Repairing Old Paperbacks

Do-Something-Everyday: May 12, 2016

My husband has about a dozen of his favorite author's novels in paperback. As you can see in the photo above they all are pretty tattered. He asked me to look for a binder who can fix these books for him. I told him he was looking at one. Laughing out loud, he did not connect all the journals I make with bookbinding. So, I fixed one today using a simple technique of gluing the spine

Altering a Photo by Hand (with a little help from Photoshop)

Do-Something-Everyday, May 11, 2016

Just as I was about to take the photo of this peacock, the little boy broke away from his mother and started bawling his eyes out oblivious to the magnificent creature in front of him.

No Sew No Glue Sari Journal: An Immigrant's Journey

It was my favorite sari. Handwoven from the finest softest silk cotton, it was one of the best specimens of the Oriya hand loom weaving style. I brought it with me to the US thirty years ago. When the number of suitcases I could bring with me was limited to two, I gave away several of my saris to my sister, but not this one. But quickly it became obvious that the very same qualities that made it so lovely in India made it an impractical garment in the US. It slowly sank to the bottom of the pile and languished there for thirty years. I could not bear to throw it away. Then one day,  as I was making my rice bag journals it came to me that I could make cloth journals out of it. I cut the six yards into three parts, washed and starched each one individually. I tore them into roughly equal sized pieces and using the slot and tab technique created the journal you see above . I used the pieces as they were which led to some interesting variations among the pages. The top page above , for example, comes from the end piece of the sari and has fringes while the two below come from the border and the body sections.

I was very pleased with the way it come out. I decorated, wrote on it, painted---oh, the possibilities were endless. On one of the pages I wrote a little message "Bloom where you are planted" which is what this old sari  and I have done.

Last summer, it was published in the Cloth Paper Scissors Pages issue. This sari has reinvented and replaced itself in such creative ways. I wonder where and what it will be next, I wonder.

A popular Chinese saying (from the Book of Dao-De-Jing), this page was created using various fabric markers and Prisma brush pens.

This fabric collage page was created using remnants from old silk saris on which I stamped paisley

print using hand-carved wood blog from India. The image of the cranes came from an 18th century Chinese painting. The quote around the image is from T.S. Eliot : "The end of all exploring will be to arrive where we started and to know the place for the first time".

This is fabric post card that I made with the word "Aseema" meaning "without borders" hand embroidered. 

 Handwritten using Prisma brush pens and collaged with ephemera.

Embroidered, painted and handwritten. 

Silk and stamped with jacquard paints using wood block stamps.

This is a favorite quote from J.R.. Tolkien: "Not all those who wander are lost".  I used a bamboo stencil for background and collaged with an applique cut out from an old dress and a little carved bone tortoise.

Below are some additional photos from my trip to Santa Fe. These were taken at the Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu where Georgia O'Keefe spent the second half of her life and the scenery around her became her muse.

These photos are untouched except for cropping. New Mexico skies are really this blue.

Thanks for visiting. Linked to Art Journal Journey 
and Paint Party Friday

Painting Summer Colors with Limited Palette

This week's colors for SOC are Pink, Pink and Orange. I am not a particular fan of pink but I love its darker and richer shades like magenta. Orange always gets my muse going. Typically with this background, the bird would be in silhouette but I like this one too.

Created for Summer of Colors and Paint Party Friday challenges.

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Fearless in Chittagong, Bangladesh

Bangladesh was the place to explore in the Virtual Paintout challenge two months ago. I missed the challenge at that time but there were so many visually engaging sights there I had to do a painting even if it was past the deadline. This image of a little girl riding on the back of a cycle rickshaw packed with water cans at Airport Road, Chittagong caught my eye. There is barely any standing room but the girl is tiny enough to squeeze in and hang on to one of the ropes holding the cans in place. Only a child with no sense of fear could do it.The road had only light traffic with mostly bicycles and cycle rickshaws. So the girl was quite safe that way. But what was interesting was to see a girl in such bold position when there were so few girls visible in public.

It took me several tries before I got the proportions of the girl right to the stack of cans and the father driving the cycle rickshaw. I made the colors of the salwar-kameez brighter. I am not totally satisfied with the overall picture but will do for the present.

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Submitted for paintpartyfriday

Yoga Art Journal

I had a lot of fun creating this cover for the journal. I started with raw canvas upon which I wrote by hand Sanskrit verses from Yogasutra, the classic text on yoga by Patanjali. I love adding sizable chunks of texts in my art and I think I have been unconsciously emulating the art traditions of  great medieval Indian empires and kingdoms, where sacred and secular texts and poems were made part of the art itself (see below). Then I painted a stylized image of Ganesha, the Hindu god of auspicious beginnings. Finally, I splattered the cover with paint to create additional texture. I like the way it has turned out.

