An exhibit named The Study of One Thing featuring the Zen arts of Jody Hojin Kimmel is available to view through July 25 at Yager Museum at Hartwick College.
The artist was born in Philadelphia in 1958 as Jody March Kimmel. She earned her MFA from Wichita State University and apprenticed with a renowned female ceramic artist named Toshiko Takaezu, who was born in Hawaii to a Japanese family.
As a video introducing the exhibit stated, Kimmel entered the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper for full-time monastic studies at age 32 in 1990.
This monastery, established by the late John Daido Loori, uses creative expression as a means of spiritual inquiry. Kimmel received the Dharma name Hojin and was ordained in 1995. She is considered a “sensei,” which is the Japanese word for teacher.
Kimmel combined her childhood love of art with teaching and has been leading art retreats at Zen Mountain Monastery and Fire Lotus Temple in Brooklyn for decades.
“This is Hojin’s first exhibition at The Yager,” said Doug Kendall, director of the museum. “However, the museum and Hartwick have a long-standing relationship with the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, where Hojin is training director for the Mountains and River Order as well as abbot of the Zen Center of NYC-Fire Lotus Temple.” An abbot is a senior spiritual leader.
Yager’s relationship with the artist began in 2000, Kendall said. It began with Buddhism in the Catskills, a semester-long program that included demonstrations, speakers, performances and an exhibition at The Yager, he said.
Tea bowls hold special place
About 50 hand-made ceramic bowls created by Kimmel are part of her exhibit at the Yager Museum.
“The tea bowls hold a very meaningful place in Zen arts, Zen Buddhism and the Japanese culture,” said Jishin Liz Robson, a local Zen Buddhist priest and teacher who visited the exhibit June 27.
“The bowls harken back to Buddha’s begging bowl,” Robson said. According to ReligionFacts, Buddhist monks carry begging bowls to collect food offerings from lay supporters on a daily basis.
Buddhism teaches freedom from attachment. Buddhist monks, as a spiritual practice, have very few personal possessions. Historically, their begging bowl was one of their few possessions, and they would use it daily, relying on others to feed them one meal a day.
“Even today in Japan, monks beg through the streets and receive food,” Robson said. “The act of giving and receiving unconditionally is a way to accept our oneness.”
“Buddhism started with the historical Buddha in India 2,600 years ago,” Robson said. “About 500 CE, a monk named Bodhidharma brought Zen from India to China. He also brought green tea.” Zen Buddhist monks drink green tea to stay awake during meditation.
Eventually, Zen Buddhism spread to Japan, Korea, Vietnam and the rest of the world.
“Zen is all about awareness of direct experience,” Robson said. “That is what she (Kimmel) is doing here with her artwork, inviting the viewer into direct experience.”
The central piece of art introducing the exhibit is a mixed-media collage of images of multiple tea bowls.
“The circle of the bowl and its emptiness echo a central theme of Zen Buddhism, the circle expresses the totality of the universe and represents the state of open awareness where we naturally recognize that all things are interconnected,” Robson said.
“The Study of One Thing represents not only the continuing Zen art practice of Hojin Kimmel, but also the ways in which she finds that ‘in the study of one thing, whole universes are revealed,’” Kendall said.
The exhibit occupies two rooms of the museum. In one room are Kimmel’s ceramic pieces and more than 500 miniature paintings. In the other room are works of her students.
In the video introducing her art retreats at the monastery, Kimmel said creating art is about “being curious and trusting yourself.” She said that “as a practice, we see where we are free and we see where we are self-conscious.”
“The beauty of art is that it is a portal for the viewer to engage in direct experience,” Robson said. “The show’s title, ‘The Study of One Thing’ speaks to the artist’s and the viewer’s immersion into a focused and very intimate activity of discovery. Through this direct experience even the smallest one-thing reflects the universe.”
“There is a great sense of joy and exploration in her expression,” Robson said of Kimmel’s work.
Summer Hours
The museum is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday through Aug. 1. The museum will offer a special Afternoon at the Museum for families Aug. 1, featuring craft stations, games and other activities.
Admission is free and parking is available near the museum entrance on the first floor of Yager Hall. There are no parking restrictions in the Yager Hall lot during the summer months. The galleries are air-conditioned making a trip to the museum a way to stay cool this summer and learn something new.