India Travels

One of the best highlights of my visit to Chennai, India this month is the 4-day trip to Wayanad with my sister. Wayanad, located in the neighboring state of Kerala is a lush mountainous and fertile region that receives nearly 3000 mm of rains annually. Cash crops such as  coffee, tea, cardamom, pepper and cloves are grown as much in the backyards of individual homes as in big plantations.  The landscape is quite unspoiled even though Wayanad aspires to be a tourist destination. From the mountains to the lakes to free roaming fauna, there is a lot to delight the senses and lift the spirits. 

The sketch above was inspired by the kingfisher I spotted from the balcony of my room at the resort. It stationed itself on the wood stump by the lake for more than an hour trying to catch a fish, alas without luck. So, I took the artistic liberty of giving it the catch.

Below are some of the photos of the fauna that I took. Enjoy.

This female elephant was placidly grazing by the roadside when it got spooked by the sound of her jeep. She lumbered off to join the calf behind the bush.

Male elephant.

Elephant herd from a distance.

Male and female Indian spotted deer.

Egrets, storks and herons by the mucky lotus pond.

I was very circumspect when I took these pictures of the monkeys at the park. These monkeys hang around humans and know their ways. I was worried that the monkey would get upset at my taking its picture and snatch my camera!

Finally, a few snapshots of the kingfisher that inspired the sketch above.

Thanks for visiting. Linked to Paint Party Friday.

Happy New Year!

After Midnight

This is a mixed media collage based on a photo I took of the marquee of the musical After Midnight. It was a dance musical revue based on the 1930s Harlem Cotton Club and featured songs by Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and many other jazz luminaries of that period. It was a fabulous 90-minute non-stop song and dace show. I greatly enjoyed it.

The year is coming to a close and this is probably my last post for the year. I wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season and a very happy 2016.

Before signing off, here are some more pictures from my visits to various museums in Santa Fe.

First Native-American Saint

The photos below are from the Museum of Indian Arts ad Culture. These are artwork installed outside on the museum grounds called Sculpture Garden.

Thanks to Kristin and Eva. Linked to Paint Party Friday.

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.

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and Paint Party Friday