KaylaKomitoSacredArt
Announcement
WE ONLY SHIP TO USA AND CANADA. Please note that the post office will not guarantee 2 or 3 day shipping during the pandemic. We hope that you will enjoy these images from the gallery shop of Kayla Komito's Sacred Art paintings. The shop features prints of her original Tibetan Buddhist thangka paintings, her series on Mary and a selection of her personal, visionary sacred art paintings.
Most of the thangka paintings originally were commissioned by Buddhists who wanted paintings created according to the strict traditional standards of line, color, and image. As is also traditional, the style is Kayla's own, as are her touches of whimsy ..... which you will see in the extremely detailed backgrounds. She has a particular fondness for quarrelsome crows, languorous deer, wily coyotes and spotted snakes. For many years she was a professional floral designer, so luscious flowers are also a distinctive feature of her paintings.
Thangka appreciations:
-- The Dalai Lama, at Kayla's last meeting with him to discuss her paintings: "You indeed have an artistic gift and talent, which is clearly evident from the beautiful thangkas you have painted"
-- Gehlek Rinpoche: "There is nothing in your thangkas which is not authentic."
-- Robert Thurman, upon receipt of one of his two commissions: "You have created a masterpiece. It is stunning. I salute you with all sincere gratitude."
Kayla writes: "My journey into the sacred feminine began in 1978 when mysterious female forms, veiled and feathered, began to appear in my watercolors. A slide show I saw at that time on women's spirituality, as revealed in sculpture, symbols and paintings, from 25,000 BC to the present, gave her a name and meaning. This river of femaleness mirrored back to me something lost so long ago in the world family: sacred mother, sacred earth, sacred female power, sacred death, sacred body, sacred nature, sacred woman. It became a meditation practice for me to let these female images - incarnations - come through my hands and onto my paper. Influences from many cultures and from dream time entwined with my personal understanding to create a multifaceted view of what women could be."
The paintings of Mary were done during a period of transition between Kayla's personal, visionary art and her Tibetan style art. She writes: "During 1997 and 1998 I began to do a series of watercolors on Mary, deciding to study the traditional icons of her, her stance, clothing, colors. Up to this time this was the closest I'd come to letting go of my personal artistic vision and following the inspirational iconic guide of a tradition. I did however add some of my own interpretation: each Mary in the series having a rose placed with the figure, symbolizing her heart chakra or womb chakra or Christ or compassion and I gave her faces from all over the world. This was very satisfying and I noticed that when I painted her feet in the painting Mary in the Garden I felt heat radiate through my body and openness in my heart area."
Kayla began painting thangkas in 1998 when a Tibetan Buddhist meditator and a scholar who were seeking high quality images created with a sacred attitude asked her to take on thangka commissions. Kayla's lamas gave her permission to paint the images if she used the traditional grids, colors, etc. which she invariably does, usually recreating the grid lines from old thangkas.
Please enjoy some of this beautiful art for yourself and if you are interested in outer luminosity as well, visit Kayla's other Etsy shops "LuminousLadyVintage" and "BeeBeautifulVintage".
Announcement
WE ONLY SHIP TO USA AND CANADA. Please note that the post office will not guarantee 2 or 3 day shipping during the pandemic. We hope that you will enjoy these images from the gallery shop of Kayla Komito's Sacred Art paintings. The shop features prints of her original Tibetan Buddhist thangka paintings, her series on Mary and a selection of her personal, visionary sacred art paintings.
Most of the thangka paintings originally were commissioned by Buddhists who wanted paintings created according to the strict traditional standards of line, color, and image. As is also traditional, the style is Kayla's own, as are her touches of whimsy ..... which you will see in the extremely detailed backgrounds. She has a particular fondness for quarrelsome crows, languorous deer, wily coyotes and spotted snakes. For many years she was a professional floral designer, so luscious flowers are also a distinctive feature of her paintings.
Thangka appreciations:
-- The Dalai Lama, at Kayla's last meeting with him to discuss her paintings: "You indeed have an artistic gift and talent, which is clearly evident from the beautiful thangkas you have painted"
-- Gehlek Rinpoche: "There is nothing in your thangkas which is not authentic."
