When story tellers meet...

Just back from New Artist Fair @ The Old Truman Brewery, London from Sept 8-10. About 100 selected artists from all corners of the world exhibited at the fair; and I am still wondering how I landed up to be one of them....

On 8th morning, when we started setting up my paintings at the venue, I had no clue what my neighbor artists were putting up. Anastasia from Russia, Giacomo from Italy, Arturo from Spain, Hede from Iran, Madeleine from UK, Isidore from Greece, Michelle from China, Bev from UK, Seema from India, ....each of us, the story tellers, with our own style of telling stories displayed our stories on the walls of our allocated spaces.....And so, when the doors threw open for private view that evening, I felt the walls and all corners of the exhibiting hall turned into a tapestry weaved with different stories...greeting people with colors in that wonderland....

Posted by Prantik Sinha on Saturday, September 9, 2017

I participated at the fair with minimal expectations; yet, it gave me more than I'd ever dreamed of. Met so many people...met my fellow artists and we exchanged our views....met old and not-so-old friends like Samir and Subha who came long ways to support me ......met my London based friends Sourav, Tanushree, Subhamoy and Paromita with who I laughed and dined with at great restaurants thoroughly enjoying the evenings after the fair...met Maddy for the first time who befriended me on FB a few months back...met my cousin-in-law Shayak (and his wife Sujatha) who I had last seen as a kiddie (in his baby shorts)...met my school friend Sophie after 30+ years... met my aunt-in-law Kumkum after decades ...met a volunteer who works with prison inmates and was moved by my paintings 'Durga' and 'The Cold Footpath'...met aspiring artists who just walked in to have an idea about art fairs...met so many people appreciating my paintings with mere smiles in their eyes ...

Few moments have formed mosaics in my kaleidoscope of memories -- such as, a lady briskly walking by happened to casually glance at my corner, and then she dramatically stopped short in her tracks to appreciate my work ---or a snobbish gentleman who didn't care to talk to me, yet, came back thrice to glance intently at my Swiss series before he decided to buy an original painting from another artist --- or a Chinese lady who said she felt goosebumps after relating to the inspirations behind my paintings -- or a fellow American artist Joyce who started to dance mimicking the poses of my women. Few words are still ringing in my ears --"happy and smiling Moumita", "powerful paintings", "beautiful work but don't have enough money to buy one", "world traveled through paintings" .....etc..

True, didn't make any sales and that didn't disappoint me. People took pictures and posed in front of my paintings.  Art fair is not about sales. It is about meeting people and it turns out that every person is a story teller...

Life...train...station...tracks

Travelling in Switzerland is so much fun with a Swiss pass! The pass is valid for a certain number of days, and there is no hassle of buying tickets to go to any specific location during its validity.

We don't like popular tourist destinations. The numerous selfie sticks up in the air destroys the sheer beauty of the place; instead we love to go to unknown or lesser known places to enjoy the quietness. My hubby proposed...."let's get down at random stations, and board whatever train that comes next"....

When we got down at Sarnen en route Alpnachdorf, a small village where we were supposed to retire for that night, it was almost dusk. It was an evening to be etched in my memories for years to come. As I looked around, the surroundings were engulfed in a mystical blue hue. The blue had an enchanting spell and I was awestruck by its beauty. I have seen such blue earlier in Michigan nights but this blue in the alpine mountains was different in its own way....goes beyond my words....

Woman at the station - acrylic on 18 X 24 inches canvas panel, April 2017
AVAILABLE FOR SALE

Went up to the edge of the platform, and peered at the tracks in both directions....the tracks disappeared around the corner...seemed to come from and go in to the distant mountains....or maybe nowhere in particular? Where do we come from and where do we go? Life is so much like this mysterious train journey! We happen to hold a limited Swiss pass ever since we came to this world that lets us to be at a random station at any point of time, waiting for a train to take us to another station........

Eyes that haunt me...

A cold night before Christmas...Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco..The houses lined on both sides of the street are decorated with Christmas lights. Warmth oozes out as the smoke dances its way up the chimneys. Lights in the windows tell us stories. Maybe, inside those houses, families are sitting around the crackling fire, eating, talking, loving and laughing. Outside, people are walking by... in festive mood.

We have also left the coziness and warmth of the hotel room, and are now walking on the footpath to reach the seafood restaurant at the corner of Taylor and Jefferson streets. Cold wind is blowing against our faces, and we are just trudging along huddled to ourselves. While walking, hubby notices a streak of frothy water coming from a dark corner of the footpath...steps aside..I was about to skip across it when I meet those eyes in the dark shadows...a figure wrapped in bundle of clothes and sleeping bag, lying in a dark corner...too cold to get up and pee elsewhere....

