I painted Shiva mid-dance with some of his usual symbols: coiled serpents around his strong figure, his Trishula (trident), crescent moon adorning his head, damaru drum beating a rhythm of creation and destruction and his third eye, wide open. I painted the Shiva Lingam in overlapping plan view and side elevation, to the bottom left in brighter Cobalt Teal and rich Indian yellow. His flowing hair represents the sacred River Ganga.
Mahākāla is one of Shiva’s fierce manifestations where he is a void capable of consuming space and time itself. According to Hindu cyclical time, Mahākāla dissolves the universe at the conclusion of a Kalpa (4.32 billion years). I’ve painted the underpainting in characteristic dark blues with lighter earth tones on top to give a primordial and emergent feel. My painting is also a take on the ‘White Mahākāla’, who in Tibetan Buddhism eliminates spiritual and material poverty through wrathful, compassionate ferocity.