-- Robert Thurman, upon receipt of one of his two commissions: "You have created a masterpiece. It is stunning. I salute you with all sincere gratitude."
Kayla writes: "My journey into the sacred feminine began in 1978 when mysterious female forms, veiled and feathered, began to appear in my watercolors. A slide show I saw at that time on women's spirituality, as revealed in sculpture, symbols and paintings, from 25,000 BC to the present, gave her a name and meaning. This river of femaleness mirrored back to me something lost so long ago in the world family: sacred mother, sacred earth, sacred female power, sacred death, sacred body, sacred nature, sacred woman. It became a meditation practice for me to let these female images - incarnations - come through my hands and onto my paper. Influences from many cultures and from dream time entwined with my personal understanding to create a multifaceted view of what women could be."
The paintings of Mary were done during a period of transition between Kayla's personal, visionary art and her Tibetan style art. She writes: "During 1997 and 1998 I began to do a series of watercolors on Mary, deciding to study the traditional icons of her, her stance, clothing, colors. Up to this time this was the closest I'd come to letting go of my personal artistic vision and following the inspirational iconic guide of a tradition. I did however add some of my own interpretation: each Mary in the series having a rose placed with the figure, symbolizing her heart chakra or womb chakra or Christ or compassion and I gave her faces from all over the world. This was very satisfying and I noticed that when I painted her feet in the painting Mary in the Garden I felt heat radiate through my body and openness in my heart area."
Kayla began painting thangkas in 1998 when a Tibetan Buddhist meditator and a scholar who were seeking high quality images created with a sacred attitude asked her to take on thangka commissions. Kayla's lamas gave her permission to paint the images if she used the traditional grids, colors, etc. which she invariably does, usually recreating the grid lines from old thangkas.
Please enjoy some of this beautiful art for yourself and if you are interested in outer luminosity as well, visit Kayla's other Etsy shops "LuminousLadyVintage" and "BeeBeautifulVintage".
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Reviews
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maspear2 on Jul 27, 2021
5 out of 5 starsVERY beautiful print of the seller’s original painting. Dazzling, awe inspiring images. I’m extremely happy with my purchase.
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maspear2 on Jul 12, 2021
5 out of 5 starsRadiant colors, beautiful paintings! Love them! I’m totally satisfied.
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Martyne on May 20, 2021
5 out of 5 starsThis print of Palden Lhamo is exquisite. It is exactly as described. The print is of high quality and the colors are deep and rich. I absolutely love it!
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Nancy on Jan 18, 2021
5 out of 5 starsKayla's artistry captures the essence of the female Buddha Parnashavari. Her intense color choices, attention to detail and Kayla's passion radiate in her paintings and cards. The cards were well packed and arrived quickly.
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A on Jan 13, 2021
5 out of 5 starsWhat a beautiful set of high quality cards. Thank you! These arrived quickly after some lightening fast and helpful communication with sellers. They were well packaged and far better than I imagined. Wonderful transaction.
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A on Jan 10, 2021
5 out of 5 starsCommunication from the seller before purchase and during the process was prompt and helpful. The item arrived quickly and was very well packaged. The quality of the print far exceeded my expectations. It is vibrant and very beautiful. Thank you for this wonderful art print.
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Margit on Dec 12, 2020
5 out of 5 starsBeautiful artwork, vibrant colors, excellent packaging, good communication with seller! Thank you!
About KaylaKomitoSacredArt
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Kayla and David with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala; 2001. He offered encouragement and guidance about her thangkas. -
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Here we are at our American ShangriLa.
How Kayla began painting thangkas
Kayla's story:
I've been a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner since the mid-1980s. I had utilized some of the images of the sacred feminine such as Arya Tara, in my personal paintings (many of which are displayed on in this gallery shop), but when I showed them to my teachers they said to please use the iconic patterns, proportions, etc. My first teacher, Tara Tulku, told me it was OK to do or paint the images so long as I used the grid.
