SAMUI'S GREEN REVOLUTION

       It all started three years ago when a group of Samui residents, both Thai and foreign, were stressing over the damage being done to the island's natural environment. "Why don't they do something about the over-development ... deforestation ... lack of infrastructure," had become the refrain of concerned residents who watched from the sidelines for years as rapid development took its toll on the island's once pristine natural environment. But out of this chorus arose the question, "Who are They?" The group realised that, "'They' are not going to do anything: We live here! We have to do something!"
       And so the seed for the Samui Mala Festival was planted - an event that celebrates environmental healing on Koh Samui. With the call-to-action slogan "Be the Change", what began as a one-day event held in the lush grounds of Tamarind Springs spa in 2007 has grown into a week-lofng, multi-event, multi-venue annual community festival celebrating healthy living in a healthy environment. This September's Mala Festival went beyond the traditional community celebration to include a Yoga Retreat for Peace as well as a "Green Day", sponsored by the Thai Hotels Associaton to promote environmental awareness in children, a "Blue Day" to highlight water and reef conservation issues, and a Healing Forum with a holistic focus on the mind, body and spirit.
       The healing theme spread to "Healing Art for a Healing Island", an exhibition by artists living on Samui and inspired by the idea of supporting locals' efforts to earn a living in a way that celebrates healing, music and art.
       After the Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary donated a beautiful gallery space, Samui-based German artist Nartana Holzweiler volunteered to take on the challenge of organising a show by five Thai and five expat artists. The exhibition runs the spectrum form high-profile names such as architect Robert Powell, whose exquisite architectural drawings and paintings have graced glossy coffee-table books and been displayed in galleries across the US, Europe and Asia, to newcomer Aree Wutthanamassapong, who swapped her fried-fish stall for an easel a year ago and began whipping up dozens of vibrant, multithued, abstract scenes of nature.
       While every artist brings their own perspective, a quick glance around the gallery reveals the circle is a recurrent motif - a symbol of the spiritual wholeness at the heart of the concept of healing. For Konkarn Jeap Boomivitaya, whose delicate Chinese ink paintings on mulberry paper depict serene circles and landscapes, inspiration comes from Zen calligraphy; after years of meditation she's able her to bring her mind to the stillness required to paint a perfect circle in a single brush stroke. In the dharmic tradition, the circle symbolises wholeness, completion, fullness and enlightenement. Spirituality as a form of healing is also the inspiration for Sujitra June Kerdsompong, owner of the popular June's Art Cafe in Bophut, whose mixed media oil-and-copper works depict lotus flowers and other Buddhist images. Another key theme is the concept of nature as a healing force, a feature of Gilbert Medam's miniature installations with banana-leaf themes and Nick Woodcroft's elegant eroded-wood sculptures.
       For organiser Holzweiler, the healing aspect took a more personal form. His pieces were painted during the break-up of a relationship. "While I was painting I made my peace with the past. I used items left over from the relationship - a letter of forgiveness, a piece of canvas with her footprint - and intergrated them into the paintings. It's like composting, recycling old negative energy into something positive.
       "If the exhibition starts a Samui movement of healing art, that would be an accomplishment," says Holzweiler. Encouraged by positive feedback from visitors, be says the art event will definitely be a feature of next year's Samui Mala.
       The "Healing Art for a Healing Island" exhibition and sale runs through December at Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary Koh Samui. For details, visit www.Kamalaya.com.
       A MOVEMENT IS BORN
       Inspired by the Sanskrit word mala - "a string of beads" - the annual Samui Mala Festival unites residents by the common thread of a sharing, caring community focused on keeping the island green for future generations.
       Run by volunteers on a non-profit basis, the Samui Mala group aims to raise awareness and take action to regenerate the local environment and communitires by raising funds for projects as well as providing information and a network system for groups and individuals.
       For details, visit www.SamuiMala.org.