Abhayavajra loves painting. He loves paint itself. And sees himself more like an archaeologist, revealing something urgent and crucial about the human condition by adding rather than scraping away layers.
A totally delightful conversation about the quest to integrate and unite Dharma practice with the steady, disciplined practice of an art form. We discuss how appreciating beauty itself is like a healing force at times of stress; and how art itself can be a properly adequate response to suffering in the kind of reality we are all taking part in.
Encompassing the plasticity of paint itself; the inter-relationship between colour and form; and the presence of blossom and bare branches in a sense of beauty felt all year round. This is a magic window into how we can meet the challenges of our time by holding to our deepest sources of inspiration.
Visit Monet’s water lilies (Les Nymphéas) online
Watch the last interview with Dennis Potter
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Theme music by Ackport! Used with kind permission.
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Here’s the interview extract that Abhayavajra mentions - I remember it well as my father was dying of cancer at the same time, aged 56:
Dennis Potter describes the blossom in his garden as “…the whitest, frothiest, blossomest blossom that there ever could be”. He ends by stating his hopes for his last two plays: “I want it to be fitting, to be a memorial. I want to continue to speak”. It is a touching and low-key conclusion to what remains one of the finest interviews broadcast on British television and a significant addition to the body of work by Dennis Potter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpnyPl8-ZcQ