Description

The idea for Cosmic Dancer (18×24) came to me while visiting the Smithsonian museum in Washington DC. In fact, I’ve collected several images of Shiva Nataraja visiting various art museums in the US. A Hindu god, Shiva Nataraja is a cosmic dancer performing the “dance of bliss.” The Lord of the Dance represents cosmic activity – creation, maintenance, destruction, illusion and salvation (release). I like both the symbolism and the movement in this figure as we can see that he balances his dance on one foot stepping on “the demon of ignorance” below his foot. He smiles gently as he dances with fire both destroying and creating the world. Unlike in the original sculpture, I didn’t assign a specific meaning to his mudras (hand positions) in my painting but I did want to humanize the figure having a real body, hair and intense gaze. Also the position of a third eye is different from the original sculpture that we often find on the forehead in ancient art. The third eye has different interpretations from bringing light into the world to manifesting higher power to being a visionary. At first I wanted to paint the statue itself but then I decided to have a real person represent the Cosmic Dancer. Seductive, dangerous, mysterious and powerful. I think that this concept of creation and destruction is very close to what we all experience in life. We destroy the planet and create new life on it. We rage wars and build prosperity. We fight and we heal. We consume and we give away. We give birth and we die. Isn’t it interesting to observe this notion of becoming free through destruction of old habits and past, painful moments?