“My expectations for this trip were to meditate, to hang out with my friend Ricky Lee Gordon, do a bit of surfing, draw, and enjoy Sri Lanka. I definitely didn't expect to go into a monastery and emerge to find that the world had gone into lockdown, that was a weird experience. The monastery, or I should rather say the nunnery, was such a wonderful discovery. It's my 6th year doing a yearly silent retreat, but I've never meditated at an actual monastery amongst monks and nuns. Seeing the life that the nuns lived, with houses in the forest, meditating daily, it was quite inspiring. There was no retreat going on, so I was just kind of thrown into nunnary life. There were twice a day communal vegetarian meals, which were honestly quite incredible, and then once a week Dhamma talks with the head Monk. The rest of the time was unstructured meditation, and I would divide my time between two different meditation halls, and meditating up in the forest outside the main halls, which was a dream.

I found that Sri Lanka seemed, from my perspective, to exist at the intersection of a lot of different influences. It has cultural influences that feel like Indonesia, like Thailand, like India, and then of course like Sri Lanka itself. I suppose I didn't expect it to feel like such a global crossroads. I was pleasantly surprised by Sunyata, the artist retreat that Ricky Lee Gordon founded, and how beautiful it is. I've never lived right on the sea like that, and it has an unmistakeable magic, a sort of undeniable perfection that picks me up by the scruff of my neck and calms me right down, no matter what else is happening.

My piece for The Jaunt is a study of the water swirling on the rocks below Sunyata. I've drawn water before, but this one is a bit more observational, more a direct drawing of a specific place. Perhaps I got into the flow with Ricky who was also painting the sea outside the window. Although our versions are quite different, I can definitely see how schools develop when people paint side by side, there's a sense of camaraderie that emerges naturally from observing the same scenes together. Each day that I was there I would spend some time just observing the plants and the water and seeing how that showed up in my drawings. ”

Travel diary

Sunday 15 March, 2020

Day 1

Good morning Sr Lanka. 

I emerged from 10 days at a Buddhist Nunnery to a text message from a friend saying “How are you holding up in this madness?” And me thinking…Uh-oh, did I miss something? Apparently I had. How strange to emerge from this bubble of monastic discipline and forest seclusion to a world on lockdown. Out here it still feels like a far off rumor.

I ain’t gonna lie, the Nunnary was tough. 10 days sleeping on a flat of plywood, (luckily I had brought a pillow from home), meditating 9 hours a day in the suffocating heat, just trying to stay with it.

Luckily on my 4th day, another lay-person who was on a year long retreat with the nuns whispered to me in the lunch line about the forest temple - a small open aired meditation temple up in the hills. Knowing about that changed my experience dramatically. Cool breezes and the chorus of birdsong.  Vipassana is typically a closed eyed meditation, but sometimes I would shift to open eyed, focusing on the breath, just for the pleasure of the forest seeping slowly in through all my senses. 

Monday 16 March, 2020

Day 2 - Welcome to town!

I’m still a bit post meditation disoriented to be honest, so these are the only shots I managed to take, shopping for food and supplies in the blazing midday heat. Sunyata is gorgeous. The waves are crowded but I’m finding my way. Town is not on lock down yet so we managed to get all the supplies we needed. Now I’m just gonna grab a can of BS-40 and build myself a finagle sandwich…..

Tuesday 17 March, 2020

Day 3 - The glamours of self quarantine. 

Started the morning with a 6 am surf, which is definitely the way to go around here, then just self quarantined (aka lived a completely normal artist’s life), hanging around Sunyata and making drawings. When I was at the monastery I would take some breaks from Buddhist meditation and do something I’ll just call artist’s meditation, which means I would pick something beautiful, like a patch of shadows, and just observe it for a full hour, keeping focus on the breath as much as possible while dilating my mind to observe the changing phenomena. Coming back, I’m trying to extend some of that patience for the observation of natural phenomena to my drawing practice, starting with looking at the movements of water around the rocks down below.  

