Expansion!

That is my motto for the year 2019.

To find and expand my boundaries, stretch* and challenge myself.

As I continue with the series of the 12 Kalis, I understand them as a quest to expand myself also…

“Each of the 12 Kalis is called Vikasa or expansion because the universe is not created in a sense of being made from something. It is simply the expansion of one’s nature.”

~Swami Lakshmanjoo, Tantraloka Ahnika 4, verse 144.

This series is quite a stretch, in terms of working in a series and also in terms of the subject matter. Perhaps there is also a need to also expand my ideas of what “I” thought “I” was capable of.

The year started off weird, been quite sick as I haven’t in ages, being vulnerable and discovering the beauty of being held despite it or perhaps because of it. Humbled and also frustrated and in desperate need for a space to paint and moving on with painting the series of twelve Kalis despite the ups and downs of my health and circumstances.

* “Stretch but don’t strain” was a saying by one of my yoga teachers.

Below is one of the paintings in process…