Immensities and  Infinities: Further Specimens from the Flowerbank World is the artist Tom Wudl’s continuing investigation of the Avatamasaka Sutra (or Flower Ornament Sutra), a revered scripture of Huayan Buddhism. Earlier works by Wudl inspired by the sutra were first exhibited at L.A. Louver in Specimens from the Flowerbank World, November-December 2009. Read here the Artforum review by Annie Buckley.

There was a time when the world was small and man knew his place in it….Today, space is expanding beyond the reaches of the imagination….we inhabit immensities and infinities that also inhabit us. I have attempted to make visible to the eye with brush and paint that which is still sacred to us and which by other minds and methods has been reconciled, encoded and stored in numbers and equations. —Tom Wudl

Please Click to Enlarge for full painting details

Universal Purity, 2010 — oil, pencil, and silver leaf on vellum paper, 12 x 11 in.

Study for Cloud Blossom, August 2010, 2010 —

oil, pencil, and gold leaf on vellum paper, 16 3/4 x 12 in.

Cloud Blossom, 2011 — pencil, oil paint and silver leaf on vellum, 18 x 21 1/4 in

Universal Virtue, 2010 —

pencil and silver leaf collage on vellum paper, 12 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.

Study for Cloud Blossom (black rose), 2010 —

pencil, acrylic paint, oil paint, and aluminum leaf on vellum paper, 12 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.

Wonderful Eyes Raining Flowers, 2011 —

pencil, oil paint, silver leaf, pure silver and 22K gold on vellum with collage elements,

14 3/8 x 10 1/4 in.

Sea of Lotus blossom Jewels, 2011 —

pencil, oil paint, silver leaf and pure 22K gold on vellum with collage elements, 9 1/2 x 13 1/2 in.

These paintings and drawings were inspired by the Avatamsaka Sutra. The English translation of its title—Flower Ornament Sutra—discloses the obvious relation between text and image. It would however be inaccurate to view these works as illustrations of the book, since they do not coincide with any specific descriptions of imagery in the sutra. It might be more appropriate to say that the images reflect the very rich content of the book.

Inexhaustible Benefit, 2009, Oil on linen, 4 3/8″ x 4 3/4″

For instance, the proliferation of the tiny club motif is representative of the elaborate descriptions of phenomena so characteristic of the book’s literary style. “The finest jewels appeared spontaneously, raining inexhaustible quantities of gems and beautiful flowers all over the earth.” And in another sampling of the sutra’s visionary cosmology, we read “There were great enlightening beings numerous as the atoms in ten Buddha worlds.” Or “Each of his hair tips was able to contain all worlds without interference.”

One could say that the sutra in its 1,500 plus pages is an epic exhortation to meditation practice. Meditation is simply another word for concentration or attention. A common but not exclusive meditation practice involves repetition. The repetition of mantras. Counting the breath. Or simply the act of bringing awareness back to the breath should it forget itself in daydreaming. Although not specifically a meditation practice, the attention directed to the consistent repetition of the miniature details parallels the voluntary attention of meditation. It also ironically yet respectfully parallels the art of the insane that often exhibits urgent reflexive repetition and obsession with minutiae.

— Tom Wudl, October 2009

Specimens from the Flowerbank World will be shown at LA Louver Gallery, Venice California
November 12 – December 31, 2009
Reception for the artist: Thursday, 12 November 2009, 6 – 8 p.m.

Please click image to enlarge.

Liberation, Oil on Linen, 2009, 7 1/8″ x  10 1/8″

Now, Oil on Linen, 2009, 4 1/4″ x 4 3/4″

Equanimity, Oil on Linen, 2009, 13″ x 9″

Boundless Oceans of Concentrations, Graphite on Paper, 2009, 9 3/8″ x 13″

Inexhaustible Oceans of Desire, Pencil on Paper, 2008, 9 3/8 x 13″

Study for Specimens from the Flowerbank World 1, Pencil on Rag Paper, 2008, 7 1/4″ x 5 1/8″

Study for Specimens from the Flowerbank World 2, Pencil on Rag Paper, 2008, 7 1/4″ x 5 1/8″

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