Tantra Paintings/Drawings

natural pigments on vintage paper: hand-ground colors including minerals, mother of pearl, coral, tree resin, vegetal pastes, silver, and/or gold

NW India, anonymous, dates unknown

5-13/16 x 5-7/8" in     [14.8 x 14.9 cm]

A Tantra Painting is singularly created as an ephemeral symbolic representation, a vehicle, a kind of throw-away image that offers an alternative form of consciousness for those with patience, and, those willing to devote the time.  Unlike fine artworks or decorative objects, these small scale works on paper are not intended to be admired for their technique, content, or aesthetic beauty. Think of these images as visual devices that function as a type of yoga, with the associative premise that emptiness is full. Or as cryptograms of the self. It’s been said by many that when attention is directed exclusively and long upon a single image, focused absorption can promote an emptying out of consciousness where the dualities of the individual and the universe, self and not self, reason and feeling can dissolve, leading one to an enlightened state of awareness.  Yet more succinctly, “Illuminating those entangled in the coils of their own masking delusions.”