My primary practice is to utilize calligraphy, painting, assemblage, photography, and sound environments to create works centered on questioning the dualistic categories that divide our perceptual world into opposites such as “sacred” and “profane.” At this time, I am one of the few artists interweaving Siddham, an ancient Sanskrit-based writing system, with spiritual imagery, urban artforms, and found material to explore the nonduality of oppositional concepts. Siddham is a medieval script that is used for writing the mantras, dharanis, and seed syllables of various Buddhist deities. Composed in the proper manner with a concentrated spirit, the power of Siddham (Bonji in Japanese) is said to be capable of manifesting the latent Buddhas within the viewer. I am currently working with sculpture and digital video to expand the immersive quality of my work and deepen my examination of themes that include the tension between nature and technology, wakefulness and ignorance, and freedom and imprisonment. My background as a published author with a Ph.D. in philosophy, along with my history of Buddhist practice and status as an ordained Shugendo priest, provides the research foundation and training that supports my artistic efforts and constitutes the archive that I mine to produce injunctions that gesture toward that which is not-two.
Dallas, TX.
The name “jamabushi” is a play on the word “yamabushi,” which is the term for a practitioner of mountain asceticism. Whereas a yamabushi is one who practices in the mountains, a jamabushi is one who practices being a nuisance.
Education:
2019 Ph.D. (Philosophy), University of North Texas
2015 M.L.S. (Humanities), Southern Methodist University
2012 B.A. (Philosophy), University of North Texas
Select Publications, Exhibitions, and Projects:
Books
The Philosophy of Transhumanism: A Critical Analysis, Emerald Publishing, 2020 (ISBN:978-1-83982-625-2)
“Eliza Hamilton, Buddhist Master,” in Hamilton and Philosophy: Revolutionary Thinking, Open Court Press, 2017 (ISBN:978-0-8126-9960-9)
Group Shows
In Small Measure, Dayton Contemporary, Dayton, OH
4th Annual Small Works Show, Art Room, Fort Worth, TX
Halcyon, Envision Arts, Dallas, TX
About Future, Rome, Italy
Fort Worth Zine Fest, Fort Worth, TX
Super Fantasy Mercado, Dallas, TX
Collaborations
Soundtrack, No Cop Academy: The Documentary, Soapbox Productions and Organizing, Chicago, IL
Additional Qualifications:
Shugendō priest (Dharma name: 真道Shindō)
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 3rd degree black belt
(Quick Portfolio Here: https://freight.cargo.site/m/F2790584949912066118146805047356/Portfolio_Ross.pdf)