RINGING OUR SINGING BOWL Each day we set our morning intentions and conclude each evening with the ringing of our hammered-brass Tibetan singing bowl. Our ritual ringing of the bowl brings us together in a circle of love that reaches out to our beloved families, to our Carthage community and to all the world. Our singing bowl is a type of bell, specifically classified as a standing bell. Rather than hanging inverted or attached to a handle, our singing bowl sits in the palm of David’s hand with the bottom surface resting. |
Singing bowls are used worldwide for meditation, music, relaxation and personal well-being. These are historically related to decorative bells made along the Silk Road from the Near East to Western Asia. Today they’re made in Nepal, India, Japan, China and Korea.
Our bowl has a story of discovery. Some years ago when David displays a painting for sale in an eclectic shop in a bohemian downtown Kansas City neighborhood, the shopkeeper wants the painting to give as a donation to a televised PBS fundraiser. She approaches David about a barter—his large painting for any item of comparable value in her shop.
David is open to a trade and visits the shop where he feels great attraction to a handsome, old brass bowl sitting on a shelf with a well-used wooden mallet resting inside. Making his selection, he completes the trade and leaves his painting which brings a generous donation for PBS. Taking his new treasure back to his gallery he rings the bowl from time to time during the years before our meeting.
As is now our daily ritual, we’ll happily ring our circular treasure at the end of this coming Friday, after we walk across the street and through the grounds of the Congregation of the Mother Co-redemptrix where we’ll join in honoring outstanding citizens who’ve contributed exceptionally to our community throughout the circle of this year.
The Artist of the Year award is sponsored by artCentral. As artCentral’s director/curator I’ll have the privilege of bestowing this year’s “Artist of the Year” award to a recipient selected by Ida Ruth Locarni, last year’s “Artist of the Year”. In next week’s Art Notes I’ll introduce to you our new “Artist of the Year”.
Meanwhile, mark your calendars for JRAC’s “Love Languages” Exhibition Opening in the Hyde House galleries, Friday, February 3, 6-8 pm. Cherry’s and KOKA’s galleries of Carthage are the exhibition’s generous underwriters. “Love Languages” will be on view through Sunday, February 19th.