Sand Mandala Helps Staff, Students Spread Compassion

In a Boston Globe feature on MassArt’s annual Sand Mandala event with the Venerable Tenzin Yignyen, our community shares their reflections:

“Lyssa Palu-ay, MassArt’s dean of justice, equality, and transformation, says the student body is receptive to the Tibetan cultural perspective in his artwork.

“I think they’re most surprised about his attention to detail, his focus, his extreme attention to craft, and how something so beautiful can, as part of the process, be swept away,” she says.

“Most students are taught just the opposite.

“I focus a lot on making pieces that will last … for generations,’’ says Lindsay Labadorf, an art student.

“I think that’s a really beautiful way to look at art as something that we can enjoy in the moment, but it’s not always going to be here.”

“…I learned to be happy and be yourself and not be frustrated, says senior Riley Setterlund. “I share the same belief that there’s no permanence in anything as much as we try to hold it. … We just have to live life and accept it.”