Creatively, I came up through Architecture, and in my late 20s, after about 10 years of hardcore design and engineering, I began to suffer from severe mental burnout and fatigue.

A good friend had suggested I try meditating with Mandalas, to which I responded, “What’s a Mandala?” And after some research I found out that the word means Circle in Sanskrit, and though the pattern and idea was used by many cultures around the world, it was Tibet that gave it a name.

It turns out that traditionally, Mandalas are Architectural plans for Hyper-Dimensional Palaces for which the Being, Ideal, or Teaching resides within. I was pretty much, “Sign me up!”

For a moment of years, I had found a good balance between drawing Mandalas and the mental gymnastics of Architecture. In time, it ultimately led me to painting Mandalas and introducing Color.

As I moved forward on the canvas, I ran into a small problem. Playing with mandalas for so many years, the symmetry became a prison, and I could not paint anything that didn’t follow some sense of reflection. I painted this here, it had to mirror there.

This was 2013, and at the time, Ganesh was dancing around in my head, wanting me to paint him. He is looked at as the Remover of Obstacles, and I decided to call upon him to help me break through what was blocking me.

Ultimately, as I faced the canvas, the question arose, do I paint him with his tusk, or without his tusk? That then led to, “Well, how did the tusk break?”

What drew me to the story above, was the commitment to one’s art, as well as one’s word. An acceptance of the impermanent, a breaking of one’s symmetry, and a conscious sacrifice for a greater good. Steps we endure to move forward.

So, I decided to paint him the moment he made the conscious decision to break his own tusk.

In this painting, Ganesh tilts his head, and in doing so, he breaks his tusk against the symmetrical frame of the painting. His crown rings like a bell as he wakes up, freeing himself,  Breaking the Mandala.

The very next painting, the canvas opened up and became PAGODA.