Artist’s Introduction

 “Mind itself is a vast expanse, the realm of unchanging space.”

— Longchenpa, The Precious Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena

To create the works for Echoes of a Kingdom has been to walk a path of devotion. Beyond the year it took to create this body of work, it is a flowering of a much longer pilgrimage—an inward and outward journey that has carried me through monasteries, over mountain passes, and into the stillness of meditation where brush and breath move as one.

Bhutan has been a teacher to me. Its landscapes, veiled in mist and light, hold a stillness that dissolves the boundary between the phenomenal world and the mind’s spaciousness. Its people embody a gracious balance of tradition and vision, preserving what is sacred while opening themselves to the future with wisdom. And its philosophy of Gross National Happiness continues to remind the world that compassion and harmony are the true measures of prosperity.

Each canvas I painted over the past year felt like a prayer. The seventy works gathered here—watercolors intimate as whispers, scrolls expansive as the sky, and great multi-paneled pieces alive with movement—arose from a place of reverence. At times, I felt less their maker than their witness, as though the paintings were unfolding by themselves—luminous and intricate, bearing a vitality that is both quietly powerful and profoundly gentle.

To present these works under the royal patronage at the Wangduechoeling Palace Museum—on the auspicious celebration of His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck’s 70th birth anniversary—fills me with awe. This palace, lovingly restored, breathes with history and aspiration, and now opens its doors to contemporary art as a form of homage and dialogue. That I am able to take part in this inaugural exhibition feels like a rare convergence of destiny: the meeting of my artistic life with my spiritual practice, my love for painting with my devotion to the Dharma.

This exhibition is an offering to His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck. In preparing for this occasion, I immersed myself in the story of his reign and found myself deeply moved by his enlightened vision for Bhutan and his rare, selfless acts of service—guiding his country with both courage and humility, and introducing to the world the profound philosophy of Gross National Happiness. His example has been an inspiration to me, inseparable from the landscapes and monasteries of Bhutan themselves: a reminder that true leadership is measured not in power, but in compassion, wisdom, and the ability to hold a nation’s soul in trust.

Echoes of a Kingdom is my offering of gratitude to Bhutan—for its landscapes, its wisdom, its guardianship of beauty, and its enduring spirit. It is also a mirror of my own journey: a record of practice, a meditation in color and form, and a testament to the profound inspiration that this kingdom has stirred within me.

In these works, I hope you will hear not only my voice, but the resonances of mountains, rivers, prayers, and silences—the echoes of a kingdom that continues to live within my heart.

Tatjana Krizmanić, 

Brooklyn, August, 2025