THE ART OF
CODY SEEKINS

As I clear my conscious mind it peels away to reveal the vast unconscious dimensions of my greater being. Because this awareness produced in me a natural affinity for eastern thought I refer to my works as “Jâtaka Tales” or simply “Jâtakas”. I see the challenges, enigmas, sentiments, and ephemera of my experience as similar to the historical 3rd person Jâtaka narratives of Gautama Buddha prior to his enlightenment. The term "Budgie-Sattva" within my oeuvre is an appropriation combining the word budgie (parrot) with “bodhisattva”, or one who is still on the path toward perfect awareness.

The traditional Jâtaka tales are an interesting collection of Buddhist allegories which recognize the subjective journey toward enlightenment by illustrating the groundwork an individual goes through. That groundwork manifests as incarnations of personal identity, experience, and learning; a framework allowing me to build a body of paintings pulling from my exterior and interior life. Traditional Jâtaka tales describe multiple past lives of the Gautama Buddha, where each identity is a separate incarnation.  In my works, these multiple incarnations of self are contained within one life.  In effect, I am narrating contemporary Jâtaka tales from the 1st person perspective.

About the Artist