Tapete in Process
Brush painting is one of the many practices used to awaken one's participation and manifestation of the Tao. By focusing and directing the painter's awareness, it is an expedient way to uncover and clarify a painter's state of mind. A brush painter selects a subject, studies it to determine a minimum number of strokes, then orders and repeats these strokes until they become one single, fluid movement, generally executed on one exhalation. The extent to which the practitioner is focused, at one with the materials and techniques, is the extent to which the resulting works is infused with life and vitality of its own.
Photo Credit: Tapete (Sand Painting) Wednesday 1 November, 2006, Noon. Corner of Reforma y Independencia. A group of about 15 people have gathered at the feet of the human/police barrier to make a sand painting that spanned the width of the street, from sidewalk to sidewalk. A funerary/Day of the Dead custom, a sand painting is often made in the memory of someone who has died, using colored sands and stencils, measuring approximately 3x6 feet. The imagery is usually religious or mystical, and reflects something of the person being remembered. In this instance, the woman in red has stenciled on the white base a portrait of Ulises Ruiz in black, and under that the word “ASESCINO” (murderer). Others are stenciling skulls in the corners, one woman is sprinkling marigold petals, the flower of the dead, in a border around the edge..
—Hank Tusinski
Photo Credit: Hank Tusinski, Personal Collection, Digital Image, 2010.