O My God! Its all the same.

OMG! A phrase heard one too many a time our modern lives. It is interesting how many "astonishment phrases" are connected to God; Holy Cow!, Jesus Christ!, OMG!, Hey Bhagwan (OMG in Hindi), Thank God and so forth, and yet as a society we claim to be rational and logical.  

As humans we claim to be rational, logical and analytical. If that is true, then how and why do we believe in an invisible entity God? Why is it that different religions of the world worship him in different forms? And more importantly, why do we call those who choose to question his existence "an atheist." For isn't logical thinking at the core of human existence.  

What is your take on this? Is God there? What is religion? 

To me religion is an inspiration, its in a sense my back up support system. When all else fails, I fall back on religion.  Boring, yes, but it works for me. When things go wrong, I tell myself, its happening for a reason and all will be well again. This simple sentence helps me move forward and the process of moving forward kick starts the process of thinking logically and things start falling into place again. 

I was born and brought up in India. The land that cradled civilizations from far never heard lands, is today home to 330 Million gods. Do we know all of them? Absolutely not, We all have our favorites.  One god though stands apart.. Ganesha aka to the western world as "The Elephant God."

How he got his elephant head is a story for another time. But while painting this particular piece of art, I realized one thing, Ganesha is to the Indian mythology what Nutcracker is to this festive season.

The figurine of nutcracker comes in every possible size, color and act. Similarly, Ganesha has been depicted in every way.

This painting was an on demand project. I have never formally learned painting, but have always loved colors, the art of mixing them and creating something. One "just another day morning," a dear friend, brought a 17 opening frame to me and said, can you make seventeen different Ganesha's for me and gave me this frame. And that is how Imperfectly Perfect Creations was born.    

17 panel Ganesha frame. 

Details showing the use of micro beads. 

Each image is a hand made background. Some are store bought hand made papers from Paper Source  and some painted by yours truly.  I used acrylic paint and micro beads for embellishments and Swarovski crystals.

Are all these images figments of my imagination. Not really, the creative use of materials, yes, that is mine, but the images are a result of inspirations from seeing so many different images over the years.

Center Image: Copper Tooling, with 400 Swarovski Crystals. 

Having painted so many different images of Ganesha's and seeing the cross cultural mythological similarities, I am convinced; It's all the same. This realization was truly a OMG moment!

Do I have proof, no and I don't need it; because "faith begins where logic ends."

I hope you enjoy these paintings and if you would like to see more of my paintings, feel free to me at Imperfectly Perfect on FB!

Keep in touch. Its good to hear from you. Till next time, keep believing and moving forward.