Ganeshism - Mahen Chanmugam

Beginnings and endings are the special province of Lord Ganesh, which could explain some part of my fascination with him and the iconography that describes him. My life has been unusually full of beginnings and endings – good ones that ended badly, bad ones that ended well.
I first began to feel the urge to paint him some time during the early Nineties, during a relatively tranquil period of my own life. Little did I know, then, that my tranquillity was soon to end... though perhaps my growing identification with the imagery of Ganesh unconsciously foreshadowed what was to come.
Whatever the reason, I found increasing solace and self-realization in painting Lord Ganesh as the years went by. I have always been a maker of images: mostly, these were images other people wanted, and it was related mainly to branding and graphic design. But in my own time, when working for my own pleasure, I found myself losing interest in all other subjects but Ganesh. Pillayar, Big Brother (as he is also known), became my only model.
For myself, I am not conventionally religious. Temples and churches are buildings I rarely enter. But even the most doctrinaire materialist may sometimes be chosen to serve the purposes of a power higher than themselve...

Self taught artist.
I was born in Sri Lanka and spent the first 19 years in the country. I then lived in Hong Kong and Singapore and returned to Sri Lanka in 2005, where I am currently living with my family.
School has never been an inspiring place for me and I was forced to follow subjects I disliked. I left school early, was told artists can't make a living so I entered a printing press at 17, worked as an air-brush illustrator for magazines, became a creative director for a few companies and after running my own branding/design company for 20 years, I decided to give a shot at the thing I first love doing in life; drawing and painting.

I had 4 solo exhibitions; in Singapore (1994) and at Barefoot Gallery, Sri Lanka (2008, 2010, 2012).