"Mountain Medicine Buddha" – Faith Stone

Medicine Buddha is invoked for physical, mental, and emotional healing. The image is set in Colorado and the Buddha is attended by a mountain bluebird. Gold metallic powder is mixed in with the watercolor inks to make this image more luminous. These original prints are hand-carved and hand-pulled mokuhanga woodblock prints. Mokuhanga is the Japanese method of woodblock printing.

Faith is one of the few people in the world still making Buddha woodblocks. The sole surviving monastery in Tibet, Derge, has primarily turned to sutras, though they do have some antique thangka woodblocks. Thangka woodblocks are one of the main disciplines of thangka art: painted, appliqué, nag than (black background), ser than (red background), and woodblocks. The woodblocks have become a dying art but her mission is to revitalize the tradition. It still exists in Nepal but almost exclusively as prayer flags. 

Faith Stone has a background in traditional Tibetan thangka painting and wrote the book, Drawing Buddhas, and BodhiSattvas. Since studying Mokuhanga with Hiroki Morinoue, she became very interested in using Mokuhanga woodblocks to create Buddhas.

She then adds Shiko Munakata’s technique of water-coloring the wood block from the back to keep the blacks black but infuse the woodblock print with colors. She believes the real joy of making Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is creating a space for the Buddha or deity to reside.

Details:

Dimensions: 12" w x 16" h

Prices in US dollars. US taxes included