The artists represented in this online exhibition have participated in annual, often bi-annual, art practice retreats at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center.  We start with simple rituals of daily readings from ancient to contemporary poets followed by extended silence in our practice of art inside the Yurt studio and in the gardens, farm, and surrounding hills. Our GGFZC sangha of artists remains a faithful community, rather like a tidal pool that hosts an ever-changing yet always stable, center of artists.

Our sangha—a word linking our group to the Zen tradition of learning and living within a community of art practice—also gathers in other locations.  We’ve continued our practice of extended supportive silence on retreats in Hawaii (Waimea), various local parks (Stanford University Arboretum, Point Reyes National Seashore), and elsewhere, as well as on international workshops over the years (France, Italy, Mexico, Ireland). The Green Gulch sangha of artists has always seeded other gatherings with dedicated practice.

Using a simple behavior inherited from Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, we artists bow deeply in gratitude to all of you - our gracious hosts who welcome us each year into the Green Gulch community. You cook and serve our meals, maintain our lovely guest house, share the Zendo, the fields and gardens, teach us ways of quiet practice in the life and work of community. We bow with awe to the awesome heron, the coyote, the owls at night, even to the majestic eucalyptus trees who talk to us day and night, startling us into attention by dropping their pods on the Yurt tent.  In words shared by a Zen Center friend, “Oh, Wonderous Awakening!"