Zen priest Richard Kirsten-Daiensai celebrates his 85th birthday, a new book and a lifetime of art through May 29 at the Kirsten Gallery in the University District.
His current exhibit, entitled Gratitude, symbolizes Kirsten-Daiensai's "gratitude for everything." It includes paintings he has completed over the last 60 years.
According to Kirsten-Daiensai, the recent opening of Gratitude, attracted the largest crowd in the gallery's 31 years of existence.
"It makes for a very spectacular exhibit," said Rick Kirsten, owner of the Kirsten Gallery and Daiensai's son.
Kirsten-Daiensai's art is in museums and collections throughout the United States and Asia, including the Seattle Art Museum, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Washington. Since 1958, he has studied with spiritual masters in Japan.
"I was an artist the day I was born," Kirsten-Daiensai said.
Kirsten-Daiensai is a versatile artist, with a variety of styles and mediums, from bronze sculptures to watercolors to ceramics. His earlier works tend to include detailed paintings, whereas his newer pieces tend to be more philosophical.
Grace Roop, who has worked at the Kirsten Gallery for more than 15 years, said, "I've seen a lot of Richard's different styles of art. To me, they are very impressive."
Roop owns one of his woodblock prints, entitled "Race to Nowhere." "It's more or less the philosophical race of life," she said. "Many people are racing to life and where are they racing to? That is the philosophical question."
Kirsten, the gallery owner, said that one of his favorite pieces in the Gratitude exhibit is a woodblock print from 1957. In the print, 12 crows are sitting on a telephone line, and one of them is white.
"I'm extremely partial to the older work," he said.
All of Kirsten-Daiensai's work is done in remote temples in Korea and Japan, where he lives for about six months every year. The other half of the year, he works at the Kirsten Gallery and lives in North Seattle.
On his last visit to Japan, in October, he was injured in an earthquake that caused the ceiling of the building he was in to collapse. He broke his hand and was unable to paint for a few months. But now, completely healed, he returns to Japan on Monday, April 25, for the 47th time.
"I love the solitude and the tranquility," Kirsten-Daiensai said of Asia, though he admitted "I like the rain [in Seattle]. You have to like it."
Having been born and raised in Chicago and moved to Seattle in 1940, Kirsten-Daiensai's interest in block printing brought him to Japan. Penniless, he learned that he could live and work in a Zen temple for no money.
"These days, it doesn't work out that way," he said. "[But the experience] changed my life."
He has been a Zen priest now for 37 years. His Zen name, Daiensai, means "big circle of the universe purified."
"When I was working in the temples, my master saw big change in my work," he said.
His book, "Smile: 365 Meditations," came from journals he has written over the years in Asia and includes pictures of 52 of his paintings. Available worldwide, the first edition of 15,000 books sold out in seven weeks.
Jessica Davis writes about arts and entertainment in North Seattle. She can be reached via e-mail at needitor@ nwlink.com.[[In-content Ad]]
