painting #3

heard a great story about why hanuman
is often depicted as being red from rajesh, our
friend/guide in varanasi
(some) women in india wear red bindis and paint a red stripe
down the center part of their hair when they are married
as a symbol of devotion to their husband.
hanuman saw sita paint her part red for her husband rama.
he loved rama so much he too wanted to show devotion
so he dipped his whole body into the red paint...
rajesh took us to his favorite two temples -
a shiva temple and a hanuman temple.
i so wish i could have taken a photo of the hanuman one...
everyone was saying the hanuman chalisa and there
was thick orange/red wax coated on every surface from
hundreds of years of people taking color from a bowl
and using their thumb to place a print of wax on their foreheads.
the build up on the walls came from people wiping their
fingers on them or placing their forehead against the
surface as a prayer gesture.
it was so intense... and beautiful

this is my latest painting.
found a little image of a monkey in a book i have
been stealing pages from for my latest series
and decided to turn him into hanuman.
he is holding a flaming heart to show is
devotion and love...
it is about 3" x 3"
acrylic on book page...