Jane Vance

Gallery

Female Figures from an Unidentified Context

1996, 44" by 88", oil on hand-stitched canvas

The year I lived in Sri Lanka, I wanted to make a painting about females who had been depicted in Theravadan (southern) Buddhist art. They were difficult to find.

I found on a cave wall an image of a mother whose son had died (She is the mother from the Buddhist parable about the mustard seed: she beseeches the Buddha to bring her son back to life, and he says he will, if only she will first bring him one tiny mustard seed from a house whose family has not also suffered some death.); I painted her.

But the only other females I could find were two women in a book about cave art, with the caption-which became the title of my painting-"Female Figures from an Unidentified Context." So, I thought: if I can not find more than these two, they are enough. I painted them, and repainted them, and gave representation to Buddhist women.

Spiritual Stories

Bridging East & West