make art that is not intended for public viewing
make art for its own sake
make art for healing yourself
make art to give a voice to those wounds
make art for God’s own glory
make art not for the immediate but for the future;
a time capsule for the children’s children
make art not for any monetary gain but pay it forward
make art as you plant a tree, for those fruits they will bear
make art not for any legacy but as a letter to the person whom you will never meet
make art for
Wisdom
The most profound and wise thing to say is “I don’t know”. It requires true humility to realise the fact there are many things beyond our understanding.
Keys to Wellness
Get high on music
Meditate through movement
Sink down in aroma
Float through nature
Spread love
Beauty
“Beauty will save the world”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot
What is beauty? And what does it mean?
Dostoyevsky here must be referring to a redeeming quality of beauty that is deeper than mere aesthetics. He must be talking about truth and goodness. What does the world lack that it necessitates saving?
Does he consider the world corrupt and broken from its ways, of God’s original design? He must be referring to men and women than the world they inhabit. He must be referring to the way humans have exploited and driven themselves into corruption.
So, beauty here might be either an innate inscription deep within the hearts or something that pierces us from outside. Beauty might be something or someone outside a human system. Beauty might be a light that illuminates the path, open our eyes to what is true and good. It must have a redemptive nature. Without which, we would spiral into chaos and destruction.
What is true and good must be beautiful. Is it possible for something to be beautiful yet be against truth or goodness? Can something mimic radiance only to lead us astray?
What is a photograph
A photograph is an artefact that is frozen in time. It always represents a moment in the past, beginning from the time it is recorded. It could be yesterday, the last decade or a generation. It becomes a time capsule saved for future.
A photograph is meant to record a life event, a place, a relationship which we want to cherish and reminiscence. It is a window to the past, tethered to a day or place that matters the most. It awakens diverse emotions; nostalgia, longing, joy, heartache, contentment.
A photograph offers solace to this life of constant change and degeneration. That past is always blissful, endearing. We stay young, beautiful and cared for. It takes us back to the times with fewer regrets. We were innocent and unaware of the pain we would go through. A time we wish we could go back to undo the wrongs.
Return
Earth to Earth,
Dust to Dust,
Ashes to Ashes
As I open my eyes, I see wide open sky. I find myself lying here among the grass and the shrubs. I do not remember how I got here, or how long I’ve been. All I can sense is the song of the birds.
I see a butterfly hovering over my chest. There it made a home in my ribs. A plant has risen from the place where my eye was. I can barely move. I neither feel my arms nor my legs. All I see is a mound in their place.
A deep slumber is approaching as I lay sinking into the earth. I do not know when I will wake up again. I shall take a leave now as I return to earth; dust to dust; ashes to ashes.
Why I write
To heal a fragmented mind ravaged by the digital age
to embrace the potency of written word,
to start at the root of communication,
to know the mind of the person writing this,
to give shape to those scattered pieces of the subconscious,
a face and a name to those inner demons,
and a stash for those fragile memories
above all to think, feel deeply and live consciously;
a visually inclined man making an acquaintance with the word
What does writing do to the self?
a journey to the essence of thought
for a word as a means of inflicting emotion
in hope that writing will transform oneself from the inside
[[writing]] [[art]]
Two
Two roads
Two pills
Two eyes
Two halves of a brain
Two sides of a coin
Two poles of the earth
Day & Night
Man & Woman
Mind & Heart
Faith & Reason
Duality, Dichotomy, Paradox
The tension and the fusion between two seemingly opposite entities. What makes two a figure of extremes and a whole; all at once?
Epitaph
Weep not nor relent
My life to you was only lent
In love we lived, in peace I died
You asked my life it was denied
Grieve not nor to sorrow take
But love my children for my sake
–
From an epitaph on a tombstone of Teresa D’ Vaz, wife of a heartbroken man, Andrew D’ Vaz. Aged 26 years, she left him too early with a wound, a void and children who remind of her. They entered into a covenant, till death do them part. Yet death separated them.
The gravestone made in 1889, stands remarkably intact here in Our Lady of Good Health Catholic Cemetery, Cuddapah. It has withstood the test of time through generations, standing among the graves of brown men and women. Carved by undertaker/sculptor, Samuel Mullenex from Bangalore.
Lone wolf
Artists live in a separate world they construct over the years. This bubble of privacy is surprisingly wide and opaque to even the closest relations. You see, they are highly sensitive to stimuli. And this meditative state of mind is the soil in which ideas are grown. They cross-pollinate and flower into complex shapes of beauty.
