Opening 2013

Due a wardrobe malfunction (explosion, actually*) I showed up a few minutes late to find the gallery filled with a happy multitude enjoying the art, the wine and the eerie marvelousness of ‘living statues’ of goddesses here and there about the gallery. Mujiba, the director of the group called BlesSING, had painted her body a bright blue, swathed herself in a purple sari, lay perfectly still, Ananda-like on the table in the middle of the gallery with a sign that read: “Life is but a dream…”

I gave my little speech welcoming all, reminding them that the event is a fund raiser for Santa Barbara Domestic Violence Solutions and the Tibetan Children’s Village in India, to whom we always give 20% of the profits from sales of the art. Last year and this, BlesSING provided ‘singing bowls’ into which everyone was encouraged to put some money, 100% of which was going to our charities. We raised $200 last year and $145 this year. To them we send out a big THANK YOU for their generosity.

One of the things Tibetan Buddhists say, as a means of keeping gratitude in our hearts, and a sense of equanimity amongst all, is that over the eons of our past lives, we have all been each other’s mothers one time or another. So I wished everyone a Happy Mother’s Day, a particularly poignant moment for me as my Mom died on Saint Patrick’s Day just a few months before, so I didn’t have her anymore to send a card to with that wish. She was an elegant lady who loved to dress up. She would have loved the gorgeous goddesses. (Apple did not land far from the tree in those respects!)

There are almost 70 works of American Buddhist art up on the walls now.

If you missed the opening, get yourself to the gallery, enjoy the show, find a piece that you love, buy it and know that it will inspire you for a lifetime, support local artists, and uplift those less fortunate than ourselves… all those who have been our mothers.  Be generous. We all rise together.

Lark

*With the best-laid plans, I’d arranged the flowers, food, prayer flags and such at the gallery early in the afternoon, so that I could go to my friend Cynthia’s house with plenty of time to put on the vintage Thai-like outfit that had belonged to my mother. Once dressed, I went out to the car, got in, put my hands on the steering wheel and all hell broke loose: Buttons popped off the back of my top, the wrap around tie undid itself to the point that my entire leg was sticking out the side, and my bra was showing out from under the little crop top… Not good. Ran back into Cynthia’s house and borrowed a dress (I knew her wardrobe intimately from weeks of assisting her find the perfect outfits for all her on-line dates). Where would be without our girlfriends who mother us as needed? Thanks, Cynthia!