So I was perusing my Instagram feed the other day (as I know that we all do now and again) and I came across an incredible artist that I wanted to share with all of you. This week’s post does not have anything to do with Indian culture, but rather, something festive that is still related to art and just in time for the holidays! Maarit Hänninen is an artist and linocut printmaker based in Amsterdam and her beautiful paper ornaments really caught my eye, inspiring me to make my own. She uses linoleum blocks to carve out intricate designs and then applies them to create three-dimensional sculptural ornaments that are a perfect fit for the holiday season. She has clear instructions laid out on her Instagram, pdf templates free for anyone to print out, as well as videos detailing how she puts everything together. I made one the other night and it turned out wonderfully! I wanted to share this with all of you in case anybody is interested in a fun and easy way to spruce up their bedroom. I have attached the links below, feel free to comment if any of you try it out! I know this week’s post was very short, but I wanted to make sure that I took the time to share something that made me smile. During these trying times, all we can do is share a little joy. I hope that you all have a restful and incredible winter break and enjoy the holidays. Stay safe and as always, see you next Sunday! https://www.instagram.com/maarit.hanninen/ https://maarithanninen.com/pages/downloads ~ Riya
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How about another story this week? With the stresses of exams and the end of the semester, I thought that it would be a fun post! This is the story of the Goddess Lakshmi and how she came to be. The drawing shown this week is my recreation of one by Bijay Biswaal, done completely in ink. Enjoy! Each and every deity in Hinduism has significant importance. The Goddess Lakshmi symbolizes good luck and is the goddess of wealth and prosperity. The story begins with a meeting between Sage Durvasa and Lord Indra, the God of weather. Sage Durvasa offered a garland of flowers to Lord Indra who took the garland and placed it on the forehead of his flying elephant, Airavat. The elephant took the beautiful garland of flowers and threw it down on the earth. Durvasa got angry at this disrespectful treatment of his gift and cursed Lord Indra, saying that his kingdom would be ruined in the same way that the flower garland was ruined when it was thrown. At this point in the story, it is important to understand that these sages were very easily angered and often times full of excessive pride. Following this encounter, Sage Durvasa walks away and Lord Indra returns to his kingdom where changes have already started to take place. The gods and people are losing their energy and vigor, the crops and plants are starting to die, citizens are foregoing any charity work, their minds are becoming corrupted by darker forces. With the Gods getting weak in the kingdom, the demons and demonic forces invade, defeating them. It is said that this is the reason that good and evil reside in us all. After being defeated, the Gods went to Lord Vishnu, the ruler of the universe, to ask for help. He suggested that the churning of the ocean would restore the power back to the Gods by providing them with the antidote that would make them immortal once again. Thus, the churning of the ocean began. Think of this as a literal game of tug of war between the Gods and Demons. From this churning, the Goddess Lakshmi rose out of the waves seated on a full-blown lotus. The Gods got their power back and fought the demons again, and this time, they were successful. I hope that each of you has a great end of the semester and may the Goddess Lakshmi grant a bit of luck on all of your exams. As always, if anything that I discussed in this post stands out or if any questions arise please feel free to comment and share your thoughts! Looking forward to next Sunday! ~ Riya From a young age, I have always taken inspiration from artists that I admired. I would spend hours on end scouring through their works, mimicking them, committing their intricacies and details to memory, learning from how they presented such deep and complex emotions. This week, I decided that I would talk about one artist I discovered in high school, someone who’s art has spoken to me and has inspired me in my own work as well. Kehinde Wiley is a Los Angeles native and New York-based visual artist who is known for his incredible portrait paintings. Wiley’s imagery creates a sense of ambiguity and provocative perplexity. By juxtaposing his subjects with the style of the piece, applying the visual vocabulary of glorification, history, wealth, and prestige to the portrayed figure, Wiley creates images that become larger than life. His work has a way of pervading into a realm that is both hyper-realistic while also creating an air of vague mystique. Initially, Wiley’s portraits were created based on photographs taken of young men from the streets of Harlem. As time went on, he grew to exhibit more of an international view, including models found in landscapes throughout the world. He was even the artist to create the presidential portrait for Barack Obama. The models that he captures are dressed in their everyday clothing, assuming poses found in paintings or sculptures representative of the history of their surroundings. This juxtaposition of the “old” with the “new” is so visually potent and is what captured me when I first saw his work. His paintings evoke conversation and awaken complex issues that many would rather not be discussed.Wiley’s exploration of the human form against incredibly beautiful backgrounds is what I took inspiration from and channeled in some of my artwork as well. One of my pieces piece, titled The Modern Brahma, done in mixed media ranging from watercolor, gold leafing, and acrylic has a background inspired by Wiley’s. In the piece, I create a rendition of Brahma, the four-headed God of Creation in Hinduism. The subject displays various heads, each holding a different expression. It is clear as well that the subject of the painting is not Indian, but rather Caucasian. This choice was to show the internal struggle that I have always had between staying true to my roots and culture versus wanting to fit within the American society that I have grown up in. That feeling of being an outcast and alienated is demonstrated through the countenance of the foremost face, while pride for my culture is shown in the smile on the other. The faces also all adorn a bindi on their foreheads, juxtaposing my traditional background and culture with my modern American society and upbringing. As I’m sure many other artists do, I love taking inspiration from the works of other artists. I hope that I brought to light an incredible artist who is a leader in his craft and someone that I truly admire. As always, if anything that I discussed in this post stands out or if any questions arise please feel free to comment and share your thoughts! Looking forward to next Sunday. ~ Riya |
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