artnlight

Doe eyed beauties decked in traditional Indian sarees, big bindis, curly hair, parrots, leaves flowers, these are some of the elements I have come to look for and love in self-taught artist, Dithi Chakraborthy's frames. She paints Indian beauties from her all-white apartment in a quaint rue in the lap of the Alps". Her blogger profile reads "Self taught artist. Born in India. Living in Geneva. Eccentric, purple loving, tea addict." One meets so many people online, but what makes Dithi different is her complete approachability, openness and warmth in all her communication. This is evident in her colourful blog Deezden, where she uploads youtube videos about her art, complete with soulful bengali background music. It is a must check it out.

"My work revolves around themes from India. The colours, patterns, symbolism and the imagery are inspired by the folklorique traditions, the cultural influences and the numerous joyous festivals. I connect with this richness through my canvases. Everything starting from the Rajasthani hand block-printed fabric to the Madhubani and the Warli on mud huts in the villages; from the Bengali folk songs of the Baul family to the Kathakali costumes in Kerala, all of this inspires me."

This is one place I've really wanted to go to for the longest time. Gujarat. I've been to Ahmedabad, but to see the real Gujarat, one needs to travel to her villages. And see the women in their embroidered and bright clothes, see their indigenous mud homes, decorated in self colours and embedded with little mirrors. I will one day do that and post my own pictures. But till then I will feed my desire with these images and invite you to do the same.

Homes with this kind of work are made by the Rabari community. You can read a bit more about them here. Wikipedia has interesting things to say about the Rabari women. "The women manage the hamlets and are shrewd and intelligent. They sell wool and clarified butter to city merchants and manage all money matters. The women are strong, tall and well built. The Rabari men can often be seen roaming the countryside with their droves. They travel hundreds of miles on annual migration routes in search of new pastures to graze their animals. The Rabari women are easily distinguished by their long, black headscarves, which fall loosely to the ground. They wear distinctive heavy brass earrings which hang low, stretching the earlobes. They tattoo magical symbols onto their necks, breasts and arms. Their jewelry is modest in comparison to other tribal women. They wear small gold nose ring and silver and gold chains around the neck on which protective amulets are hung.

Lippan-kam or mud mirror work of Gujarat. Design flute has written an indepth and beautiful post on this kind of work. Do check it out here. Roma has also written a post on the mud houses of Gujarat here, which is really informative.

I loved this picture which is such an interesting and beautifully-adaptable-for-contemporary-homes way of having an altar.

I made this design for a very close friend. I just happened to see it today & I realised how much I need to see this right now.
"Change is the essence of life,
Be willing to surrender what you are
for what you could become"

I had never ever tried stuff like this. Earlier (for me) it was all about 2d art & about making a design look 'just so' on the computer. I've always been a texture junkie. You can see that here. But I've been seeing so much of scrap booking & journalling that suddenly I wanted to touch, feel, stick & put things together to make art. I was talking about this constantly till my friend got fed up & said, why don't you just try it. And this is what I did.

My friend is a bit of a coffee addict & I had picked up these coasters for her. I decided to create my design around it. So I added the coffee beans. Couldn't use real coffee beans cause they might corrode or catch fungus. So I got acrylic coffee beans made.

I wanted to use wood & metal alphabets. The words 'caffeine Molecule' and 'geek chic' kind of captured who she was & suddenly it strick me to use metal nuts & the artwork fell in place in my head. I made a computer illustration to get my measurements right, now the task was to get someone who would make these alphabets for me.

After knocking at a couple of wrong doors, i got my man & all that needed to be done was to stick it all together. I ran slightly short of the coffee beans and a fresh batch had to be ordered for. But I was in business! :)

I felt happy for days on end after this came together :)

I couldn't see this & not show it :) It is the Radio Music Channel Fever 104's 2009 "What's your Ear type?" calender. Caution, the humour is severely local. Enjoy! :)

The "Long lost Ear":
"It yearns and it pines, for the long forgotten songs of yore.
And requests from Jhumri Talaiyaa
"Pinky, Bablu, Munnu, Rani, Chintu et al ki pasand"
Disgusted at the thought of 'Remix'
Binaca Geet Mala is somethng it will always dig."

The 'Romeo-Laila Ear":
In ancient times, it was called the Romeo-Juliet ear,
It answers to a variety of names
in different parts of the world.
Some call it the 'Heer-Ranjha' ear,
others call it the 'Bill-Monica' ear.
The broad-minded may even call it the 'Dostana' ear.
'Do dil.... mil rahein hain'

and this ear starts beating.

"The Dingchak Ear:
It is seen in flashy cars but heard much before it is seen.
It believes that music should thump
from your head right down to your toes.
Aunty-Uncle may call it a nuisance.
But its just trying to spread the message 'Music is for everyone"

The 'Yo Ear":
It wants the world to know- YO
That music is in his blood- YO
might not get a word- YO
still pretends to be YO-YO
Juggy D, JayZ, Snooo Dogg- YO
Will the real Slim Shady stand up -YO

The "Repeat Ear":
It listens to 200 songs a day. The same song,
Played over & over again.
It listens to 200 songs a day. The same song,
Played over & over again.
It listens to 200 songs a day. The same song,
Played over & over again.
It listens to 200 songs a day. The same song,
Played over & over again.

The Bappi Da Ear:
'Aya ma disco dancer'
it sizzles at the sound of night -laabhers'
Completely disco, completely Da,
so what if the 'gaan' is fully copied,
It doesn't like 'rona', only fond of black and 'sona'
Loves to hear someone say,
'Pyar beena chain kahan re'

The 'Rock-around- the clock' Ear:
It can never have enough,Its plugged in 24x7. In the metro,
in the elevator, during a coffee break, it grooves all the time.
Even when nature calls & its time to pee. It was born with the earphones on.
"Hello! Hello!Hello is undoubtledly its fav song.

You have a 'Saloon Ear' if,
a) you own Altaf raja videos
b) you love Himesh, with or without the cap
c) your barber is secretly your best friend
d) you enjoy your 'champi with 'akhiyon se goli maare' playing in the background
e) you think you look hot in your polyester yellow shirt

You are a 'Dard-e-Ear' if
a) there's a picture of Meena Kumari in your closet
b) you start your day with a break up song
c) you end your day with a break-up song
d) If Melodrama were a country, you'd be the queen
e) comedies hurt your sensitive ear-drum
Shayondeep Pal, Harpal Singh, Anil Kumar N, Shoneeka Ghai, Souvik Datta and Abhishek Misra are the guys who created this. Take a bow people!