lamination, madam?

the paintings made it home safe and sound and wrapped up in plastic, thanks to the delicate craftsmanship of two hard working boys at chennai airport who smoothly and systematically laminated the box from tip to toe. here in the studio, i am happy to be able to sit with the series and reflect on the impulses and influences that guided each piece to completion. what a rich experience it was. an excerpt from the final report:

"The outcomes of my research had much broader implications than my original intent. At first, I planned to study the Kolam design tradition as the primary inspiration for my creative work. I did study Kolams, but through the process of incorporating Kolam design with my paintings, I found that it was not my visual language, per se. So, I began to look at the broader cultural and natural forces that shape life in South India. By following the monsoon and attending Ganesh celebrations, weddings, and pujas, I connected with much more than the designs themselves, but the energies of order and chaos, creation and destruction, permanence and impermanence that Kolams embody on a smaller scale. Adopting this wider vantage point strengthened my creative work and made for a series of paintings that are clearly indicative of my utter enthrallment with South India."

chasing rhythms - catching hold

attached are images from the exhibition in india and pictures of the finished works...which are now in a large, laminated box in the back of the truck with yak wool shawls laid in between to protect from damage. i can't wait to unpack the paintings. i wonder if a shift in context will change the look and feel of the work. upon departure, i had the felt sense that the paintings should stay in the land where they were made. this yields a question: does the place of a painting shift its meaning in the way that people are transformed by their surroundings? we shall see...








SHIP TO SHORE
MIXED MEDIA ON PANEL
22"H x 30"L


ONSET
MIXED MEDIA ON PANEL
30"H x 52"L


MERCY OCEANS LOVESTREAM
MIXED MEDIA ON PANEL
30"H x 52"L


ASPIRING TOWARDS HONEY STATIONS
MIXED MEDIA ON PANEL
30"H x 52"L


GRIST
MIXED MEDIA ON PANEL
12"H X 24"L


CATCHING HOLD
MIXED MEDIA ON PANEL
30"H X 52"L

BLOOM
MIXED MEDIA ON PANEL
12"H X 24"L


THE ANTI-CLOCKWISE MOVEMENT
MIXED MEDIA ON PANEL
30"H X 52"L

pictures without the camera

standing in the pouring rain, watching the sugar fields burn

playing tennis in three different languages

the monsoon coming ashore in kerala

mobbed by children in kanyakumari

the trees whispering secrets in goa

sangria at le dupleix

madam and her big screen tv

the frog in my coffee

taking a right at the orange wastebasket

thunder, lightning, and temple music

cochin’s synagogue full of chandeliers

the world’s smallest bhagavad gita as 24k gold necklace (very special price today only)

rain coming, boat not working

cremation on the outskirts of edaiyanchavadi

reading shantaram on the train to madurai

dehydrated and eating palmyra

a box sewn shut with muslin

a store called “aroma sports”

another store called “magical plywood”

weddings upon weddings at sri meenakshi temple

cows walking, goats running, dogs barking

trying to draw kolams

lemons and flow

apologies for the long hiatus. padanaram, chennai, and now i've just returned from pondicherry after being stuck in traffic following the kali festival. will post pictures from that extravaganza soon. someone handed me a lemon through the open window of the taxi which seemed quite auspicious. the really good news is that the studio work is flowing and the exhibition opens on 28 AUG. here are some shots from the studio:

from the head or the heart?

yesterday, i braved the heat and went rambling around in pondicherry...not really in search of kolams but seeking inspiration in some form to get me through this blockage in the studio work. i visited the ashram and felt the sweet pull of the samadhi. i wandered through the sounds, textures, and flavors of the market. i ate a dosai (small one) and found a new favorite juice stall.

all creative work, on some level, is born in the heart. but kolams are based on math and counting and all of this left-brain activity that feels very mental. so...where do kolams come from? the head or the heart? here are some pictures of kolams from pondy:

homebase

since the studio work is not flowing...i have been investigating my surroundings in search of inspiration. here are a few shots of where i am living, the u.s. pavilion in auroville.



rain harvest roof captures water for reuse in showers, irrigation, etc. solar panels also mounted above.


outdoor kitchen with dynamized water dispenser.




pond of recirculated storm water with lilies, frogs and "ant moat" to deter insects. potential site for future artwork on the concrete wall.



