A Tibetan monk, needed someone to print flags for a sand mandala instalation he was doing with some of his buddies. I was recommended, so I go to this little temple in the woods on the Island. We start with yak butter tea and he chants prayers. He's so funny and he teaches me a couple of lessons.
1. "The best yet." He wants 500 flags. The typography on the board is really small and I don't have that much control over the chinese sumi ink so there's lots of smugging and what I would call crappy printing. He didn't care. I you really have some to say it doesn't matter if the printing sucks. Glen Gouled about music and newspapers.
2. Why are we making all this flags? "Let's keep earthquakes away from the Island and I'm worried about AIDS coming here." Now he really believed this.
3. He's got a sinecure and apartment at the Dali Lama's monestary. I takes poliroed of me printing with he and he says, "When th dali Lama sees this you'll have a really good chance of coming back as a human being, maybe even a Tibetan.
Since then I every once in a while I'll make a flag instalation. Usually I say the same thing, "Come Back Salmon." This is me and Fraser doing one to prevent accidents on a new highway under construction back when he was a little kid. Photos by Arlene Mason.
