Uploaded November 2013 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
eBay Giving Works Auction of the painting ends on November 25 at 7:00 pm
ebay.com/itm/Original-Painting-Soft-Language-of-Empty-Space-by-Russel-and-Shelley-Hulsey-/200988080838?
The proceeds of this auction will be shared by the Labrang Tashi Kyil Monastery in Dehradun, India and the Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany, Indiana.
Seven Tibetan monks from the Labrang Tashi Kyil Monastery in Dehradun, India have been touring the United States since April in conjunction with the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in Bloomington, Indiana. The goals of this tour are to provide information about Tibetan culture, deliver a message of mutual understanding and tolerance, and to raise awareness and support for their reestablished monastery in India. In July 2013, they spent a week at the Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany, Indiana creating a World Peace sand mandala. After the mandala sands were swept away and poured into the Ohio River, the Carnegie Center wanted to find a way to give new life to the board upon which the mandala was created. We asked local artists Russel and Shelley Hulsey to create a painting on the mandala board. Working together, they created this painting, Soft Language of Empty Space.
Husband and wife team, Russel and Shelley Hulsey, are a collaborative duo who approach Art with a reverence for its inherent sacredness. Most recently, Russel completed a larger than life set of paintings of Thomas Merton and His Holiness the Dalai Lama for the Festival of Faiths in Louisville Ky. In addition, Russel is a poet and spoken word artist. Shelley is a painter and multi-media artist, and has created works in video and sound that befit meditation and contemplative states.
About the painting, the artists write: "In Soft Language of Empty Space Russel and Shelley have joined forces with Tibetan Buddhist monks and the Carnegie Center. The aim, being to work with the platform (literally the baseboard) of a World Peace sand mandala, skillfully, mindfully crafted by the monks while visiting the Carnegie Center for Art & History this year. In the long standing tradition of the ephemeral mandala arts, the sand was whisked away - raked well by the metaphorical hands of time - so that we may all be reminded of the transient nature of existence. The Hulsey's have created a work by similar means, by way of deconstruction; and yet, as is always the case, an ending begets a beginning, new forms arise from what was - in an interconnected web of co-existing dependent relationships.
The artists hope that the work will stand as a testament to not only impermanence, but to compassion in action. Soft Language of Empty Space is meant to be a celebration of creativity and poeticism; and a reminder that by virtue of working together we can achieve a greater good. Sometimes our most effective means of communication is to, quite simply, cultivate a silence - to become still and listen. In contemplative quietude, we not only make room for others, we make room for ourselves so that we may become more acutely aware. Indeed, listening is the greatest Art of all. Especially when we learn to hear with our heart.
On behalf of the benevolent monks of Tibet and the auspices of the Carnegie Center, we welcome all - for this moment in time that we share - to become still, to empty our hurried thoughts, and to direct our collective silence as prayer deep into the world ...an invocation of healing and peace."
Russel & Shelley
November 2013
Don't miss this opportunity to own an original work of art and a souvenir of the monks' visit, while helping the monastery and the Carnegie Center.
ebay.com/itm/Original-Painting-Soft-Language-of-Empty-Space-by-Russel-and-Shelley-Hulsey-/200988080838?
eBay Giving Works Auction of the painting ends on November 25 at 7:00 pm
ebay.com/itm/Original-Painting-Soft-Language-of-Empty-Space-by-Russel-and-Shelley-Hulsey-/200988080838?
The proceeds of this auction will be shared by the Labrang Tashi Kyil Monastery in Dehradun, India and the Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany, Indiana.
Seven Tibetan monks from the Labrang Tashi Kyil Monastery in Dehradun, India have been touring the United States since April in conjunction with the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in Bloomington, Indiana. The goals of this tour are to provide information about Tibetan culture, deliver a message of mutual understanding and tolerance, and to raise awareness and support for their reestablished monastery in India. In July 2013, they spent a week at the Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany, Indiana creating a World Peace sand mandala. After the mandala sands were swept away and poured into the Ohio River, the Carnegie Center wanted to find a way to give new life to the board upon which the mandala was created. We asked local artists Russel and Shelley Hulsey to create a painting on the mandala board. Working together, they created this painting, Soft Language of Empty Space.
Husband and wife team, Russel and Shelley Hulsey, are a collaborative duo who approach Art with a reverence for its inherent sacredness. Most recently, Russel completed a larger than life set of paintings of Thomas Merton and His Holiness the Dalai Lama for the Festival of Faiths in Louisville Ky. In addition, Russel is a poet and spoken word artist. Shelley is a painter and multi-media artist, and has created works in video and sound that befit meditation and contemplative states.
About the painting, the artists write: "In Soft Language of Empty Space Russel and Shelley have joined forces with Tibetan Buddhist monks and the Carnegie Center. The aim, being to work with the platform (literally the baseboard) of a World Peace sand mandala, skillfully, mindfully crafted by the monks while visiting the Carnegie Center for Art & History this year. In the long standing tradition of the ephemeral mandala arts, the sand was whisked away - raked well by the metaphorical hands of time - so that we may all be reminded of the transient nature of existence. The Hulsey's have created a work by similar means, by way of deconstruction; and yet, as is always the case, an ending begets a beginning, new forms arise from what was - in an interconnected web of co-existing dependent relationships.
The artists hope that the work will stand as a testament to not only impermanence, but to compassion in action. Soft Language of Empty Space is meant to be a celebration of creativity and poeticism; and a reminder that by virtue of working together we can achieve a greater good. Sometimes our most effective means of communication is to, quite simply, cultivate a silence - to become still and listen. In contemplative quietude, we not only make room for others, we make room for ourselves so that we may become more acutely aware. Indeed, listening is the greatest Art of all. Especially when we learn to hear with our heart.
On behalf of the benevolent monks of Tibet and the auspices of the Carnegie Center, we welcome all - for this moment in time that we share - to become still, to empty our hurried thoughts, and to direct our collective silence as prayer deep into the world ...an invocation of healing and peace."
Russel & Shelley
November 2013
Don't miss this opportunity to own an original work of art and a souvenir of the monks' visit, while helping the monastery and the Carnegie Center.
ebay.com/itm/Original-Painting-Soft-Language-of-Empty-Space-by-Russel-and-Shelley-Hulsey-/200988080838?
