Saraswati

Saraswati is the Hindu Godess of education, music, and creativity. She is known for bringing the calm out of chaos and centering one's personality. Saraswati has always held a deep connection to me. For every single quiz, test, and exam I take, I make sure to whisper her mantra before. The mantra was actually one of the first that Amma ever taught me. Moving along the path with representing solely Hindu figures first, this piece is a dedication to Saraswati in both a contemporary and traditional setting. Similarly to the previous piece, this one uses pen and pops of color to represent the modern times while using figurism to depict the traditional times. One thing I did to stray away from traditionalism, is that I broke from the symmetry that we often see in Hindu depictions. I decided to show Saraswati looking up and to the left at her familiar: the swan. Most Hindu Goddesses have some sort of animal counterpart, but Saraswati’s is most recognizable. The swan represents courage and grace, and I decided to show this through its curvature and fluidity. This idea comes full circle when taking into consideration the meaning behind Saraswati: that which is fluid.