My name is Yakman K. Tsering. I am a Tibetan-Austrian visual poet and artist. My artworks are inspired by my visual poetic image of expression. I intend to create a unique image of my inner feelings. I have endured a great deal which has made living difficult. I've lost my home in Tibet and lived in exile. I've met many people who have found themselves in the same situation.
It's been very difficult to express into words the tragedy and the feelings of humility that evolved. Many others were experiencing this as well I know. For me this hardship has given me the courage to face it as well as to overcome it through the window to my art. It always helps me to forget my own misery. I have grown in my concern for the plight of others. This can never be lost.
I've met many warm-hearted people around this world who've really helped me to move forward. I now have a feeling that I am worthy to live here and to enjoy this wonderful life. My interest in writing and painting has been a relationship between text and image. I have transformed my sorrow into my visual art pieces. In this way I've found the light of image, hope, relief, and relaxation. When I paint on canvas, I am doing meditation. My attention is fully focused on the painting. I am using my art to express my thoughts about our society.
It's natural to feel stress, grief, and worry during the covid-19 pandemic but how does one overcome it? This question knocked at the door of my heart because of my roots in Buddhist philosophy which teaches me to live toward enlightenment through the darkness. Before helping others, I must take care of and heal myself. I search for words and for the art design that will lead me to meaning. I thought that this process would be the best way to understand myself within selfishness and selflessness. My artwork explores the visual image of integration in different languages and cultures. My works convey a universal feeling beyond linguistic borders.
I believe visual art globalizes the expression and communication of what it is truly designed to be. In my journey toward creativity, I felt I lost myself. My identity was gone. I needed to pursue the reality of living art. Recently, my work explores more deeply the inner cycle of painting, cutting overlaying waving, replacing the old with the new way thus renewing my own identity. My duality is defined in this way: our human behaviors have good and bad sides to them. We always look to nature to recognize it within ourselves. I perform it through my art process. As I work a piece, I cut out a section thinking it will never work. Then I take another section of the same piece and think it would be good. Then I weave them together. At this point I can see there is a dual image which has developed. In this process of creativity, there is not good nor bad. Nobody can judge it as well as our personal human experience can. All are the same! We all search for, as well as need, love and happiness. Beyond my art and beyond myself there is a special energy. For me, it is a magic spirit which guides me through the darkness and illuminates the divine path.
Yakman K. Tsering
website: www.yakman-art.com