Unveiling the Winner of Keith's 'Community Canvas'

At the opening ceremony of “Ringing True” Art Exhibition on 12th August, Christchurch born artist Keith Morant invited visitors to the exhibition to participate in drawing circles in various colours onto a piece of drawing paper on display at the exhibition hall. After the collective effort of more than 100 visitors, the drawing was taken away by Keith who then personally worked on it. After a period of 3 weeks, the painting was finally completed. On 2nd September at the Fo Guang Yuan (FGY) Art Gallery Christchurch, Curator Venerable Abbess Manshin was invited to unveil the painting which has been named ‘Community Canvas’, and to officiate at the ‘Lucky Draw’ to select the winner to the priced painting. About 50 people took part in this occasion.

In the beginning. Keith introduced his master pieces to the crowd and invited questions from them. Among the many questions then raised by the floor were: When did he commence on the work? Did he paint with the feelings from his heart, or through control of his mind? How did he name his works? On the methodology he adopted in his works, Keith said that he would first make observations with his eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. After that, through exploration of the interconnectivity between these observations and his heart’s feelings, and combining of all the above, he would express the subject matter in its true form that would elevate one’s life quality. To Keith, artistic creativity is just like scientific exploration. One has to keep learning by incessantly opening up the door to explore the unknown on the other side. Keith declared that this exhibition at FGY Art Gallery has enabled him to personally experience the Friendliness, Respect for others, and Compassion, as practiced in Humanistic Buddhism. This would be the best gift he has received.

In her speech, Curator Abbess Manshin commented that Keith’s works in many ways manifest the ‘Inter Dependency’ contained in the ‘Law of Dependent Origination’. Mutual dependence between one element to another is essential, and merging together many of these elements could result in the creation of new splendour. Abbess also pointed out that we might not exactly know what would happen in the future, but we surely would be in control of things we can do now for the future. The outcome of tomorrow will depend on our effort now. Let us start working together now towards a more beautiful and colourful Christchurch in the future.

Afterwards, Keith invited Abbess Manshin to unveil the painting ‘Community Canvas’ and to present it to the winner of the Lucky Draw, a Canterbury University Student Yiyi Tan. She mentioned that, coincidentally, on the day of the opening of the exhibition, she was the one who drew the biggest circle on the drawing paper. Tan added that the many circles in the painting represented the many contribution and working together of members of Fo Guang Shan (FGS), and the final beautiful painting signified the outcome of these combined efforts. She thanked Keith for this meaningful painting.

The ceremony ended with the appreciation of the unveiled painting ‘Community Canvas’ by the crowd with each trying to identify the circle he drew previously. Visitor Ms Penny claimed that, through Keith’s paintings, she was able to find her own experiences and life’s journey. She finally bought the piece ‘Zazen’ to share with her family and friends.