where do I belong

..long time no write.... or maybe 'no right' .. or 'no rite' ... Maybe the artist within has taken a 'break'.This back breaking 'break' business leaves me all confused. Maybe I should just be doing my duty ..karma..without worrying about the end result. No inspiration ??? Just an excuse. Afterthought: Allows me to think . Aaah ... now that sounds like a valid excuse. No write;because I was busy thinking.
Will think some more. be back in a while .:) :P

Premonition

When it rains it pours
And it pours so thick

The green seems grey

And you cannot see clear
What its trying to show

But it rains and it rains

And the lightning bolt
as it tears the clouds apart
And the clouds fight the bolt
they rumble and they grumble
But you cannot hear
what its trying to say

And it rains and it rains

But when you feel the cool
rain drops
fall on your skin
And the winds blow away gently
the hair from your face
As you watch them
wash the world for the new
Your heart skips a beat
Something is gonna happen

You know its a sign
Maybe good, maybe bad
But your fates going to change

And the worlds going to change
And begin another day!

blade of grass by brian patten

I like this poem .its so simple.

blade of grass

You ask for a poem.
I offer you a blade of grass.
You say it is not good enough.
You ask for a poem.

I say this blade of grass will do.
It has dressed itself in frost,
It is more immediate
Than any image of my making.

You say it is not a poem,
It is a blade of grass and grass
Is not quite good enough.
I offer you a blade of grass.

You are indignant.
You say it is too easy to offer grass.
It is absurd.
Anyone can offer a blade of grass.

You ask for a poem.
And so I write you a tragedy about
How a blade of grass
Becomes more and more difficult to offer,

And about how as you grow older
A blade of grass
Becomes more difficult to accept.

-- Brian Patten

Take a picture!

Village girls near Bedse Caves,pune

I recently discovered photography as an art form. And I should admit that it took me by surprise. I never saw it as more than mere collection of memories. The usual way family and friends capture moments on occasions they want to remember.

Now it means more to me as I am exploring its depths. It’s like sketching, in a way, as you express the way you look at things, when you see beauty in simple everyday things. It has the same visual characteristics of line, form, shape, light and reflection.

It seems silly, at first, to note that when objects that already exist, capturing them in their natural position should be considered a form of art. In fact it is a debatable issue amongst most artists of whether it is a form of art or at best a craft. But I know now that whether art or not, it has helped me personally to look at things with a different perspective.

It has helped me understand ‘light’ in a better way. How light changes the way an object appears, by its shadows, by its intensity. Even the colour of the light can change everything. I’ve learnt how composition is vital .The way the picture is framed decides what should be seen or rather what you want to be seen.

I think this is a great example for composition

God lies in the details they say. I think observing these small things would have been unknown to me had it not been for macro photography.

Photography has helped me even to understand colour in a better way. Colour can be deceptive. In all visual arts, it plays a vital role. The colour of the object and background changes the whole composition .What is highlighted and what goes in the backdrop. Black and white is beautiful because it allows you to see beyond colour. Lines, tones, shadows become the lead players. Suddenly, light makes all the difference.

And so, im learning. This is just the beginning.

I discover

They told me that the sky is blue

But I’ve seen the shades of purple and pink

And the bright dash of orange hue

Between the clouds of subtle cream

They said the trees with its brown branches

Have leaves which are so green

But the green I saw… a thousand greens

With yellow, brown and blue

Hidden underneath

So when they told me the path to be taken

With the least trouble to be undertaken

The simplest straightest beaten path

Will lead to the desired destination

But the destination I do not know

As I look up at the high mountains

It could be beyond, could be right here

The answer lies hidden in an adventure

The beaten path seemed lacklustre

Thus I made my path.. a trifle longer

The path is narrow with hurdles laden

But the air seems clear,

And the mountains beckon

The birds are whistling

And the flowers are beaming

My spirits soar and my smile widens

As once again................ I discover!

The King And I

This is a song from 'King And I' which lifts my spirits whenever im down





Whenever I feel afraid
I hold my head erect
And whistle a happy tune
So no one will suspect
I'm afraid.

