A Visit with Lama Tsultrim Founder of Tara Mandala

Informal photo of Lama Tsultrim Allione (right) Founder of Tara Mandala and her Executive Assistant, Anna Raithel outside Chez Albert in Amherst, MA. We met up for drinks on their way back from the Garrison Institute Conference on:

Contemplation, Collaboration, and Change: A Workshop for Lenz   Foundation Grantees and their Partners in Impact .....Read more here

As it was nearing Lama Tsultrim's birthday, I presented her with lots of Khandroling Paper Cooperative products including calligraphy paper containing sacred substances. Among these substances---mandala rice she gave me 20 years ago from her ngondro. I am hoping she does more calligraphy on paper we especially make for her. 

She is among the foremost Western Teachers and proponents of Buddhism and the Sacred Feminine. Her book, Women of Wisdom, opened the doors to recognition of the female lineages in Tibetan Buddhism generally relegated into obscurity. You can read about Tara Mandala at www.taramandala.org 

Thanks to Kathryn O'Connor

[photo of Kathryn O'Connor by Joey Solero]

Thanks Kathryn for supporting Milan Rai's guest artist visit to

 Khandroling Paper Cooperative

Haiku Class

I will be teaching a morning haiku class for Write Action in collaboration with the River Gallery School as part of the Brattleboro Literary Festival on Saturday October 5, 2013 from 9:30-12:00 PM. The cost is $25 for the morning session. 

The really cool part about this workshop is that in the afternoon for free, River Gallery School faculty will be on hand to help you transform your words into images using a variety of media such as bookmaking, collage, calligraphy, letterset or any combination. For a complete description of the workshop visit here.  Register through the River Gallery School.

Hope some of you can make it. Click here for a full schedule of the Brattleboro Literary Festival 

HANGING THE SHOW: A Slide Show by Naomi Zeitz

Join us for the opening of our first Khandroling Paper Cooperative Show "Interconnections and White Butterfly" at Ursa Major Gallery in Shelburne Falls, on September 14 from 2-8:00 PM as part of the SF Art walk. Come make paper, meet the artists, have some refreshments and visit with guest artist from Nepal, Milan Rai. (Scroll down to read about The White Butterfly City)
Outdoor Papermaking demonstration and instruction 2:00PM-5:00PM on September 14. 

The show will be open weekends until the 29 September from 1-5:00 PM



 ALL PHOTOS BY NAOMI ZEITZ

White Butterfly City

Milan Rai's White Butterfly City



Portrait of an Artist - Milan Rai from Shashank Shrestha on Vimeo.

Khandroling Paper Cooperative Group Show at Ursa Major Opens September 14, 2013-September 29, 2013

Ursa Major Gallery presents

Interconnections
September 14-29, 2013

Ursa Major Gallery and its home of Shelburne Falls, MA will provide the landscape on which Milan Rai’s White Butterfly will first alight on North America. Interconnections explores paper and the role of connectivity it plays within society. 

Group show to feature Nepalese guest artist, Milan Rai’s internationally renowned work White Butterfly, and select works by exhibitors of the Khandroling Paper Cooperative, Buckland, MA.

Artists include: Sheryl Jaffe, Brenda Lilly, Naomi Zeitz, Kathryn O'Connor. Tatianna Shannon, Max Shannon, Jacqueline Gens and guest artist Milan Rai from Nepal, among others.

PLEASE JOIN US ON SEPTEMBER 14, 2013 2:00-8:00 PM FOR ART walk in downtoun Shelburne Falls with a Papermaking Demo and an opportunity to speak with the artists.

About Milan Rai’s 

WHITE BUTTERFLY 
If nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies. Some truth can be as simply put as the sentence above. Milan Rai, a visual artist based in Kathmandu, Nepal, understood this and decided to do something about it.

Before the ‘White Butterfly’ movement propelled him into the attention of media and activism, he was an artist who lived a quiet life in search of finding ways to bring art to the public. 

The concept of a ‘Butterfly City’ was a beautiful coincidence. While working on an entirely different project with new ideas in his studio, a fluttering butterfly landed on Milan’s paintbrush. “It was a kind of revelation!” Milan says. “At that moment, I became aware. This small butterfly, one of the most vulnerable creatures in the world, was there in front of me…teaching me so much.”

Milan installs white butterflies everywhere in the city…it could be a broken and time-battered crossway, a fragmentary wall, a busy street or a tree trunk along the pavement. He uses white butterflies in his installations as a symbol of pure transformation , He believes that every individual, like a butterfly, has the power to transform themselves and when this transformation happens collectively, we can observe miracles in their truest form. 

He started in his City’. Now, he wants his butterflies are travelling around the globe, creating a ‘Butterfly World’ - spreading the message of love and happiness, creating a world that is aware and ready to tap into its inner power and lift itself from the daily drudgery and for once open its eyes and see how wonderful and miraculous it is…and indeed live life like a butterfly.

http://blog.meld.cc/2013/05/24/milan-rai-and-his-white-butterflies/
 
http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=47224
 
http://nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Buzz-the-butterfly-effect,523


http://vimeo.com/73718291  Beautiful video that some film-maker friends just finished and sent to him September 3, 2013.

 

Personal Note by Milan Rai
About the Journey

"There was never a particular point in time when I declared to myself or 
anyone that I would be an artist. While many of my friends compromised 
what they loved for what they ought to do in order to be financially and socially stable,  I found myself to be lost and without ambition and I could not bring myself to give in to the pressures of good academics and a stable job. However, painting was something I loved and so I did it without any plans of where I would take it as a profession. I started off with figurative painting and then shifted to abstract expressionism with an influence of modern painters , gradually  I began to experiment with a wide range of artistic practices like performance art, installations and conceptual art. During this period I came to terms with the fact that contemporary art was becoming increasingly complex and the element of shock seemed to be taking over to the extent of alienating the audience from the work. I felt I had to do something about this emerging disconnect between the general audience and art. So I began to simplify my work in order to seduce the audience and create ways to touch them emotionally and perhaps spiritually. I wanted to connect with the alienated audience and through works devoid of the ego- try and move them. I execute my work out of a pure desire to reach out to the people and connect with them, nurse them and hopefully heal them somehow.  In order to achieve that I create works that are accessible, simple to take in yet potent with a strong message of love, hope and change."



Ursa Major Gallery 1 Deerfield Ave Shelburne Falls MA 01370                         413-824-0502 ursamajorgallerysf@gmail.com            
Lauri Marder, director     ursamajorgallery.com

Milan Rai at Sheryl and Walter's House

[photo by Kathryn O'Connor]