This very functional art is my submission for Paint Party Friday.

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Taking Artistic Liberties :Cesky Krumlov

For the month of May, the artists at Virtual Paintout travel to Cesky Krumlov in Czech Republic. It is one of those picture postcard places, serene, bland, orderly and neat with nary a trash can in sight; for that matter, even humans are tucked neatly away. It had plenty of pretty  sights to paint but I didn't find them inspiring. I like my street views gritty, grimy and garish. After zooming around quite a bit, I found a spot that looked somewhat dingy and in transferring it to paper, I took lot of artistic license to liven it up. The painting was done on mixed-media paper with pastels, pen and watercolor. Below is the photo from Street view.

I am submitting this also for this week's Paint Party Friday

Thanks for visiting and your comments are always appreciated.

Duobirds and Duotangle

This week's challenge at I am the Diva is to use just two tangles, Dex and Bunzo, to celebrate Laura's 35th birthday. I have been working on this painting for the last few days and the tangles found the right placement on the edge and side of the rock! This is a mixed-media painting done with watercolors, ink, pastels and markers.

This is also my submission for this week's Paint party friday.http:/paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com


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Mother's Day!

Mother's Day is one of my most favorite celebratory days. To honor all mothers of this world, human and non-humans, I did this art with my favorite elephants. Happy Mother's Day!

This is also a response to this week's challenge at I am the Diva. If you look carefully, you will find BRELA scattered in various places.

Enjoy and have a great Mother's Day! Here's another one the same theme.

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Virtual Paintout: Bhutan

Border Crossings (watercolor)

This month at the Virtual Paintout we travel to Bhutan, the Himalayan mountain kingdom which along with its Buddhist monasteries is also now known as the "land of happiness". Initially, I hovered over Thimphu, among the monks, lamaseries and the prayer flags. Bored I wandered around other lines of Bhutanese street view and landed on Samdrup Jhonkar on the Bhutan-Indian border. Despite the bucolic surroundings, it looked lively with lots of foot and vehicular traffic. These two Indian ladies walking with umbrellas open to protect against the sun near the border checkpoint caught my attention. Not sure if they are coming or going or whether they have come to shop or to sell.

I am also submitting this for Paint Party Friday.

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http://goo.gl/Itz0pl

Fabric Jewelry

Recently, I have started making jewelry with beads that I fabricate using my very own silk and cotton sari materials. I have come up with my own technique that allows to roll the beads without using glue. The beads come out soft. I combine them with pendants, crystal and metal beads to make one of a kind necklaces. They are  now available in my Etsy shop.

Ikat Fabric Lotus Necklace

Green Silk Peacock Necklace

Magenta Peacock Necklace

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Micro-Crafts

Working on small surfaces and creating micro objects: (1) fabric journal pendants 1"x 1", (2) decorating 1.5" tall pots (they fit nicely in the plastic case in which iMac mouse was packaged); (3) painting wood elephant 2.5" tall.

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Map-Cut Art

I love maps and even more I love crafting with them. One of my favorite map cutting, especially old city grid maps. I find the art of map-cutting very meditative. Even though it involves the use of knife, the task of cutting each little grid on the map into a lacy whole is both calming and reflective. What I have discovered is that as one cuts along the various lines, sometimes new shapes and images reveal themselves. The maps of Sofia, Bulgaria and Rome, Italy are transformed into birds in flight here.

I start with a city map that is in a square grid format. (I find these maps on Wikipedia.) I cut out each of the square little by little.Then I colorize the open grids. Now the fun begins: I turn it around this way and that to see if I could see any interesting shape within the cutout. I snip away little pieces here and there till I come with an image. I glue a backing paper to the cutout and sometimes as a final touch I coat it with wax (last photo).

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Yarn Bombed Mixed Media Altered Cigar Boxes

Plain wooden boxes are like catnip to me. I have to paint, sketch, scrap, embellish and alter them in any direction my muse takes me. This was a $5 cigar box.

It has been sitting in the attic for several months. I brought it down to my studio a few days ago with no idea as to what I wanted to do with it. I decided that I would yarn-bomb it. Currently, I am on a yarn-bombing spree.  I do not knit or crochet but  wrap knitting yarn around objects in a variety of ways using glue to hold it in place. You could call it yarn-bombing redux :)

In the photo above, you can see the design with yarn and fabric. I gave the box a funky look by adding tall legs which were also yarnbombed.  Now the humble box is a magnificent gallery stand for all kinds of objects!

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Art on Wood with Paint, Yarn and Inca Gold

Art on wood--my favorite medium. Materials used: wood boxes, acrylic fluid paints, yarn, Inca Gold by Viva Decor. Can you tell my favorite colors?:)

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