The decorative tradition of Tibetan Buddhism is based,
above all, on the contrast of vivid colors and their vibrations:
saffron orange and lapis blue constitute the chief polarity
around which slightly less intense colors--green, rose,
turquoise—circulate. Tibetan design is not the subdued
tradition of age and wear dear to the Japanese notion
of wabi sabi, but a summoning, through assertive color,
of all the powers of the universe. Color is a means to
collect energy in an interior, whether in a majestic temple
or a small domestic room. Sam Botero has worked his
own version of Tibetan color magic in this Manhattan
apartment.
The staircase, with a railing carved with long swirls and
curves, seems a part of ancient Buddhist iconography,
so enamored of stylized clouds and currents. Each step
is covered in a shade of green less and less emphatic as
you ascend, implying passage from green meadows to
HYLAND
