Laura Lian

I’m a professional sculptor and 2 Years ago, a close friend of mine; Alex Andrews rang to tell me she had an unusual dream. She dreamt I had made a Buddha with the most beautiful peaceful face. I was intrigued and got excited as I always wanted to do a Buddha but never got around to it. I asked her “What did he look like”. She couldn’t remember, only the ‘peacefulness’ of his face.

I then searched in all my Eastern books, looking at various Buddha’s, Chinese, Indian etc. but then decided what’s the point of making another Buddha the same as an existing one. It was then I sat and went into myself in a quiet meditation as I often do for inspiration for my work.

Buddha -'Prayer', bronze

The image came to me. He had to be young, with a lean and slightly muscular body. The head would have no hair and the body no clothes. He had to be a ‘soft’ male image and he had to be in the prayer mudra hand position

I then got straight to work on it. The face came so quickly to me. The body, well, I had all sorts of friends and people to sit for me to get the figure right, male and females. My good friend Barry Novis sat patiently but couldn’t hold the lotus pose. I found a yoga teacher who could hold this pose for about 10 minutes at a time and soon he was ‘my Buddha’.

Buddha -'Electric Lights'

I called my friend Alex over to have a look at the clay and when she saw she was so sure it was like the dream and ordered the first cast. Then he was ready for the bronze casting. Since then I have been told by psychic Rhiannon that I was inspired by a ‘Sacred Tibetan Master’.

Alex, my friend was told by another psychic that she had a Tibetan Master. We both put 2 and 2 together and it seems that we have the same master and he gave her the dream to encourage me to do this sculpture. When the second cast was done I sat and asked spirit to help guide me to where I maybe able to display Buddha.

Odudua

 I was drawn to a shop in Bath and the manageress loved the image so much she agreed to put it in the window. I sold 4 in 5 weeks. She said people were coming in regularly to enquire about the Buddha.

Sadly I had 2 other sculptures, my John Lennon edition 5/25 my African Head ’Odudua’ 4/9 stolen. The insurance paid up but dumped me after that as they said I was a high risk. I then tried advertising it on the internet and sold 5.

Buddha- 'Meditation'

I did a mailing of the image and got a call from a Mr. Bernie Ecclestone. I was thrilled he was drawn to the image, and happily he bought the ‘Prayer’ Buddha and later the ‘Meditation’ Buddha. I also put an edition in Born Free’s charity event back in 2003 to help raise money for the charity and it was bid and bought by Rachel Hunter.

Buddha- 'Prayer', marble

Buddha ‘Prayer’ raised £5,000.00 at Cancer Research’s charity auction, Christie’s London. And Buddha ‘meditation’ raised £10,000.00 this year for Cancer at the same event.

I was so happy he sold for that much to help Cancer Research as my father died of cancer and it is such a disease that so many people suffer from. Sadly, number 17/25 was stolen by an internet fraud last year and now is somewhere in The Italian Police’s custody, and I have no way of finding it.

Artist with 'John Lennon', bronze

I have had so many people wanting it and the price was beyond what they could afford. I tormented to what I could do to make this image more available to the public. I threw caution to the wind and decided to have him made in a beautiful marble resin cast. This cast has an iridescent feel about it and is a Ltd. Edition of 50. I also, have worked on the image for cards & posters, so people who couldn’t afford the sculptures could at least have the image on card.

Chakras

I was told by Rhiannon “That I had to get this Buddha out there”, she also told me that my sculptures would have a 'healing' effect on the people that bought it. So many people have told me the Buddha has a presence in their homes. I'm honoured that I was given that image to transform into a sculpture for people to be inspired to their inner peace. I again, tormented on how to do this. Then I thought I need to have an enlarged one somewhere in a prominent position in London and maybe other major cities.