Then in the 1990s I began to do a series on Mary, deciding to study the traditional icons of her, her stance, clothing, colors. This was the closest I'd come to letting go of my personal vision and following the inspirational iconic guide of a tradition. I did however add some of my own interpretations: each having a rose placed with the figure, symbolizing her heart chakra or womb chakra or Christ or compassion and gave her faces from all over the world. This was very satisfying and I noticed that when I painted her feet in "Mary in the Garden" I felt heat radiate through my body and openness in my heart area. This reminded me of how much my winds [inner energies] were affected when painting the life size green Tara in correct proportion in 1991 for a Green Tara children's celebration in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.
The way I began painting thangkhas was that a fellow disciple of my second teacher, Denma Locho Rinpoche, was hunting for a thangka of her practice deity in Tibet, India, Nepal and the US, but could not find one that was well done or accurate. So she asked me to do one. It was extremely fierce and complex. I was lucky to have found a 2" x 3" grid of the yidam/deity in Cho-yang magazine and blew it up to a usable size. I also had access to a 17th century thangka of this yidam that was extremely well done in color and detail. So I could use it as a reference. All these conditions made it possible for me to do this work.
Also the painting style of my personal work had always been extremely complex, with bright colors, and made use of nontraditional (in the western sense) watercolor with opaque areas, intense color, and lots of detail. So it was very sympathetic to the Tibetan style of painting. While I was in India in 1992-93 the brothers who painted the Kalachakra Temple in Dharamsala told me it would be very easy for me to adapt my personal style to Tibetan thangka painting and it was.
I used the proportional grid for this first thangka (and for all subsequent) and drew the image free hand on top of it. These days many Tibetans use the "pounce" method of tracing paper with small holes to mark the outline, which I believe accounts for a more wooden image. Mine was very full of energy and life. It took me 6 months/600 hours to do the work and it really turned out well.
Then Professor Robert Thurman of Columbia University (a noted scholar of Tibetan Dharma and art, and a friend) saw that first thangka, which was a Yamantaka, and commissioned a thangka painting of a rare, hard to find image of a protector. This was even more of a challenge because it was in the black thangka style. I found that after familiarizing myself with the various iconic grids such as for short fierce deities, tall fierce deities, peaceful standing bodhisattvas, seated Buddhas, etc., that I could basically take a thangka that I knew was excellent and painted in a traditional way, and work backwards, finding out which iconic grid "fit" the painting perfectly and then drawing it on top of an enlarged color photocopy of the painting. Working from this was perhaps more difficult than from a linear drawing, but not impossible. I would then search my library for the best possible rendition of every aspect of the paintings to make sure the final product contained the most refined and beautiful details possible. In this case Ven. Thurman told me the finished product was a "masterpiece."
Those experiences motivated me to continue to take commissions for thangkas. Sometimes, however, a project is quite personal such as a painting of the Buddha Teaching the Lotus Sutra. I read the sutra several times while helping my mother through the dying process. It sustained me at that time and I felt inspired to paint an image of the origin of that sutra.
When I am not painting thangkas I continue to explore my personal artistic vision of the sacred feminine. And naturally these days some thangka elements appear in my personal paintings.
My current thangka project is also personal: a second painting of Parnashavari/LoGyonma, who is the Indo-Tibetan deity who cures illnesses and quells pandemics and other natural disasters. Painting Her is my personal contribution for bringing positive energy to these difficult times.
Shop members
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Kayla and David Komito
Owner, Curator, Photographer
All prints are of original watercolor paintings by Kayla, who is a Tibetan thangka painter and explorer of the sacred feminine. David manages this shop, sends out orders, etc. He is a professor of Asian Religions & has published 3 books on Buddhism.
Shop policies
INFORMATION I COLLECT
To fulfill your order, you must provide us with certain information (which you authorized Etsy to provide to us), such as your name, email address, postal address, payment information, and the details of the product that you’re ordering. You may also choose to provide us with additional personal information (such as your body measurements, label or style preference for example), if you contact us directly.
