Secret Garden Installation

Secret Garden uses the teachings of the Sufi mystics as inspiration to create the installation. Employing drawings of dissimilar images, this Sufi Secret Garden offers access to an appreciation of divine unity beyond "cognition."

Sufism, an outgrowth of Islam, is a gentle spiritual path based in generosity, kindness, tolerance and respect. Believing that dogma and strict religious systems are antithetical to true knowledge of God, the Sufis teach through enigmatic stories and brief aphorisms that attempt to free the searcher from preconceptions of objective "reality" and organized religion.

The show is comprised of some 350 small panels, arrayed around the four walls of the gallery. Centered around the form of the circle, which visually holds together the series as well as most facilely represents the underlying theme of the Sufi Way, the series includes fragments and collections of other ideas -- some recognizable and some not -- all of which symbolize different manners in which the unity of the universe can be expressed in our temporal world.

Mixed in with the drawings are short sayings from Sufi poets throughout the centuries. Viewed along with the images, these provide an entrance for the visitor into the serene realm of understanding for which the Sufi searcher yearns. At the very least, the adages, taken along with the drawings, will offer an introduction into the Sufi way that will lead to a greater appreciation of this approach to spiritual understanding.