The Reciprocity of Flourishing

Lady Ganesh has a name and she is finished

When I had the vision last summer, I am not sure I realized how truly profound, perspective-shifting, and inspiring it would be. I was sitting, doing one mala of the Ganesh mantra, when I suddenly was transported and *saw* all around me a forest of flourishing that my body, my elephant body, had created. It was an inter-connected polyphonous symphony of thriving life, ecosystems layered and woven together, mutually encouraging every life to live their fullest and best lives. All I was doing was living my life, doing what I loved, fulfilling my needs, and moving through the world. My needs and my joys were intrinsically reciprocal and I was effortlessly involved in the most beautiful harmonious exchanges by simply being alive.

This is how to live, I thought. This is how I will seek to live and think and inhabit the world from this moment on was my vow.

A few months later I got an invitation from a dear artist friend and colleague to participate in an upcoming show called, The Birds & the Bees. I had been wanting to paint this vision but now I had an opportunity to display her as well.

I got started by involving my own inspiration to live life in reciprocity, baby Hawk. He helped me do the background. I go into depth about the first few steps in this post from a little while ago. He had to be involved and honestly, I am planning on doing this more often. I love having him be a part of my work, not only as a subject, but as a collaborator.

And I would love to introduce to you, the final finished piece, “The Reciprocity of Flourishing.”

When I posted the video online, one of my followers commented that I painted Vinayaki, the Shakti of Ganesh. I couldn’t believe it. I knew she existed, I felt that she had to. I did lots of searching online when I was researching the painting and came up with nothing other than images of Ganesh with Saraswati. But I knew she was real. And thanks to the best parts of why social media exists, she now has her proper name: Vinayaki. Shakti, of course, is the creative force. So my vision, this painting, are all that creative fertile energy. This is what dipping one’s feet into the archetypal is like. The bubbling from the eternal fountain reaches our toes and we can soak in its bottomless spring.

As you noticed, this piece is framed in an unusual way. Vinayaki is a thangka tapestry. I created a line of one-of-a-kind canvas prints in this style I’ve called, Threads of Divinity, best used as altar images that you can find in my Etsy shop. I used to create these many years ago and they were so popular that I sold out of every single original I created. It is with great joy that the first original piece I’ve finished like this now is this one. Here’s a sneak peek at how I do this.

I love to share the process of how this piece came to life. In a weird way, now more than ever, the process is very important. We must understand the background to something to truly appreciate what we are looking at. The Mische technique is adaptable to the flow of creation, even if the more structured version that I use and teach seems to lack spontaneity. But as you can see, flow within structure is a match made in heaven in my experience and the combination of abstract background with the technical detail is a wonderful tension.

The original painting will be available through ARC Gallery SF for the show, The Brids & The Bees opening April 11. Below are all of the details and all of the incredible artists I will be showing with. I hope to see some of you there!

If you are interested in beautiful paper giclée prints (starting at $25), stretched canvas giclée prints (starting at $150), or a Threads of Divinity canvas giclée print (starting at $275), please get in touch. I will be ordering some of these soon and would love to do a custom order for you.