Idea for the Living Room

So I’m really tired of the painting in my living room.  It dates back to 1997.  Not that it’s been hanging there that long, I dug it out of the basement a year or so ago.  It’s from my senior thesis and it is driving me nuts to look at it.  Today I was walking through the room when I had the idea to make 3 panels for that space.  They would be multimedia renditions of 3 backbends from the second series of Ashtanga yoga, the first of which is Ustrasana, or Camel Pose.

This sketch, done while 2 of my 3 peeps were in gymnastics, is the 2nd pose or Lagu Vajrasana.  I forget what that means.  It is a very difficult quadricep burning backbend.  So the name might mean fire in the quads, but I doubt it.  And once you get your head to the floor, you’re expected to come back up the same way, not collapse to the floor.  Good luck with that.

Here’s a sketch.  This is taken from Beryl Bender Birch’s Power Yoga book, which is really Ashtanga yoga.  The trouble is this.  I love to draw the figure and I love to draw yoga poses, but I don’t just want to do illustrations.  Nothing wrong with illustration, mind you.  But I’m after paintings that make people sweat, that make you dig deep inside yourself for the answer you’ve been looking for.  A painting should rock your world, not be just pretty or well done or match your couch.  You know?  So I’m not sure how to get there, but I’ve just got to get on the bus.

So here’s a thought, and I’ll cross post this to my yoga blog.  If you happen to be proficient at camel pose, laghu vajrasana, and kapotasana, I’m looking for some photographs.  You’d have to give me permission to use the.  You might end up with a sketch or something out it if things go well.