Gift of Ganesha

Earlier this year, a Certified Zentangle Teacher named Dilip Patel embarked on a Zentangle quest and in return has both given and received an abundance of gifts--gifts in the form of Zentangle Ganeshas.

Dilip lives in Bengaluru, India. He is, in fact, the only CZT currently listed for India at the official Zentangle website.  He authors a fascinating and inspiring blog entitled "Things Often Speak to Me". I encourage you to visit it and spend some time exploring Dilip's thoughtful blog entries and learn more about his commitment to publish 100 Zentangle Ganeshas by December 31, 2012.

For those who are unfamiliar with this Hindu deity--Ganesha--I offer this from  http://hinduism.about.com/ :
"Ganesha has an elephantine countenance with a curved trunk and big ears, and a huge pot-bellied body of a human being. He is the Lord of success and destroyer of evils and obstacles. He is also worshipped as the god of education, knowledge, wisdom and wealth. ...Ganesha is one of the five prime Hindu Deities (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Durga being the other four)....

As a Christian, the idea of Ganesha is interesting to me, but is not a part of my faith and spiritual belief system. As an artist, I am attracted to elephant imagery and am fascinated by the Ganesha images I found as I searched the internet for resources and information. I was slow to attempt a Zentangle Ganesha, but today I finally put my reluctance aside and prioritized this little piece of art. I am humbled by the beauty and cleverness of the Zentangle Ganeshas that are posted in Dilip's blog...my own effort seems awkward to me. I think it's the eyes. I was trying to make them exotic and expressive of wisdom and kindness; I fear they turned out droopy and sad. But I offer it to Dilip in support of his goal, with gratitude for his idea and willingness to share his journey and blog about his quest, and in sympathy for the recent passing of his mother-in-law.
I regret the poor image quality--I do not have access to my scanner at the moment, and will try to update it with a clearer scan in the near future.

I'm not even sure it is complete--the empty background bothers me...and yet I do not have a current solution.

In addition, I would like to offer a new tangle in this post--though again, I do not have access to a good image. So as soon as I have some time at the family desktop, I will post step-outs to Paisley Boa--a version of which can be seen here in Ganesha's trunk. (Note: done! See below!)

So my version of Ganesha presents you with a gift--a tangle I came up with in the spring of 2011. I was just waiting for the right time to share it.

I can post some of my tiles that feature Paisley Boa in future Tanglefish entries...I think this entry is long enough for now. :-)

If YOU use Paisley boa in your art, I'd love for you to send me a photo or scan! The quickest way for me to get it would be for you to send it to abroady (at) comcast (dot) net, and put "Paisley Boa" in the subject line. Or you could put a link in the comment section below.

If you have any questions, just post them in the comments below (or send them to the email address I listed above).

Happy Tangling!