I named this piece Usha which means Dawn in Sanskrit. http://www.etsy.com/listing/55023181/sari-art-mixed-media-in-the-colors-of
Whether it is hand woven or made in a textile mill, whether it is natural silk or cotton or polyester, whether it is brocaded or embroidered, whatever its color, style or regional origin, Indian sari is a work of art. It is not only a work of art, it is uniquely Indian and you will not find anything to match its rich diversity in any other part of the world. It survived two hundred years of British rule and has managed to reinvent and thrive despite encroachment of jeans and other fashionable garments.
I love saris and I have tons of them. I got my first sari at age 16 and I still have my silk wedding saris bought 25 years ago. Yet, I hardly get a chance to wear saris these days in the US. The desire to feel the richness of the material and beauty of the design led me to create this collection of Saris as Wall Art .
Indian sari has three sections: body, border and the shoulder drape. The wall art pieces usually incorporates the body and the border and in the body section becomes the canvas where I let my imagination take over. Sometimes, the body section is the board for a story telling (for example, the story of Shakuntala in this piece http://www.etsy.com/listing/37556764/ikat-sari-art-mixed-media-collage-all ) or a rumination of a philosophical idea , like this yin-yang piece http://www.etsy.com/listing/53253392/sari-art-mixed-media-yin-and-yang-in. Every piece develops organically--using mixed media of watercolor, color pencils, permanent ink and genuine sari pieces in cotton, silk or polyester, I let the colors and the materials direct me in my composition. Sometimes, the end product looks very different from what I envisaged at the beginning. You can view the entire collection here:
