Thangka is a discipline that I need to practice when art immersions on my Self have taken me too far of my focus. The two almost opposites ways of making art brings me balance. Thangka is the bread and free expression is like water - though only bread makes it too dry and only water does not feed you - I need both. Discipline and freedom.
Tiffani Gyatso
Tiffani Hollack Gyatso (1981, São Paulo, Brazil) grew up surrounded by nature at the countryside in a community which her parents built. During her teens she lived in a sailing boat and later she lived a while with the aboriginals at the Australian desert. In 2000 she drove with her family from Germany, through Russia ‘till Mongolia - there was where she encountered thangka painting (Tibetan sacred arts) for the first time and decided right there she would learn it. Before she could dedicate completely to study it, she went to Germany where she worked and studied graphic and web design. In 2003 she finally moved to north India, Dharamsala and was accepted as the first foreigner at the Norbulingka Institute founded by H.H. the Dalai Lama and studied thangka painting ‘till 2006. She returned to Brazil together with her tibetan partner and they had their son at the end of the same year.
By September 2007 she was invited to paint and coordinate the wall paintings of the buddhist temple Caminho do Meio CEBB in Rio Grande do Sul, south of Brazil a center guided by the Brazilian physics and lama, Lama Padma Samten (www.caminhodomeio.org). The painting project took nearly 5 years to be complete.
Parallel traditional thangka painting, she has done her own contemporary artistic experiments inspired by her experiences around the world seeing different cultures and listening to different faiths.
Mid 2012 she exhibited at the Tibet House gallery in New York, the series called “Mystic Nostalgia” and 2015, again with the series "Sublime Worlds".
Today she works at her own studio and Art & Meditation retreat center in Brazil and teaches all over the country. She lectures traditional thangka painting and also gives Immersions on Creative art, self expressions and Thangka Art Retreats at: www.retirodeartes.com.br. Since 2013 she also takes annually, groups of people interested in buddhist art, to India, Nepal and southeast Asia thru the Chorten Viagens personalized travel agency.
Below find the artwork that Tifanni donates to the Maratika Foundation.
