts. Her poem, “Bar's Fight,” is not published until 1855.

Read More

A&O Prize Exhibition Artist Participants

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

INDIANA---Who are the midwest artists taking the risk to explore religious ideas today, and sparking conversations about faith as a result? The following is a listing of such artists (believers and skeptics too) participating in the 2013 Spirit & Place Festival this November. The exhibition and program is produced by Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts in partnership with the Center for Interfaith Cooperation and Indiana Interchurch Center.

Alpha Omega Prize: "Alpha & Omega: Religious Risks" (Nov. 1-29), at Indiana Interchurch Center's IIC Gallery, 1100 W. 42nd Street, Ground Floor; Indianapolis, IN; 317-919-0570; alphaomegaarts.org

VISUAL ARTISTS Anila Quayyum Agha Doug Arnholter Sandie Ballard Dan Cooper John Crowe LaShawnda Crowe D. Del Reverda-Jennings Brian Diehl Jonathon Frey Glory-June Grieff Linda Witte Henke Jimi Jones Jonathon Kane Denis Ryan Kelly, Jr. Elizabeth Kenney Deborah Kolp Brigid Manning-Hamilton Tony Melendez Quincy Owens Ryan Petrow Tom Phelps Tim Ryan Gary Schmitt Constance Edwards Scopelitis Bonnie Stahlecker Susan Lynn Tennant Tom Torluemke Nhat Tran Julia Wickes

LITERARY ARTISTS Norbert Krapf Bonnie Maurer Tasha Jones

Read More

Poll: American Jews Identifying as More Cultural, Less Religious

THE WASHINGTON POST
By Michelle Boorstein

What primarily makes someone Jewish — a sense of humor and an emphasis on justice work, or following Jewish law and believing in God? A new poll out Tuesday shows the first qualities are — for the moment — dominating American Judaism. The percentage of Jews who identify as Jewish solely by culture or ancestry rather than religion has jumped from 7 percent to 22 percent since 2000, according to the poll, the first comprehensive survey of American Jews in more than a decade. [link]

Read More

Colours of Emotion: Nine Artists Lend a Contemporary Touch to Navarasas

THE HINDU
By Harshini Vakkalanka

INDIA---One often gets to see the navarasas play out in the realm of the performing arts, but it is not very often that they are so strongly brought out in visual art, through paintings or sculptural pieces. And Lina Vincent Sunish has worked with just this theme in her latest curatorial venture, Rasa on view at the Mahua Art Gallery. The exhibition features nine artists, each exploring and expressing the individual rasas through their works. The idea behind the exhibition, despite the fact the theme has been playing on Lina’s mind for a while to bring out Indian aesthetics and identity but in the contemporary. [link]

• Bangalore-based artists Naveen Kumar explores the Shringar rasa (love) 
• Praveen Goud, in his series of sculptural objects (titled Man With Pipe) combines LED lights and m-seal (with ready-made materials) to create an almost nonsensical personality in his expression of the haasya rasa (laughter).
• The adbhuta rasa (wonder or surprise) are revealed through Bhavani’s panel of 16 paintings depicting the tributaries of the Cauvery in the Kodagu landscape as well as Aishwaryan Kumar’s interpretation of the karunya rasa (compassion).
• Niranjan H.G.’s photographs of rock formations where he takes the colour yellow which corresponds to the deity of Veeryam (courage) to directly symbolise the rasa. 
• The exhibition features two folk artists, contemporary Madhubani artists Naresh Paswan and Amrita Jha.
• The exhibition also features works by Kurma Nadham and Sanjay Manna.

Read More

Traditional Mithila Art Gets Modern Twist

THE HIMILAYAN

NEPAL---Traditional Mithila art focuses on the folk tales, religious beliefs and everyday activities of Maithali people that depict their social, religious and cultural aspects. Originally from Siraha, artist Shyam Sundar Yadav’s exhibition ‘Modern Mithila’ has all the traits of Mithila art, but with a modern touch. The exhibition that began on September 27 at Mithila Yain Art Gallery, Thamel has captured the social, political and religious aspects using oil pastel colours. [link]

Read More