A prayer is a powerful cleansing and unifying emotion. When ardent wishes for this world and the next are transferred onto flags, the prayers come alive. The wind, believed to be an expression of mental energies, activates the prayers spreading blessings over land and sea to sentient beings all around the world. Quintessential to Bhutan, prayer flags are as much a work of art as an act of devotion. What Ricardo Mazal has been able to achieve through his paintings is a connection of his personal narrative to this living form of Bhutanese culture. Hung over deep ravines, on mountaintops, and across rivers, the prayer flags whisper to the songs of human frailty. While they will gradually tear away to distant lands, Ricardo Mazal’s paintings will live on to tell a story that happened in a grain of time, in a grain of space. His paintings are alive because they concern real people with real emotions. The significance of this work is the sensitivity with which he has transferred people’s love and aspiration into his paintings, while keeping the intrinsic form of worship.
– KARMA CHODEN –
Select works available for purchase from Santa Fe Editions.
Coming in the fall.