Did I see a smirk in his eyes? While the entire world moves on in front of him, ignoring and turning him invisible, he leaves an undeniable presence... he is very much there in the dark shadows....

The Cold Footpath - 20 X 24 inches canvas panel, Feb 2017 
AVAILABLE FOR SALE

Goodbye to Identity...

Today, my Identity will be flying thousands of miles across continents to reach her new home in Johannesburg, South Africa. I am getting her ready so that she doesn't get damaged during her long journey.

I am happy yet sad.... will never get to see her again! Yes, I do develop an emotional attachment with all my paintings...it starts the day I form them..they are parts of me..It feels good when I get to see them again once in a while at their current homes..possible only if they are in my friends' houses....

Identity is going to an immigrant Nigerian family ...same as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's, author of Americanah ... I am inspired by many of her lines in that book. One of them was "I did not think myself as black and I only became black when I came to America..... Stop saying I'm Jamaican or I'm Ghanaian. America doesn't care.When you make the choice to come to America, you become black." Identity is my reflection on these lines from Americanah...more so, the difference between Non American Blacks vs. American Blacks in USA as depicted by Adichie.

As an immigrant, I too have felt my identity being reduced to an alien number (A*******), and getting generalized into a category. Why do we fail to see a person first as a human being before categorizing?

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After thought....
I love Adichie's writing style and have read all her books....she is a great speaker too... you can check out her TedTalk videos on Youtube..my favorite is one on the danger of a single story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg

daffodils...coffee...Swiss memories...new ideas

It's a lovely morning out here. The sun is dazzling in clear blue sky, revealing bright spring colors everywhere. The daffodils in our garden are splashing dashes of gold against glistening blades of green grass.

I have just varnished my recent painting Woman by the window, and now sitting on a garden chair sipping coffee. While keeping an eye on the painting so that it doesn't get toppled over in breeze, my mind drifted from today's colorful landscape to beautiful white dotted with black Swiss winter landscape, where we had been few weeks back. A white landscape has so much beauty and enigma.....all the colors are there yet we don't see them.

Woman by the window is my reflection from Zermatt - a beautiful car free alpine village nestled among tall snow covered mountains. That was a day like today when I was gazing at the landscape with a coffee mug in my hand, watched snow flakes slowly blanketing the village.

18 X 24 inches canvas panel
AVAILABLE FOR SALE 

One of my close friends M was asking me the other day whether I am going to paint a Swiss series. I had told her maybe not...today, I feel maybe yes....ha ..coffee is fueling  me with ideas....let me sketch and see what shapes up on blank canvas.....

Mountains...chants...ancient monk...positivity

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha...These days, I listen to Ani Choying Drolma while painting. I like to listen to her deep voice and the tranquil Buddhist music that plays along with her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP3YurOfqDY

Years ago, I had first heard Buddhist chants in a monastery in Kalimpong, India. Those mesmerizing sounds at the foothills of Kangchenjunga, have somehow etched in my mind that Buddha resides among the mountains. Mountains have always attracted me; I see a resemblance between them and Buddha... the serenity ...the silence... the peace.....and above all, their eternal presence in this world.

Recently, I was at Mt. Titlis in Switzerland; the clouds dancing past the alpine mountains slowly unveiled the peaks, and I saw this image of Buddha emerging from the clouds.

Being a mere mortal, I probably will never understand what exactly enlightenment means. I cannot even focus my mind to meditate; meditation sessions have never really tamed my distracted mind! But sometimes I do wonder, when I paint, maybe I meditate because I can bare my soul..I feel positive about life...

"The Enlightened One" - Acrylic on 16 x 20 inches canvas

"Sakyamuni" - Acrylic on 12 x 12 inches canvas

These two paintings are sold and no longer with me. These are images of Buddha that I hold close to my heart...the closed eyes, the meditating pose that seems to say believe in yourself, choose your path and find the truth yourself ...

Welcome...Bienvenue...Welkom...

Finally...decided to blog..although long ago, Ifemelu of Chimamanda's Americanah, had inspired me to pen down my thoughts in a web art journal. All this time, never got a way with words....

Anyway, today morning when I saw my orchid in the first rays of sun, I felt the plant was actually having a dialogue quite easily with its shadow. Lo behold! I got inspired! And so, here I am... writing gibberish. Maybe, one day when I am old and will look back at these musings of mine, I will have reasons to smile. Till then...

Looks like for the next few days, I will be spending time in designing this blog, posting my old paintings and writing about them, sketching a new idea that recently came to my mind and bringing it live on canvas....and just go with the flow of life...Om mani padme hum...