Connections

Jane and I venture to the Internet Cafe still beaming from what was a glowing night of connections. Indigo Gallery's showroom was filled with an audience of young Nepalis, fancifully dressed ex-pats, porter and guide friends from 2007's trek to Lo Monthang, and a sweet journalist/photographer who asked permission to write a piece about the A Gift for the Village presentation. The energetic Gallery owner, James, whose mind spins like a turn-table of the finest music, jumps at the opportunity to make connections in a world he proclaims is small and flat: connections are what make life vibrant, what keeps the wheel spinning. After the showing, he begins listing suggestions of places to show and it just so happens that his wife works at the Embassy and can almost guarantee a showing at the Ambassador's home or the Embassy itself. Wheels turning, ball rolling, artful conversation flowing like sunlight through the tiny leaf-windows of a forest canopy: planting seeds, forming friendships, marveling at the impossibility of connections that provide the spark for the fire: beautiful.

In short: tonight was a night buzzing with the inspiration of small-world connections. A film about building an unlikely bridge becomes a bridge itself: opening a space for connections: personal, artistic, surprising. This is what art can be: conversation, bridge, connection, evolving. When a paintbrush is lifted with respect, compassion, intention, responsibility and loving discipline, bridges might happen, like the unlikely bow of a double rainbow: colorful, rare and heart-inspiring. I feel honored to be a witness of such beauty.