"The Heart Sutra is probably the most well-known and most important of the Buddhist sutras. It is very short, condensed to a little over 270 words, and it has been my practice for nearly 40 years to copy it. When I cannot paint, I burn incense and sit, going through each character of the sutra, spending almost an hour. It is a meditation to clear my mind and clarify my perception.

I played with the overlay effect in this series, placing paintings over the sutra in a metallic resist. The Heart Sutra speaks about how, if you can clear your perception, you can see things for what they really are. The overlay creating a completely different image mirrors our life, layers on top each other sometimes change what we perceive as the truth. I enjoyed playing with this technique and the idea of enjoying the overlay of our life." -Mayumi Oda

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