"The Cosmic Dharma Bears". This image comes from my interest in eastern religion and belief. Specifically Buddhism. Although Buddhism today is not one singular form it has a few characteristics that are of interest to me. This is not an image based upon any kind of vast knowledge of Buddhism. I was reading Thich Nhat Hanh, a very interesting man and insightful writer. He was talking about the "basics" of Buddhism. He was talking about the three great dharma seals. There is not ego or self, all of life is transitory (in flux and flow) and nirvana. This set my mind off into many directions. The idea of the ego, the self being an illusion, life being a constant state of movement and change, and the realizing of one understanding the world and themselves within that achieves nirvana, or enlightenment. This is a painting of course and not a dissertation of the nature of Buddhism. This lead me to make a few small oil sketches. There was a previous idea of bears in the woods, a family walking outside there house. The three bears of the Goldie Locks story. But as I let the idea develop it became this. The strange warm, orange/red world, the word seals became bears. And the bears have two eyes. One in the head and one in the stomach. The way one sees with the mind and the way one sees through the body. The ground under them seems to be atomizing, being reduced to the base elements, swirling and changing, the platform is like a volcanic strata, mineral hot springs. Both stable but seeming to be melting, turning soft, loosing its material cohesion. The reds, oranges, yellows correspond to the Buddha's understanding that all of life, we humans, and all living things are a house on fire. We are burning. In that fire we can achieve an understanding, a deep acceptance of the passing of time, our own changes that will be us and the nature of the world. And its a very cool painting in the bargain.