120 Views into the Pure Land is an exhibition of oil paintings completed between 2021 and 2023 that will take you on a journey through time and space for your own contemplations. Wide-ranging artistic, historic, cultural, ritual, spiritual, and geographic influences collide in an unfolding story of learning techniques, practicing meditations, taking adventures, and speaking love and life.

**Updating the story daily until the official exhibition launch - Pescador Khan

I spent many nights contemplating the world from that bridge over the Rhone. Dreaming of the future and what it holds and how the past directs it. As I wandered the streets of Arles, the landscape, its people, and their colorful cultures impressed on my soul and inspired me to bring colors to my works, which had been pencil drawings and black-on-white sumi-e paintings since my return from Mt. Hiei. 

A Dream from Arles, January 1, 2021, marked my first oil painting expression completed for this series after the contemplation period. While it is the only cityscape in the series, it inspired the next three years of my stylistic exploration of the lands near and far. During this period between 2021 and 2023, I have produced over 200 paintings, 100 drawings, and 1,000 photos (out of over 50,000 taken).

In Buddhism, the Pure Land is occupied by the vast many Buddhas who have attained enlightenment. 

Throughout 120 Views into the Pure Land, can a glimpse of those Buddhas be had?

Cultures across the world understand its diverse colors differently. Perspectives on color vary as greatly as there are shades of blue. However, at their root, colors are just red, blue, yellow, and light.  As Van Gogh sought the light of the South of France, Provence, to gain a new impression the light of Cache la Poudre created a new impression on me. While I have lived in some remarkably colorful places that have inspired great artists to have great explorations of color in their art, the seasonal colors of the Cache la Poudre have become my "Provence". Throughout each day the sun, landscape, and atmosphere play with each other prodding endless impressions I wish to share with the world. 

During a pilgrimage up the Durance River Valley in 2022, Deja Vu was the reflection of the journey. In paintings and dreams, the river valley and mountain peaks and people of the Durance sparked distant memories and forged new dreams. On a nightly wander I happened across a play in a park, J'ai Peur Quand la Nuit Sombre (I'm scared when the night goes dark), a dreamy story of love, temptations, anger, regret, and remorse; all the emotions that bring on and ease great sufferings. While many lands have sparked my inspiration, the Durance reminded me to embrace the night and its feared darkness to share the beauty of that unknown.  

The Rocky Mountains, where my marathon goes. Your unforgiving peaks are the headwaters of life-giving rivers. Your mighty pines and weeping willows. Your power to change the atmosphere or a life at first sight. For over 10,000 years you have provided for people and inspired them, gaining yourself great reverence among the many people that have called you home. Your mighty rivers have connected people near to people a world away where other ranges and rivers gain great fame. Throughout my life, the Rocky Mountains have provided me with what I needed to live and be inspired to set out into the unknown. Now I wish to honor those who came before, and are still here, and share my love for:

3óoxoné’ noho’óooyóó’. 

After returning from my pilgrimage on Mt. Hiei I set forth to define my marathon paths to walk around the Gunnison Country. One trail, I loved to hike from before my journey, the Ridgeline Trail to Signal Peak became my go-to marathon practice as it provided a vast panorama to inspire contemplation while suffering to reach the summit. The brutality of the trail is that there was always "one more hill" to hike up before the peak, with the last two always being the toughest test of one's will to overcome the suffering they have endured to reach them. However, once on top of Signal Peak, a 360-degree view of a miraculous valley in the heart of 3óoxoné’ noho’óooyóó’ can be seen, leaving one in awe to be inspired and find inner peace. While the struggle is hard, the journey is worth it and easiest with meditative contemplation.

Two days after attaining my second Masters, I returned on a pilgrimage to France where I gained great inspiration for the next path of my life. Landing at Charles de Gaulle Airport, I traveled by foot, bus, and train to Paris, Vernon, Giverny, Gisors, Pontoise, Auvers Sur Oise, Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Gap, Mont Dauphin, Embrun,  Briançon, Marseille, and Arles then flew out from the Aéroport Marseille-Provence. A Tour de France pilgrimage in the footsteps of Van Gogh and Monet guided me to Cézanne, Rothko, Nicole Eisenman, and Arthur Jafa among too many others to mention here, despite their value to my journey. Exhibitions by contemporary artists Eisenman and Jafa and historic artists Monet and Rothko provided transformative inspirations for the following series that reflects on the wonderful people I connected with in the communities I experinced on that pilgrimage. 

A Journey from the Pawnee National Grasslands to Rocky Mountain National Park