Ice Mountain

   Today's prompt for Illustration Friday is 'Mountain', so I thought I'd dust this one off and submit it for my contribution.

    This goes all the way back to my days as a beginning grad student. I was trying to use ancient Hindu goddesses to convey contemporary messages. 

   At the time, the Nestle Company had just plopped a factory down in a beautiful rural area near my home (razing a lovely stone house to make room for it). My area is gifted with clear sweet drinking water, which Nestle proceeded to pump out of the ground free of charge, bottle it in plastic and charge $1.25 a bottle as Ice Mountain water. It has been a hotly contested issue in my area, but so far, Nestle continues to profit while our water table suffers. This painting was mean to comment on that issue. Talk about beating the issue with a stick, right?

     Although this is not my favorite painting, I do like the little demon under her foot. One of these days, I might cut him out and fix him up (without the foot) so the painting can be about just him, instead.

Ice Mountain

For IF: bottled

I swore I'd never publish this painting, but I'm such a glutton for blog hits and this one fits today's prompt bottled, even though you might not know it by looking at it.

Our community has been though a legal battle with the Nestle company, because they bought a piece of land, plopped a factory on it and proceeded to pump the ground water for their Ice Mountain bottled water. So they basically got their product for free at the expense of our wetlands and water table. It stinks, but as far as I know, the Nestle people's money was bigger and better than ours, so the factory stands.

During the heat of the argument, I made this painting. I was studying eastern Indian myths at the time and doing a demon series based on absorbing and learning from the dark side, seeking a balance. The goddess's hand gesture is one of warning. I don't use this painting because it has some unresolved technical issues and it kind of beats the issue with a stick, but again, I am a glutton for hits : ) I always liked the demon, though.