water tower which is not to be climbed, but does afford miraculous sunsets!


the entry gate i designed during my last stay in auroville (2007).

on location

kolams, it turns out, are rarely made outside of tamil nadu. i have not seen a one since madurai. the last week has been all about moving between places. these two small pieces explore the coexistence of motion and stillness. sound can only record motion. photographs create stillness, but video holds that unique basis for comparison.

underpinnings

images from the tip of india posted here.

i write from beautiful kovalam. we had our doshas read by an ayurvedic doctor who sentenced jim to prison food and punishment while perri's prescription was something like divine debauchery. perhaps we should get a second opinion. the holistic analysis did get me thinking about the underpinnings of life in south india. the food...so delicious and wild but based on a tried and true system of ancient medicine to balance the spicy and sour, sweet and salty. it has me thinking about monsoon (wherever it is...) as the structure within the storm's expression...and kolams as being less about the serpentine lines of the gesture and more about the dot structure...the constellation that the contour steers by. 3-5-7-5-3 or 2-4-2. without the clarity of math, there would be no lines to the labyrinth. from here, that idea feels like it could make a good painting. but only after my daily dose of bacon.

working from the ground plane

jim is here now and we are taking the long way around to goa...chasing the monsoon without a drop of rain as of yet. i am idly searching for kolams, which brings attention back to the ground plane. here are a couplea shots from padmanabhapuram. moments of apparent emptiness in the vibrant crush that is india. more images from madurai to kanyakumari are posted here.

i love hitting the road...

...with unfinished paintings on the boards. i carry them like dreams or morsels or distant relatives...banking on a trust that the identity of resemblance holds true over the years and miles. this is why i wish to paint places instead of people...places for people to meet and explore a shared inhabitance beyond the site-specific. one of these days i'll get back to the kolams...promise....

works in progress

a few snaps from my studio today.

it's not so simple...

...as flying half-way around the world, opening the paintbox and making some art. which is not to say that i haven't been working. i spend a few hours each day in the studio but the mad torrent of creative energy must be coalescing somewhere out over the andaman sea while the rest of us are sweating it out in town. i would describe the three paintings currently underway as pre-monsoon. clouds gather and disperse. a few drops fall with the rumble of distant thunder and a weak flash. but the real meat of the storm, the chewy goodness of hard rain on dirt roads and the mad twisting wind has yet to make landfall. according to the indian meterological department, this is simply the nature of onset. the monsoon will come. it always does. it's happening right now, out over the sea beyond our reach. and it will make landfall. it's just a matter of pressure, temperature, wind, time, and paint.

what is a kolam?

here is a kolam outside of a house in tamil nadu. courtesy of wikimedia.

Project Description

“Truth is a pathless land.”
- Jiddu Krishnamurti

In the hours before dawn, millions of women and girls in Tamil Nadu sweep the threshold of their homes, purify the ground outside, and, with a fistful of white rice powder, proceed to draw a kolam. Kolams are intricate designs combining form, motion, and symmetry in an ancient Dravidian drawing tradition. Over the course of the day, this prayer for prosperity is rained on, walked over, blown by the wind and otherwise obliterated. Each morning a new one is drawn. Through this process of creation and decay, kolams announce the coming of festivals, births, deaths, aspirations, and changes within the home. Designs are based on a system of dots and lines forming one, highly aesthetic, interwoven whole. The dots signify challenges we may encounter. Serpentine lines represent the journey, the Yatra, one takes through life. Each pattern carries a very specific message. Kolams are map, prayer, journey, and ritual. They combine a fixed-grid matrix with labyrinth-like motion, yielding questions of permanence, impermanence, mobility and place.

This project is dedicated to exploring traditions of place-making as daily ritual and devotional practice in the South Indian landscape. Over the course of five months, I will study the kolam drawing tradition, create and exhibit a series of artworks in India, and collect source material for installation works to be exhibited in the United States upon return. Inspiration will be drawn from kolam designs for puja rooms, pilgrimage sites, ashrams, temples, and for the home. The goal is not to pictorialize, exoticize, or aestheticize, but to convey the importance of place-making at thresholds throughout South India and examine similarities/differences with American culture. With heightened sensitivity towards our surroundings, we all may derive a deeper sense of place.