"In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest, where no one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art." - Rumi
The moment i read this quote, i knew that one day it will come back to me when i draw Lord Krishna. And then when i sketched Krishna's lotus feet in a bed of flowers, there was a ecstatic feeling when the quote came back to me. Rumi's poetry then started me off on this journey of sketches. It was so amazing how each poem just blended so beautifully with each sketch.
"I once had a thousand desires.But in my one desire to know you, all else melted away" - Rumi
The concept of the Lord's hand alone reaching to take butter from pots of butter was mind boggling. This is by far, my favorite in the series.I had another view.. how jealous the other pots must have felt when He took pot from that specific special pot and not the others!
"Love calls - everywhere and always.
We're sky bound.
Are you coming?" - Rumi
The flute represents being hollow and empty so that He can play His beautiful music through us. When the sketch of His hands playing the flute was done, i wanted to fill the empty white space around it. i went freehand with paisleys and swirls and went berserk with colors. Like dreams --- drifting.
"I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here will have to take me home." - Rumi
The peacock feather - a symbol of integrity and beauty showing what we can achieve when we truly endeavor and show our true colors. And end up adorning His head. The colors were enchanting. To think I had 12 color pencils and still looks so colorful!
"You think you are alive
because you breathe air?
Shame on you,
that you are alive in such a limited way.
Don't be without Love,
so you wont feel dead.
Die in Love and stay alive forever." - Rumi
This was a simple fun sketch. His tiny dancing feet trampling our senses which sometimes go haywire without control was a joy to put in paper.
"This is how I would die
into the Love I have for you:
As pieces of cloud
dissolve in sunlight." - Rumi
With rains pounding outside the windows, i could not but think of His little finger holding the Govardhan mountain protecting the Brijwasis from the great deluge.
"You are not a drop in the ocean.
You are the entire ocean in a drop." - Rumi
Ras lila - the dance that symbolizes the soul's unceasing struggle to break clear of the constraints of the body, to make contact with the supreme reality. And this abstraction is symbolized by the supreme reality personifying and dancing with everyone and everywhere where there is this intense longing for Him. The thought behind the sketch started with Radha's and Krishna's feet.and then the reflection with the multiple Krishnas with Gopis came with a spark.
Both of these Krishnas are my adaptations from Keshav with a different touch :) One is with watercolor pencils and the second (Egyptian-like Krishna) is with acrylics and sharpies for the zentangle.
