20 Ways to Start the Day

is a multiple created by artist Leslie Wayne in a limited edition of ten.

Each edition consists of a 19” x 15” x 2” silk covered box, lined with charcoal foam and 100% white cotton felt. In it are three objects: a 10” x 8” x 1” linen portfolio containing twenty 8” x 6” archival digital ink-jet prints from scans of original gouache and acrylic paintings on paper by the artist based on the Tantric Lingam; a 4” x 4” archival digital ink-jet print in an acrylic frame taken from the artist’s photograph of an anonymous circa 17th Century Rajasthani serpent painting; and a Lingam shaped stone, hand cut in marble by sculptor Don Porcaro.

This project was initially inspired by a Rajasthani serpent painting believed to be from the 17th Century, a gift from her friend and dealer, Claude Simard who passed away in 2014. While Wayne began researching Indian serpent paintings, she was given a book of Tantric paintings on paper and was inspired to begin her own ritual of painting a single Tantric Lingam each day. Eleven of them were reproduced in the 21st edition of the fine art journal Esopus in 2014. This edition was made in honor of Claude Simard.