Ganesha

Ganesha is one of the major deities in the Hinduism. He is the patron of arts and sciences and the remover of obstacles. With credentials like that, it seems obvious he would be one of my favorites.

A full version of Ganesha would reveal that Ganesha has the head of an elephant and the body of a human… or in this case, a god. There are many stories of how Ganesha got his head and now that I consider it, it is a bit humorous that I chose to concentrate only on his head. He has one broken tusk from an encounter with Parasurama. I have also included a mouse in the lower left which is generally representative of negative desire but is also seen as a vehicle. Frankly there are so many pieces and parts of visual interpretation for Ganesha, an artist could spend their life exploring all of them. I find them fascinating.

Red is a traditional color for Ganesha but I wanted to work on giving him a patina look with layers of textures and a pile of details such as lotus flowers and other fauna. Layers of coloring and mica powers gave him a wonderful metallic sheen – unfortunately, this has made him hard to photograph. He’s much more green than he is in the photo. I created a 1-minute video to show him a bit better.

I should probably clean up the back a bit as I can hear my college professor’s voice saying that the back should look as good as the front. Sorry Mr. Frields.

5.25″ x 7.25 • Polymer Clay mounted on wood.