Monday, July 18, 2005

Illustration Friday: Karma

Here's my image for Illustration Friday...theme- Karma:



Perhaps this could use a little explanation? It's my spin on a traditional image from Tibetan Buddhism. "The Four Dharma Friends"(the elephant, monkey, rabbit and bird) symbolize harmony and cooperation. It's said by Lamas that hanging this image in one's home will bring harmony and peace to it. The karmic message: work together, cooperate and all will be harmonious and much good karma will arise for all.

This is my take on The Four Friends, done in my style of drawing animals and using dots and bright colors (the colors as reproduced here not so nice compared to the original). I call it "The Four Dharma Friends...Plus One" because I added an extra bird to round out the composition.

The very first thing I thought of when reading this topic was the wonderful Tibetan Buddhist Dharma teacher, Thrangu Rinpoche, who teaches all us unenlightened regular people at my Dharma Center. Here's a picture of him giving what we affectionately call "the sparkler transmission". So may you have a wonderful karmic connection with this teacher by seeing this photo:

15 comments:

elleshaw said...

Beautiful image. Love the style.

Anonymous said...

wow! i love this. i love the brilliant colors and the circles and the "karma" inspiration. beautiful illustration!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful image, full of spirit :)

FunkyMama said...

love this, too. :) very great energy ... and the Dharma teacher makes me smile.

btw, while i'm here, i've also added you to my blog roll over at www.funkyjunkie.biz/blog/ :)

Nienke Krook said...

beautiful illustration! thank you.

Fern Lady said...

Thanks for all the kind comments-- I'm sure you're all getting lots of good karma for encouraging me in my creative life! (heehee)

Anonymous said...

Wonderful concept! I love elephant paintings.

Carolyn said...

You did it! This totally makes me smile. Love the photograph of the Teacher! Wonderful wonderful!

Emily said...

So charming! I love the richness of color and freshness of your animals. So lovely. I can see this as a poster.

Anonymous said...

I love it! Especially the concept- I did a Karma IF offering too- but I think you've inspired me to paint four friends of my own :)

DAWN said...

Thanks; I needed to read and see your post today.
~ DAWN

Aravis said...

This is very cool. I love your style, the colors you chose and your attention to detail.

Ian T. said...

I love this picture - just beautiful! I'm not sure the dots add much, and they could be a distraction, but other than that reservation (and I might well be wrong), perfect!

Fern Lady said...

I really appreciate all this feedback--very helpful. I'm glad this picture is bringing enjoyment.

sam duffy said...

Your Dharma teacher has the most lovely smile and nice energies....I am a buddhist and get so much peace from my teacher.

Your work is lovely...thank you