SHANKHA
Acrylic on Wood Board 36”x24”
"Recovering the moral imagination that history once sought to suppress."
This painting takes place in the Daydream Universe, a world created when the central woman closes her eyes and prays for the safe return of the village fishermen. Hindu and Greek deities appear around her, not to blend their stories but to show a shared human need for protection, prosperity, and meaning. Vishnu rises with his serpent, conch, and lotus. Gajalakshmi spills abundance through elephants and falling coins. Triton and Poseidon churn the ocean with their shells. In the waves, sailors battle sea creatures in waters that represent both danger and possibility. Every detail—from the trade scenes on Lakshmi’s dress to the painted eyes on the Greek ships—reflects the woman’s wish for those she loves to leave, endure, and return home safely. The composition spirals like a dream, shaped by her thoughts, fears, memories, and the stories she turns to for comfort.
The work also stands at the meeting point of mythology and memory, reclaiming imagination from the distortions of colonial history. European Orientalism often framed Greek thought as rational and ideal while dismissing Indian mythology as excessive or superstitious. This hierarchy, reinforced by colonial administrators and Enlightenment scholars, shaped how cultures were valued. By placing these traditions side by side with equal emphasis, the painting rejects that hierarchy and resists being seen as ethnographic or exotic. Myth becomes a way to reflect, to repair, and to imagine again. The piece offers a world where knowledge is not ranked or limited to one tradition, but shared across many—where different ways of understanding the sacred can coexist without one diminishing the other.
This piece exists within the larger Daydream Universe. Locals in this Dreamscape talk about how a woman prayed for the safety of the villagers out fishing during a strong storm, which cleared the skies and ensured their safe return.
One of the deities answering the woman’s call is Vishnu. His presence is shown through familiar symbols: the serpent that coils around him, the lotus flower in his hand, and his sacred conch shell, which mirrors Triton’s shell on the Greek side. These items tie directly to his stories in Hinduism and show why he appears in the dream to protect the sailors.
Above is Gajalakshmi, a form of Lakshmi connected to prosperity and abundance. She stands beneath elephants pouring water over her, a symbol found across Hindu art. Gold coins spill from her pot as a direct answer to the sailors’ wish for good fortune at sea. Her dress hem includes small scenes of trading, a nod to India’s long history of global trade. The jewelry and gold she wears reflect how Hindu deities are often richly adorned.
The woman at the center carries the worries of her village. Behind her, sailors depart from the tree island, heading into a dangerous ocean. She blows the conch shell in hope that they return safely with food and earnings. Her clothing blends cultures, part Greek laurel, part Indian sari, showing how her dream mixes different worlds together. In the waves above her, fishermen battle sea creatures, visualizing the fears she’s praying against.
Here, Poseidon appears holding his own conch shell. His body follows the classic Greek belief that the divine form is strong and muscular. Beside him is Amphitrite, wearing a crown of seashells. Sea animals rise out of the waves around them, reflecting how the ocean reacts when these Greek deities appear.
Triton is shown blowing his conch shell, a symbol of his power to churn and calm the ocean. His form blends human and sea creature, his upper body is human, while his lower body carries the shape of a fish. Gold paint highlights the details around him, matching the touches of gold used throughout the painting to emphasize divine presence and mythic energy.
Painted eyes decorate the boat hulls, meant to ward off creatures hiding beneath the waves. Around the ships are hippocampi and other sea beings tied to Poseidon’s domain. Greek-style vessels move through the dreamlike ocean as the creatures rise and fall around them.
Special Thanks
To start, we would like give a special thank our sound design partner Leon who has helped us bring the sounds from the Daydream Universe alive. You have opened our eyes to the limitless possibilities and power that audio can have on us.
We would also like specially thank Isaiah Trevino for helping bring our Daydream Universe concepts into a tangible environment.
Finally, as a team, we want to thank YOU, dear viewer. Your passion is what inspires us and continuously fuels this project. Our goal is to create a space where we can all explore the infinite universes that exist within us.