I photographed this pilgrim in Lhasa (Tibet) on my first trip there in 1983. This work was created for an inviational exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art that will compliment the Edward Manet Portrait Exhibit in the Fall of 2012.

Painted between March 15th and August 15th, 2011. Based on location sketches Phil made at Sabu Monastery in Ladakh where he and his wife stayed for several weeks at the Tibetan Refugee Community of Chhoglamsar. The painting explores our tendency to carry, through life, the unneeded baggage of religious doctrine.

My mother died in May, 2010. I used some of her ashes in the pigment for this painting. Note the female Buddha above the door holding a cup of tea. My mother was a great tea drinker. The branch on the ground in front is a symbol of her letting go of her physical body and entering through the temple door.

Carl Jung is in the astronaut suit. He is discovering the archetype of the circle in the collective unconscious. The American flag on his sleeve is upside-down as a sign of distress because the day I was painting that area, W.Bush attacked Iraq. The side panels are vertical slivers from ancient circular mandala painted in a more traditional Tibetan style. The left panel is from the "Wheel of Life," (Hell). The right panel is from the "Shambhala" mandala, (Heaven). The work is on three separate canvases and detach for shipping.

This work is cut using phi (1.618), the "golden ratio. Each peice of canvas is mounted on foam core board and one-inch wood spines. Each peice hangs seperately on "indian grips" with a one-inch space between the pieces. It floats out from the wall one-inch.

In the collection of Owens Community College, Findlay Campus