Aashanka III

Aashanka I
आशंका
12”X12”
Acrylic and Gold Leaf on Canvas
 
We have been focused on a chakra series in Kundalini yoga, and the role emotions play in our world.  While working on our root Muladhara (मूलधारा) chakra, we meditated a great deal on the role of fear.  How it protects, inhibits, pushes, powers, paralyzes.  And that lead me here...
 
Is night what makes bats terrifying? Is it the quality of the swarm? Something unsettling about a mammal with wings? Or is this Bram Stoker’s fault? There was something strangely satisfying and creepy about painting this bat, the veins instead of cells, the transition to mammal.
 
I played with iridescent paint and black canvas for this series. Because that is the thing about fear, no? One person’s phobia may be a thing of beauty to another. Examining a fear might make you look at it as a gift. The darkness may make you appreciate the color. The tilt, the right light, it may negate the fear.