Chapter Six: The Artist’s Dilemma
“The greatest art seems unsophisticated.”
- Lao-Tzu
One morning, out of the blue, Sri Chinmoy requested someone to try to find his favourite rainbow crayons that he had used in the early years of his Jharna-Kala. These crayons are shaped like a bar of chocolate and are compounded of many different colours, creating a beautiful rainbow effect on the page. The crayons were located at last – not in a formal art supply store but in a store that specialises in toys for children.
On the evening of Sunday, July 19th, Sri Chinmoy drew rainbow birds on five canvas panels. He was then faced with a dilemma: he was inspired to do more canvasses, but where could he obtain them at 7:30 p.m. on a Sunday night? Several of his students who are also artists came to his rescue. They found in their basements and storage places various odd lengths of canvas. Some wooden frames were hastily constructed and, by 11:30 that night, four large mounted canvasses were presented to the artist. Viewing their size – the largest was 56” x 46” – Sri Chinmoy concluded that it would be difficult to manoeuvre them within his house, but that he would begin them early the next morning at the tennis court.
Accordingly, the next morning found him seated in his little hut with one canvas propped on a table and the others stacked nearby. Using the broad, blunt end of the crayon, Sri Chinmoy worked rapidly, covering each canvas with a sweep of large and brilliant birds. Seeing that he was so absorbed in this new medium, and not wishing to limit his inspiration-flow, his students quickly purchased twenty-five canvas panels, ranging in size from 18” x 24” to 24” x 36”. The advantage of these smaller panels from the artist’s point of view was that they provided a much firmer drawing surface than the traditional wooden-framed canvas. At one point, Sri Chinmoy commented how relaxing it was for him to do these works and, as he sat outdoors, resting the smaller panels on his knees, he presented an archetypal picture of the artist at work.
The canvas momentum continued on Wednesday, June 22nd, when he created an additional twenty-seven panels at the tennis court. The entire collection of sixty-one canvasses was displayed at Public School 86 that same evening. As the artist sat on the stage, surrounded by his ethereal rainbow birds, he asked, “Where is my favourite one?” We surveyed the twinkling beauty before us. At that moment, the birds seemed to exist purely as a vibration of light from a higher source. Then suddenly the artist exclaimed with delight. He had found the panel he was searching for: on a 24” x 30” panel two large complementary birds faced each other with infinite tenderness.