Silence is the state that clears the doors of perception. We see the hidden valleys in bright light. Those emotions crashing like waves just under the surface are now visible. They well up and seep through the heart. An artist can not work in a state of noise.
Art making can be a rather lonely, thankless affair.
David Bayles & Ted Orland *
And Artists thrive in this state of isolation. It might be thankless as the artist wades sifts through thousands of strands looking for that way. That special direction which leads them to the place of clarity.
Personal observations from a series on ‘Art & Fear’.
Citation: Art & Fear
Listening
A truly good conversation gives us something to think about; it presents a new thought process, and a different perspective.
Being a good listener means one is open minded, curious and humble. The conversation has to be about the other, not about oneself. Listening isn’t just about words, but of the hidden cues, the emotions rolling under the surface. A conversation can happen without a word. Silence speaks a thousand words in an instant.
Humility, in conversations, would mean to accept that one doesn’t know it all. There is a whole lot to be learned from someone. There is a different perspective to be understood from years of experience in this thing called life. They have fought a different battle that we don’t know nothing about. There might be many stories to be heard.
[[Narcissists]] would put their entire attention when the discussion centers around them; and then quickly lose interest when the discussion goes elsewhere.
Masks we wear
Every human has a dark side hidden under the surface. We wear masks that warp perceptions of who we truly are. The words and actions speak different things. The wider the gap, the darker the hidden side is. Some are able to fuse these two identities remarkably well. So much so, without conflict or even cognisance of this existence.
A person of integrity is someone whose actions speaks the words. When there is unison with the words, thought and actions, there is a harmony. One should ‘listen‘ to the behaviour. Appearances are deceptive.
In politics, diplomatic relations are contrived. What the person speaks is different from what he or she does. And these [masks] are even more prominent here. They are made of swarms. They are a legion.
On Art
Art is deeply personal to me. I want my life to be surrounded with art
For now, I’d view art making as a personal pursuit. As a therapy. Or as a way a child would approach. With deep involvement. Art for the sake of it.
This might seem self-centered. However, that’s how I can set out.
I want to create art for myself. This is not meant to appease anyone. This will hang on my wall for whatever time it takes.
What is art?
What makes art good?
What adds meaning to art?
Art should be democratic and accessible to everyone.
Greatest art is when it can communicate the immense wisdom in an instant.
Art should be functional. If no body understands it, then it is not effective art.
Art should have a soul in it. It should reflect the immense beauty of nether world.
Art is not for art’s sake. Art has a higher purpose.
Art should not be ugly and morbid, unless there is a higher intention.
Art should not shy away from exploring the painful
Art can wound us and open us from the inside.
Art can be therapeutic and edifying.
Art should not cause malice.
Art should reflect the truth, beauty and goodness.
Art is forever.
Art points to the depths of eternal truths.
Art doesn’t have to appeal to everyone.
Art is the release of the innermost thoughts, desires, anguish, human connections, acceptance of mortality,
Art is a way to communicate to others things which are way subtle to convey otherwise.
The greatest work of art comes from wrestling with the void, facing it instead of scrambling to make it go away. Artist works quietly in the corner. They turn their inner turmoil into the product. The only relationship between work and chatter is that one kills the other.
Art is an axe for the frozen sea inside us.
Franz Kafka
Art should be democratic and accessible to everyone.
Greatest art is when it can communicate the immense wisdom in an instant.
Art should be functional. If no body understands it, then it is not effective art.
Art should have a soul in it. It should reflect the immense beauty of nether world.
Art is not for art’s sake. Art has a higher purpose.
Art should not be ugly and morbid, unless there is a higher intention.
Art should not shy away from exploring the painful
Art can wound us and open us from the inside.
Art can be therapeutic and edifying.
What is art for?
Art is a means of communication
Infecting others with emotions
Make others feel the intended emotions
Art coveys things that words can’t
Art points to those troughs and peaks which point to infinity
Language lacks the means of conveying the depths of emotions.
Art points to the infinite.
Art sustains us.
Art can heal us.
Art makes us more human.
Art provides catharsis.
Art is spiritually inclined.
Art is about human experience.
The purpose of Art is to prepare a man for death.
Andrei Tarkovsky
Art exists to convey and share the feelings of
Sadness
Relief
Pleasure
Gratitude
Remorse
Nostalgia
Human condition
Fears
Love
Beauty