Had a laugh thinking that I must have some glamorous fucking karma somewhere though, because who the hell gets to self quarantine like this? 

Wednesday 18 March, 2020

Day 4 - Quarantine comes ashore. 

In the storybooks, waking up to a Komodo dragon in the garden might be a bad omen. In this story book too, it seems to at least have been a stern warning. 

After shrieking to Ricky that there was a baby Komodo dragon in the yard that was about to eat the dogs, and him laughing at me, and assuring that it’s just a monitor lizard but that I should steer clear of it’s tail, I decided to jump on my little motor scooter and see some more of the surrounding area. 

Mainly what I was able to discover is that the quarantine is beginning in earnest here. I arrived at this paradisiacal spot just as it was being shut down. 

Uniformed officers blocked roads informing foreigners that they shouldn’t be out beyond essential supply runs, and this announcement blared from all the loudspeakers all over town.

I scooted back to Sunyata along the water. 

And got back into some small drawings at the studio while the wind blew wildly outside and the boats trolled back into port in the sunset. 

 The evening ended with a young woman who’s half Sri Lanka and half Swiss urging me to not continue to ride out the quarantine here, saying that while Sri Lanka has been behind the curve, it will catch up, and that I shouldn’t be here when it does. It’s been so much indecision, whether it’s more responsible to stay put or better to risk the airports and flights to quarantine at home, but she really tipped the scales for me, and so I changed my ticket to head home early. 

Thursday 19 March, 2020

Day 5 - Savoring the slow 

Today was all about yielding and slowness and appreciating my last day in this place. The Buddhist temple across the street is chanting out corona virus prayers/blessings starting at 5am now, and lasting all day. The dogs are still chasing the Monitor lizard in the yard. Out at the edge of the cliff here it still feels like nothing is happening, save for the chanting, which just becomes part of the atmosphere.  I drew, meditated, and took a solo walk around a nearby island led by Taru, the big hearted little black dog, pictured here asleep on the mat. Letting the colors of ocean water and ultraviolet sun in to the little drawings a bit, and wondering how to take some of this spirit home with me. 

(Pictures by me and Ricky Lee Gordon)

Friday 20 March, 2020

Day 6. 

Goodbye Sunyata! 

Though I had to cut my time short, Sri Lanka still made such an impression on me. Ricky Lee Gordon's Sunyata especially is astonishing. I've never gotten to live anywhere right on the water like that, where you wake up and the sea is your front yard. Everything about the space is so considered and beautifully made. It's really a world unto itself. Sad to go, but also feeling the pull to be back in my home, to see how this is playing out in my city, and be nearer to friends and family, even while we "shelter in place". Bye Ricky! See you next time Sunyata!

More dispatches from "The Jaunt, NYC under lockdown edition" to come.

Monday 23 March, 2020

Day 7 - The Long Haul Home 

There is a surprising sense of gratitude brought up by this experience. On the way home, I’m stuck for 6 hours overnight on a layover in Dubai. I discover that while all the sleep cubbies in the airport are booked, there is a hotel that’s quietly letting the overflow sleep in their carpeted hallway. Lately, sleeping face down on a carpet with a load of snoring travelers and people watching "end of the world” TV shows on their phones would inspire only a seething wrath, but today I’m absolutely grateful. 

(No masks to be found, so it's just me and my Lisa Congdon neckerchief for this one)

Back in New York I awake to the eerie screech of sirens and realize that they sound so strange because they’re the only sound out on the street.

In the morning there's a line outside my nearest grocery store that's an hour long in 36 degree weather, and again, I'm just grateful that there's food. 

Streets are empty, but true to their oath, the postal service carries on. 

For now it's all about laying low and hoping my immune system made the trip in tact. So, today jetlag-quarantine looks like ipad coloring book time and my fave animated series "Undone"

Perhaps when I wake back up again there will be some creative new seeds that come up under this soil. I'll keep you posted.