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These works were created shortly after completing our last piece of work for His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa and Tsurphu Gompa. Each of these, were made during the time period January 1998-September 99 on the island of Maui in Hawaii.

This period of time was a great time of adjusting to opposites. Previously always, even in the summer, dressed in long underwear, and as much wool, and goose down as was possible.To now wearing light tropical wear tee shirts and rubber flip/flops. High altitude for sea level. A Tibetan Guest house next to the Jo Kang on the Barkor in Lhasa, Tibet, for a tetrahedron in a tropical garden surrounded by fruits and flowers, and sometimes gentle streams other times wild torrents.

Having spent five years, working on the two large art projects for Tsurphu, we were like new born, faced with joining the western world, making a living, and providing education for a quickly growing three year old in a highly competitive materialistic society. as well as a very busy one. Island living here means one drives too much, unless one is self sufficient.

Anyway to make a long story short I like to paint birds and flowers on silk using mostly mineral and botanical pigments. Leslie using techniques learned while working in Tibet, has developed these incredibly innovative silk appliqués, land & seascapes, as well as portraits. Sonam our son likes to draw paint and make collage.

In the late summer of 1999, having logically vowed to stay on Maui for Y2K, His Holiness summoned us to Tsurphu to work on the third giant project for the Monastery. During the month of November we met with Him about setting up this new appliqué project for Tsurphu. Also we met with the factory personnel and officials in Lhasa about permission and residencies to do this work.

His Holiness had grown to an awesome maturity as well as very tall. He has been advising us on projects since he was ten years old. I had brought these five bird and flower paintings with me to ask His Holiness to do His calligraphy on then. I had previously done this in 1994 with scrolls that I had made in Thailand in 1992. Some of those paintings may be seen in new works in private collections as well as terris art.