I paint abstract Buddhas because a Lama once told me that due to the fact that so many on this planet focus on buddhas' image, it's magical.
You decide who will appear in Artforum Magazine, take home $25,000, and display their work at The Art of Elysium's Salon!
Compassionate work that's a conscience of the people. I started in the traditional charcoal to oil as a great admirer of Matisse, Modigliani and Frida Kahlo, became captivated by Japanese woodcut prints of Yoshitoshi. I did a mural with graffiti artist friends and recently had a show of portraits on rice paper highlighting ICE injustice and bodhisattva nurses which I'm writing a book of the same theme. I've been paraplegic since last Christmas Eve so my mediums are much more limited now.
Where do you find inspiration?I ask myself, What would my late Lama Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen think? Also, my late Mom Terecita whose last outing was a #NoKings protest. Most of all, my special needs daughter Maya who stayed for my entire opening night next to her painting I surprised her by hanging.
What would you do with $25,000?I would help fund my daughter's daily school Able Arts Work here in Long Beach, my second annual Indigenous Seed Planting Festival March 21 complete with mariachis, Tibetan monks blessing the soil and seeds with mantras, and I'd give to the Southern Poverty Law Center who Terecita worked with and has come under recent baseless attacks. O for Maya I'd get this $120 Hermione Granger doll a Japanese woman crafted at our Able Arts Work December Fourth Friday Opening.
Vote for Bartholomew Villa-McDowell to become The People's Artist while supporting a great cause! Cast your free daily vote or make an even bigger impact when you vote by donation, supporting The Art of Elysium in their mission to use art as a catalyst to help people triumph over difficult life challenges.
Limited-time: 2X votes ends on Mon 5/25 at 9PM PDT
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