Woman and Mountains Shiva 

Octavio Ocampo created this painting, Woman and Mountains Shiva, sometime in the latter half of the 20th century. Ocampo is known for his unique style of “metamorphic” painting, where images contain numerous hidden figures and faces. Ocampo draws upon his Mexican heritage and its rich visual and cultural traditions. In Woman and Mountains Shiva, Ocampo blends this approach with Hindu religious iconography, depicting the deity Shiva alongside Parvati, Ganesh, and Nandi, his sacred bull. The figures are set within a landscape that forms the face of a woman. This fusion of styles and iconography reflects the global exchange of images and ideas in contemporary society. The woman’s face in the mountains and Shiva’s family, set against a surreal, dreamlike landscape, may evoke feelings of interconnectedness and wonder, inviting viewers to contemplate the relationship between the personal, the natural, and the divine. It prompts us to see the sacred in the everyday and the universal in the particular.