Week #40, Ink & Brush: Compassion

Dusti Bongé, Penworthy - Easy Glide Quality Writing Tablet - p.2, 1984, ink & wash on paper, 9” x 6”.

This writing tablet from the 1980s, and from which we have shared work before, contains an array of black & white works in ink. They were created during a time when Dusti Bongé revisited her  interest in Buddhism and infused it into her art, both stylistically and conceptually. In the case of these sketches we find calligraphic Chinese symbols, trees, bamboo, flowers, etc.

And, as we mentioned before when we looked at these sketches, they are they are "ink and wash paintings" or “brush paintings.” This means they are executed in a quintessentially calligraphic eastern style, using a brush & ink as opposed to the western tradition of using pen & ink. This stylistic method of course can be applied to the most ordinary subject matter, such as fruits and vegetables. We will share some of these over the next few weeks.

But this week we look at some recurring marks Dusti studied in calligraphy. They are the Chinese symbols for the Buddhist idea of “absolute compassion.” These were symbols that she ultimate wound up painting on a door in the house, as an inviting gesture and a reminder every time one would pass through that door.

There are several interpretations of compassion in Buddhism. On the one hand there is a common distinction between relative and absolute compassion. In this case the first focusses on sentient beings and their suffering, while the latter focusses on emptiness, specifically, the understanding that all phenomena are without essence. Alternatively, there is also a tripartite division of compassion into: compassion focused on sentient beings, compassion focused on phenomena, and compassion without focus (emptiness).

Dusti in this work combines the conceptual teachings of the east with the artistic methods of the east. Ad when she painted it on the door she brought these teachings into daily life.