While shivering in my shoes
I strike a careless pose
And whistle a happy tune
And no one ever knows
I'm afraid.

The result of this deception
Is very strange to tell
For when I fool the people
I fear I fool myself as well!

I whistle a happy tune
And ev'ry single time
The happiness in the tune
Convinces me that I'm not afraid.

Make believe you're brave
And the trick will take you far.
You may be as brave
As you make believe you are

You may be as brave
As you make believe you are

The music dies.....

The instrument

With all its strings

Taut and tuned

The music sounds

The music sounds

Each string plays a different sound

Each string assigned a special task

And when together it plays…….

The music sounds

The music sounds

Each day it plays a different tune

A different song…..the same song

Resonates within and without

Harps its way inside and out

And while its playing my favourite song

Snap … .it makes the unwished sound

One string breaks……my heart breaks

Without which I cannot play the song

The music dies a sudden death…..

The memory resonates in my head

basket and structure

The basket gets its form by simply interweaving cane strips which mutually support each other.

Art and Indian Schooling

Ive always associated abstraction with a childs thoughts.

"Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories

from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of

swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.

In the book it said: 'Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After

that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for

digestion.'

I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work with a

coloured pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing Number One.

I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing

frightened them.

But they answered: 'Frighten? Why should anyone be frightened by a hat?'

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an

elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing:

I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They

always need to have things explained.

The grown-ups response this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa

constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to

geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up

what might have been a magnificent career as a painter. I had been disheartened by the

failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never

understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and

forever explaining things to them"

The Little Prince, De Saint-Exupéry

Little Prince is my favourite book because it showcases exactly the same thought.

I think art should be encouraged from a young age. Most schools in India encourage ‘drawing’ and it is included in the syllabus. The problem does not lie there but the way it is taught in schools. In the west, the priority lies on developing the child’s creative thinking and expression. Even to the extent of taking his artwork seriously in some cases for psychological analysis.

Schools here still follow the mechanical approach which has probably not evolved since my parent’s school days.

Considering an ordinary case, the child of three would be asked to draw an apple. The ‘apple’ is usually the first lesson. This is probably because A stands for Apple as the first letter of the alphabet. Or the reason could be worse; like not being able to move on since the British rule because leaving aside all the local fruits, including the ‘Mango’, Indian kids are always taught the phoren ‘Apple’ first. An apple which is necessarily bright red with a small shoot on the top with exactly two leaves on each side. And the apple is always symmetrical.

The worst is yet to come. What distinguishes the ‘Great Artist’ from his peers would be his ability to colour inside the figure, correctly without allowing his crayon to move out of the line. Poor thing. And yes, crayons because hes not ‘allowed’ to use watercolors till hes ten years old.So the child believes he is an artist because he seems to be able to hold his hand steadier than his peers. Same lessons would be repeated for orange, banana, tea cup, dog and maybe rainbow. Well,obviously the rainbow is the easiest way to teach colour. It does not mean the child might have ever seen a rainbow in real life. He proceeds to the next class. The lessons get worse. The subject: Landscape drawing. But of course the best artist would be the one who draws a house with a sloping roof and a distinct round window on the gable wall. The background; two triangles representing hills and the bright orange sun (with or without eyes and a smile) setting exactly in the centre. The ‘Great Artist’ has completed the next level.

It may be an exaggeration but only slightly. Of course there are exceptions but we are not counting those. This is the typical way of teaching art in most urban schools in India. I’m restricting the word ‘art’ in the above paragraph to only painting, i.e. visual art because that is the first thing that is taught to a child in school.

But the point is that this kind of very rigid system has its repercussions in the same childs growth as an individual and his adult life. Compartmentalized thinking, structured and systematic thinking is essential in certain fields, but not all. In my opinion, it is the very reason we produce better engineers and doctors than artists. The result of this educational system is lack of analytical thinking. There are Indian artists who have broken this trend. but it would definitely help if creative thinking is encouraged since childhood.This would lead to better work in every field where creativity is predominant. Better writing, better films, better paintings........ sculptures, architecture,fashion, books, dramatics, poetry, music and dance.

Art is something that has to be incorporated in everyday life.