artnlight

With so much happening recently, I'm afraid I have let some really important acknowledgments and Thank you's go by. One is to Neehar Mishra and the Ideal Home and Garden Magazine for such an in-depth coverage of my work, be it my decor assignments or my products. I was amazed to see page after page of my work beautifully laid out.

And the 2nd and very important Thank you goes to the prestigious KYOORIUS Design Magazine. They invited me to write a column on my creative process & for this I am especially grateful to Bindu Nair of the Kyoorius team who told me to just say it like it is (I had my reservations of giving a serious design magazine, where serious people write serious things about design, a 650-1000 word piece on what comes instinctively to me) But I wrote it & Kyoorius was kind enough to send me a personalised copy of the magazine, apart from putting me on their cover. Like, wow!

I want to thank Christine for doing an interview of me called Rajasthan Dreams" in - hold your breath- Somerset Studio, an art & mix-media magazine in the USA I have the deepest respect for. I got to know in the thick of my work a month back that the interview was published when my reader Charmi Shah wrote to me about it and I wondered how I will get a copy. Charmi also sent me pics of the magazine sweetly. So imagine my happy surprise when I get a parcel & I open to see the magazine & the goodies which Christine 'just' graciously sent along.

To hold my own copy in my hands & see myself featured alongside artists like Connie Freedman was an inimitable feeling. The magazine is packed with inspiration which I'd love to share with you in the days to come. More soon!

This is a post i wrote 2 weeks back & it didn't make it to the blog cause I didn't manage to edit the pictures. I thought i must rewrite it but didn't because this was how my life was 2 weeks back. I am finally getting to rest after the looonnggest spell of work work work.
What a blur these days are going in. A blur of activity, work, deadlines. I have been preparing for a BIG exhibition(s) that's coming up along with my other projects. I will keep you guys posted as soon as I have something to show. Everything seems to be gearing up to a crescendo. I have missed all of you & I have missed blogging - how longingly I think of posting these days. I also think fondly of the days when I started blogging & I truly had the time to do it well & lovingly & now I only seem to be running. There are challenges and things I have been avoiding which are bang in front of me saying "Deal with me NOW, I am here". I am a list maker, a deadline meeter & doer, doer, doer. And that's how I'm managing to keep my head above the water - well, almost. And in the middle of all this doing, I must not forget to acknowledge all the goodness that is coming my way in the form of various media mentions and interviews. With a heart full of gratitude, I want to thank Chandana Banerjee of the Pink Elephant Writing Studio for this really well written article in the September Issue of the BBC Good Homes. I'm featured along with the super talented Dithi Chakraborthy of Deezden & Kalyani Ganapathy of Kye. I especially loved the way BBC Good Homes layed out these pages.

It has been a month that has demanded a lot out of me & it has also been a month of amazing acknowledgment. And I stand in the middle of both these polarities and hold myself still, so I can focus better on the work at hand.
Pictures and news of the exhibitions coming up next! Along with some proper blogging which I have truly missed!

Ragini Singh, Creative Director of Better Homes and Gardens had contacted me in December last year for a feature & I had forgotten all about it. Then I was contacted for a shoot last month- I was a little apprehensive as my office is not exactly a swanky place and I was in the middle of preparing for Art Bazaar, so it was all really cramped up with all kinds of products coming out of everywhere.

But in came Ashima Mehra, armed with her lights, camera, cheerful smile & in half an hour we moved tables, decided what to keep where, and we were rolling. We were laughing so much and it helped that I could see Ashima really liked the products, we decided to hang the unpainted 'Rockstar' mirror, we shut the connecting door, hung my triangular mirrors in front of it. Arranged the Bombay series in a stack on the table, brought out the alphabets 'FUN' and 'HA' and things began to look promising. But I was still standing awkwardly in the midst of it all.

Suddenly it struck me to hold my favourite 'DO' in my hands and I didn't feel like an aimless blob in the middle of my products. Ashima knew she had her shot. And this is about how long I can go on an on about an hour's activity :) And Thank you Kriti Malhotra for following up on this write up & putting it together just right.

The fact that I haven't yet shared this BIG NEWS with you guys, is testimony to how crazy-busy last month was. But now I'm breathing & here is the dope: Artlight was on the cover of one of India's coolest design magazines - The Kyoorius Design Magazine. For those in the know, the organisers of the design event of the year the Kyoorius Design Yatra, publish a quaterly that covers all forms of visual communications including press, poster and online ads, brochures, identities, books, magazines, movie and music packaging, websites, illustrations and more. It brings together the most recent exciting works from India in one magazine. Needless to say it is read by the entire design industry and it is truly a moment of pride for me and this blog to be on the Kyoorius Magazine's cover along with design legends like Wolff Olins and international design stars like Neil Kellerhouse. Truth be told, it is downright unreal :)

When Kyoorius had contacted me for the interview, I had ofcourse spoken to them, not knowing that along with it they will actually mention 'artnlight' on the cover.

The magazine is a treat for the design professional & packed with Indian and International NOW news on design with interesting perspectives and discussions on typography and brands.

Coming up next is this really exciting photo-feature shared by a reader. Stay tuned.

I'd really like to thank everyone who reads this blog & all of you who have chosen to click on the 'follow' button. And all of you who write in to just appreciate what I do. It makes my day to see your comments coming in as soon as I've made a post. Thats what makes every minute I spend blogging worthwhile. This is for each one of you. Thank you :)

This is an exciting month! I just had to share this with you - my products have been featured in the June-July 2010 issue of Elle Decor. They are tucked away in the 'What's Now - The currant decor trend' page, two small pictures, I really had to search for it, but what the heck! Its Elle Decor, its the 1st time & I'm happy :)

Elle Decor happens to be one of my favourite reads & I love how they really cram the goodies in for readers. So much goes into putting one issue together. After I started blogging I really started appreciating what they do. There is an idea, a link, beauty & inspiration in every page. So it means a lot to me to get a mention however small in this magazine.
And coming up next is many pictures and stories from my trip to Kutch or Kachch (like they spell it now) Stay tuned :)

I had no intention of posting today. But I got this happy-making mail from Barbara McMahon- and I read it with increasing excitement- guys..., 'artnlight' has just got its 1st mention by a fellow blogger. (You can read what she says about this blog here). And that too along with bloggers like 'an indian summer' which has just about the best eyecandy around & ' how about orange' a blog that I'm a regular reader of & hugely admire.

Barbara's blog 'may december home' is about recycling vis-a-vis junking. And in her own words "If you want to turn useless junk into really cool stuff, if you want to make your home a little nicer without asking too much of the planet or your bank account, this is the place for you.." - She also has a store that sells her 'finds' where she fixes, and sometimes completely reworks used things and gives them a new life so they can be used again. What a phenomenal idea and vision for a store!