About my work(From Osho Times Asia Edition May 2001)

Prem Vasant (Toru Tsukazaki) is both a sculptor and a painter.He attended the plastic Arts College inJapan where he studied buddha-sculptingfor five years under the Japanese master.
He came to know about Osho through one of his colleagues fifteen years ago. andhis first meeting with Osho was through a japanese translated book of Take It Easy.

Vasant had an art exhibition from Jan. 18 to Jan. 20, 2001, in Osho Commune International.
This exibition contained about twenty paintings of trees, plants, and flowers. For a few of his paintings
he uses some water color, but the basic tool that he likes for most ofhis work is pencil.
He says that pencil is very simple and it is easy for him to go into meditation when using it. It is similar, he explains, to just watching the breath in Vipassana Meditation. His painting is so unique that I wanted to know what goes on inside of him while he creates his art.
Vasant says, Darkness plays a significant role in my paintings. Therefore, for this particular exhibition, I have given it the title Eternal Darkness. He knew that this title would bring negative images to many people and might cause some resistance in coming to see his art. but still he dicided to use this title so that people would become more aware of darkness.
He says, Previously, I heard Osho talk about nirvana in his discourses. Osho says that nirvana means to blow out the flame of the candle and then there lies the silent darkness. This is nirvana. And that darkness is always there. Even if you bring the sunlight, it is always existing. You may not be able to see it because of the light, but it is there. Light may come and go, but darkness always remains. It is eternal. And we cannot escape from it.
But people are afraid of this darkness, continues Vasant, this eternity, this silence. Through painting, he could sometimes sit in a space of tremendous silence. Then he realized that his painting was coming from this space of silence, the darkness within himself.
He kept on painting for many months, for many years, keeping this space of silence within. No doubt, there were times when he felt that painting was a lonely process for him. So many times he got fed up and got stuck and wanted to just destroy everything. But still he kept painting. By going through these experiences, gradually his art took form. The very act of painting became something more than just a lonely process for him. Sometimes he was able to feel himself totally relaxed in this space of silence and darkness within. He felt completely fulfilled and very silent as though time had completely stopped.
When he is painting alone, often people will come up to him and say, You are so negative. You should enjoy life more! In this kind of situation, he often feels sad because he feels that they are looking at things on a superficial level. Through each process in making his art work, he sometimes experiences joy, sadness, anger, and in other times, he feels himself just being with the whole existence and dancing together. In these moments, he feels if people had the courage to go deep inside their own profound darkness or silence, they would have the eyes to see the intrinsic value of things.
While painting, he realized that the deeper the darkness becomes, the more significant the highlight in his paintings. In existence, by bringing light into darkness , you begin to see the folms. In painting, it is just the opposite. You first have a white paper in front of you and by putting some colors on it you begin to make forms .This means that the whiteness of the paper becomes the brightest highlight of the painting. He makes different shades of black which can exist between the white of the paper and the shades of black he is using. By doing this, he can create the contrast of light and shade in the most effective way for his painting. How deep he can express the darkness by using these colors becomes very significant for him. When this profound darkness is created, then a light appears on its own. This is because lightness and darkness are relative. The deeper the darkness, the brighter the light will be by contrast.
While he is painting in this way, Vasant would sometimes find himself thinking that our lives might be the same as his painting. In order to make our lives shine with light, we cannot bypass the deep darkness that exists in our lives. he feels that by living both the light and darkness of life in totality, each of us may become an authentic being with great depth inside. Seeing the balance between light and darkness, and catching the most beautiful moments is what I feel art is and what meditation is.
Many people who came to the exhibition felt the soul of the plants in his paintings. Vasant says, When I am able to create the light and darkness of existence, the plants, the people, or whatever the object may be, will be alive and you may even feel the soul of it. This is because the light and darkness created in my paintings represent the life and death of this existence.





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