Andolan

Andolan
आंदोलन
24" x 24"
Acrylic on Canvas
(completed mid-August, 2020)
 
 
Andolan (आंदोलन) is campaign, organization, movement, protest; it came from our chakra series at Kundalini yoga.
 
I was really buoyant as we worked on our third chakra, the Manipura (मणिपूर). The Manipura (literally, city of jewels in Sanskrit) chakra is the center of desire (इच्छा शक्ति), of personal power, of dynamism. The Manipura taps into our elemental fire, and meditation on the Manipura can have the power to save, change, destroy the world.
 
The idea of movement, power, organization is very on the nose this campaign season. I found myself navel-gazing (haha, chakra pun!) on the idea of identity, complexity, democracy.  And on the idea of idealism, perfection, the chaos of democracy.
 
In meditation, I sat with my need for perfection, my unrelenting desire to meet my internal quality control, my arbitrary lines of serious work.  This piece evolved in color, in layer, in texture, in play. It became about the charm of imperfection and complexity, about self-love, and humor, and support.
 
It evolved into pure joy.