Addressing current issues on the climate changing, with knowledge being offered to the world from both ancestral traditions of Polynesian ocean culture and current science & innovation technologies. How these topics interface with and can inform us through art & meditation practices.
Since late 2019, Cynthia Moku has been fully engaged in creating a 15’ length triptych, which will be installed in Hawaii at the Grace Learning Center for regenerative agriculture and inspired Polynesian culture & sacred arts. The Gestures of Engagement (GET) artwork is based on her past two years of studio creative work including, an artist-residency in Hawaii with research in humanistic & social-scientific disciplines of the Pacific Oceanic Nation, and meditation retreat.
In opening our zoom meet, Cynthia will take us through a visual journey with the GET paintings and the land & ocean environs of Hawaii. Followed by a group conversation during which we can go further into topics presented in the keynote talk, such as; stewardship rather than ownership of land, celestial navigation & voyaging principles, benevolent & sustainable farming practices, plant intelligence & regenerative agricultural techniques, art & ritual that acknowledge magic & mystery, and ardent transformative cultural activism.
Cynthia Moku has a distinguished career painting in contemporary and traditional formats. She has completed large-scale art projects associated with the Himalayan Buddhist tradition for more than forty-five years, including interior mural paintings for the three major public stupas in the United States and in Bodh Gaya, India, the Kalachakra Stupa. In 1973 she met the renowned meditation master, Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche. Under his prompting, Cynthia began a life-long study, meditation training, and practice in the art of the emblematic illustrated dharma, with works including the seminal painting of the Protector Chagdrukpa Mahakala & Entourage, acquired by the Denver Art Museum and consecrated by HH the XIV Dalai Lama. Currently, Cynthia brings her contemporary work into the forefront through the group performance brushwork of “Indelible Presence Brush” and painting sequences such as Turning the Wheel a Travel Game, Pilgrimage Journey: A Dakini Map, Weapons of Massive Compassion, and the Gestures of Engagement Triptych.
