Free in Captivity

“After years of training my mind through daily meditation and intensive retreat practice in prison, my experience of this pain and darkness began to shift dramatically. I would find myself in the midst of this intense hopelessness and pain, burning with an agony that was almost blinding, and my awareness or practice would just stay with the direct experience without going into a lot of thoughts about it. When this happened, I then experienced that awareness as a spaciousness growing around the intense pain. Then the pain would dissolve into space, leaving me in a state of joy, almost a kind of bliss.”

Illustration for the article “Free in Captivity” published in the winter Issue 2017 of Tricycle Magazine.

“After years of training my mind through daily meditation and intensive retreat practice in prison, my experience of this pain and darkness began to shift dramatically. I would find myself in the midst of this intense hopelessness and pain, burning with an agony that was almost blinding, and my awareness or practice would just stay with the direct experience without going into a lot of thoughts about it. When this happened, I then experienced that awareness as a spaciousness growing around the intense pain. Then the pain would dissolve into space, leaving me in a state of joy, almost a kind of bliss.”

Winner in the category “Illustration Professional” for the Creative Quarterly Issue 41.
“Honorable Mention” in the 3×3 International Illustration ProShow 2016.
Selected for the Creative Quarterly 100 Best 2016 Book.
Winner in the category “Editorial” for the 59th Communication Arts Annual Illustration Competition.
Selected by the New York Society of Illustrators for the 2019 exhibition and book.