WHY WE NEED YOUR INFORMATION AND HOW WE USE IT.
1)We rely on a number of legal bases to collect, use, and share your information, including:
as needed to provide our services, such as when we use your information to fulfill your order, to settle disputes, or to provide customer support;
2) If necessary to comply with a legal obligation or court order or in connection with a legal claim, such as retaining information about your purchases if required by tax law; and as necessary for the purpose of our legitimate interests, if those legitimate interests are not overridden by your rights or interests, such as: Compliance with the Etsy Seller Policy and Terms of Use. We use your information as necessary to comply with my obligations under the Etsy Seller Policy and Terms of Use.
INFORMATION SHARING AND DISCLOSURE
*The third parties with whom we share personal information:
1) Etsy. we share information with Etsy as necessary to provide you our services and comply with our obligations under both the Etsy Seller Policy and Etsy Terms of Use.
Service providers.
2) We engage certain trusted third parties to perform functions and provide services to our shop, such as delivery companies. We will share your personal information with these third parties, but only to the extent necessary to perform these services.
3) Compliance with laws. We may collect, use, retain, and share your information if we have a good faith belief that it is reasonably necessary to: (a) respond to legal process or to government requests; (b) enforce our agreements, terms and policies; (c) prevent, investigate, and address fraud and other illegal activity, security, or technical issues; or (d) protect the rights, property, and safety of our customers, or others.
DATA RETENTION
We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to provide you with our services and as described in our Privacy Policy. However, we may also be required to retain this information to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, our tax returns, to resolve disputes, and to enforce our agreements. We generally keep your data for the following time period: 4 years.
TRANSFERS OF PERSONAL INFORMATION OUTSIDE THE EU
We may store and process your information through third-party hosting services in the US and other jurisdictions (Etsy). As a result, we may transfer your personal information to a jurisdiction with different data protection and government surveillance laws than your jurisdiction. If we are deemed to transfer information about you outside of the EU, we rely on Etsy's Privacy Shield as the legal basis for the transfer.
YOUR RIGHTS
If you reside in certain territories, including the EU, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal information. While some of these rights apply generally, certain rights apply only in certain limited cases. We describe these rights below:
1)Access. You may have the right to access and receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you by contacting us using the contact information below.
2) Change, restrict, delete. You may also have rights to change, restrict our use of, or delete your personal information. Absent exceptional circumstances (like where we are required to store data for legal reasons) we will generally delete your personal information upon request.
Object. You can object to (i) our processing of some of your information based on our legitimate interests and (ii) receiving marketing messages from us after providing your express consent to receive them. In such cases, we will delete your personal information unless we have compelling and legitimate grounds to continue using that information or if it is needed for legal reasons.
3) Complain. If you reside in the EU and wish to raise a concern about our use of your information (and without prejudice to any other rights you may have), you have the right to do so with your local data protection authority.
4) How to Contact US
For purposes of EU data protection law, I, Kayla Komito and I David Komito as sellers through Etsy, are the data controllers of your personal information. If you have any questions or concerns, you may contact us at kaylakomito [at] gmail.com
Accepted payment methods
Returns and exchanges
I gladly accept returns and exchanges
I don't accept cancellations
The following items can't be returned or exchanged
- Custom or personalized orders
- Perishable products (like food or flowers)
- Digital downloads
- Intimate items (for health/hygiene reasons)
Returns and exchange details
If we have made an error and shipped you the wrong item we will credit your account for the cost of the return shipping and we will pay the shipping for the replacement.
In the event of damage to an order during shipping, or loss of an order, you will need to process the claim. Use your tracking number for this process and to collect the insurance coverage.
Payment
Shipping
Please note that no international package will be marked as a gift. All duties, taxes and customs charges, if any, and special rules are the buyers responsibility. International buyers need be aware of their own country's laws and regulations.
We make every effort to ship your order within 3 days of receipt, unless otherwise noted on the shop's main page, in which case we will indicate a "NEXT SHIPPING DATE" and confirm this with you. Extended shipping dates, if necessary, are a consequence of vacation, travel, and so forth.