Saturday 22 September 2012

Z Ganesha

This time of year is really special in India. It's the time of year when Lord Ganesh's birthday is celebrated with an 11 day long festival called Ganesh Chaturthi. It brings a lot of worship, modaks (and other sweets), dancing, drumming, and fireworks along with it. It ends with Ganpati idols being immersed into rivers, lakes or the sea. From what I understand, the immersion symbolises death, and as the idol disintegrates it releases the spirit of Lord Ganesh ready to be reborn.

Unfortunately, the festival brings a lot of pollution to these water sources, as many of the idols are made from plaster of paris, or are coloured using paints which are toxic to the water-life. The Times of India has been running campaigns for the last few years to make this festival more eco-friendly. 

Eco-friendly Ganesha!

The ToI's campaign started me thinking that a Zentangle Ganesha would be the ultimate in eco-friendly, but I've not had any experience with drawing Ganeshas, so was a little stuck with the basic form, and didn't know where to start. 

It seems that Lord Ganesh knew I needed a little guidance, and sent me to Dilip's blog, Things Often Speak to Me. I was reading about Dilip's journey to become a CZT when I noticed a page on his blog called Zentangle Ganesha Calling.. inviting us to take part in his quest to post 100 Zentangled Ganeshas by the end of the year.

Not only does he have many beautiful examples of his own and other tanglers' Ganesha Zentangles, but he also has a few templates of common forms seen in pictures of Lord Ganesh.

So Dilip, here's my first contribution to your 100 Ganeshas:

Ganpati Bappa Morya

I look forward to seeing and drawing many more Ganeshas over the next few months.

Happy tangling...
Claire

3 comments:

  1. Very well done, Claire. And a great write up. I love the Eco friendly Ganesha poster too. I do look forward to get more Z-Ganeshas from you.

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  2. Will you please let me have your e-mail id to enable me to send some important communication about Z-Ganesha. My id is dilip dot patel at gmail dot com.

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