Dancing in Flames

Viewing notes

A viewer's written impression — not a buyer review or first-hand record

This copper-toned wrathful guardian is caught mid-dance, ringed by flames. Three eyes glaring and fangs bared, a crown of skulls on his head and hair standing on end, his body is wrenched into a coiled, lunging pose. His right arm flies up gripping a pointed golden weapon; his left cradles a bowl at his belly, and a second golden staff crosses his side, its head stacked with skulls and flame motifs — both shining bright against the deep copper. One foot treads a small demon flat, and his sashes churn with the dance. Behind him the flame aureole rises tier on tier until it nearly fills the frame, like a blaze frozen in place, above an oval lotus base. Fierce and full of motion, it suits a guardian's place of enshrinement, or the commanding presence of a large space — it seizes the room before a word is spoken.