This is the second piece that was taken by someone with a discerning eye. It’s one of my faves, and is huge, about four by five feet.
It’s called ‘Durga Come Save Me,’ painted in 2005. I showed it first at the now (sadly) defunct Noble’s Diner (best fries!) in Mountain View, to good response. I showed it in Hawaii, too, for REVO and at Kalani.
Durga is a Hindu deity, and similiar to the Greek Athena, sprang from the energies of elder gods in a time of need. Both ladies are warriors, and Durga kicked this demon’s ass that no one else could. To quote: “All the energies of the gods united and became supernova, throwing out flames in all directions. Then that unique light, pervading the Three Worlds with its luster, combined into one, and became a female form.” This demon was killing and destroying everyone, as it had tricked one of the other gods into granting it immortality. Durga showed up, rode a lion into battle with her ten strong arms at the ready, and chopped his head off. She is sometimes shown with four or eight arms, too, when she is not on the battlefront.
I was reading an issue of Vogue, and saw a dress that is truly a work of art, by Oscar De La Renta. So I put her in it, because if/since these gods are alive today, they would want to be in all kinds of magnificent robes. They’d do it up.
I discovered Durga while I was working for the Berry Co, designing websites. A cubicle. Not me. And with everything else going on in life, the idea that there is a deity for overcoming impossible circumstance shook me and my cubicle UP. She hung over my Anchorage bed for a year, watchin’ out, at the ready. Maybe she’s doing that for someone else now? Hm.
