The Illustrated Rhinoceros Sutra Collection

The Illustrated Rhinoceros Sutra is a body of work created in collaboration with Ashli Kingfisher. This collection of animal-themed digital art is inspired by the ancient Buddhist work of the same title, as translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, the American Buddhist monk and author. We have permission from him to use his translation for this project, the grand iteration of which is an illustrated book of the sutra. Ashli and I are both rhino-philes, so it follows that we would be motivated to create art around a written work whose roughly 40 stanzas end in "Wander alone like a rhinoceros."

Each piece here is by me, Sarah Soward. Additional links are below for Ashli Kingfisher and Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. 

These are cross-disciplinary digital artworks. To varying degrees, they incorporate digital painting, photography, drawing, digital montage, AI, and other forms of digital manipulation. In some instances, my own work for this project was uploaded to Midjourney, blended, downloaded, reworked, uploaded again, etc., and finally finished with digital painting and/or Photoshop work. In other instances, the work is almost entirely created through more traditional painting and digital-art-creation means. 

For the Curious

Read The Rhinoceros Sutra as translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu

Shop The Rhinoceros Sutra Collection by Sarah Soward

See the collaboration progress via Facebook

See Ashli Kingfisher's The Rhinoceros Sutra Collection