A Salute to the Art of Improvisation!

Every peice of art that we make is never a masterpiece. Sometimes as I experiment different techniques, I end up with pieces that are not worth the second look and yet definitely do not belong in the trash merely because - they are my creations!

No matter how big or small our homes are, a point comes when we got to clear the clutter and all these "not so good" pieces get the hardest kick. Recently I have been at it and found some 11 x 14 pieces of designs on yupo that had a thick layer of a blob like thing; the kind of blob that made them seem a disaster! I pleaded with my brain to come up with some way to use them and even ardently prayed to dear god; finally what seemed like a eureka moment - I was prompted to use the "Art of Improvisation".

Improvisation was a final attempt to revive their usability. I looked around me and saw some leftover water in a bottle that I had attempted to finish minutes ago. I divided the water into three separate bowls (small) and added couple drops of three different inks in each. It was now a diluted medium of yellow, brown and orange. Then I took some of each in my palm, poured it on the designs, let it flow and take its place on the cards. Since it was really wet and very late, I had to let it dry through the night.

The morning came sooner than I expected and the cards beat the morning tea to grab my attention. Its best to use a flat and straight surface when drying a wet card was my morning lesson. They had now graduated to an uneven beauty - wonderful super thin transparent glassy effect on one side of the card and absolutely nothing on other and the blob still dominantly spreading itself in the center but now making little more sense and blending with atleast one part of the composition. Anyways after a cuppa of my best microwaved tea, I first cut the cards into two inches wide strips and then converted them into bookmarks after additional trimming. The pieces with little or no color were now ready to be re-created and "improvised again" and the others had evolved into a bookmark with a layered effect (tiny part of the blob as top layer and the thin glassy effect as the bottom layer).  

The one with layered effect is pasted to my right here and the one without layered, is the picture to my left.

By now, excited with an elevated mind (without caffeine), I decided to do more and drew random outlines for some of the self formed shapes in the bottom layer. A personalized message on the back of the bookmark and the overall outcome made my day!

I salute the Art of Improvisation, for now I had some simple gifts for some of my dear friends and ofcourse fun along the way.

Understanding Abstract art !

Like many, I have also struggled to understand abstract art which is often referred as modern art. I thought the best way to understand something is to get deeper into it and experience it. So I started making small pieces of art which were sort of abstract to me. However when I shared a newly created piece to my colleagues, friends or family, I got mixed reactions. Some would ask " Whats that?", some would walk away with " thats nice" and few stood to admire or enjoy it.

Dabbling with Abstract art was a journey - going with reference to no reference. Let me explain, A painting can be replicated or referenced from nature - anything that has structure, proportion, shape, size, color and texture OR it can be created from zero reference or no starting point. Such art that is created with no reference is born from our reflections in life, experiences, thought process that cannot necessarily be put into words. Our emotions at that moment determine the color and textures. As we progress through the creation, our emotions change, our mood is further uplifted and we realize it has turned out to be completely different than what we anticipated. We are completely surprised by the outcome! It becomes our baby - our creation through the days, months and years in some cases.

So why then, is it difficult to understand or interpret this art? Well, as human beings we like defining things, we like to give structure, shape , size and form to everything we see or make; even in relationships or everything we do in life, we fix our belief with a label or a name. When we suddenly see something beyond it, we are lost. Now as my art is constantly evolving, I realize, its not as formless as I initially thought, it has a composition that works together, a set of lines created by series of colors that talk to each other or textures that mean something. The best thing however is like life, each person can have their own experience or interpretation from the same piece and walk away with their own personalized vibration. Gradually as I continue to understand better, I am beginning to love the abstractness in life, that which cannot be defined but simply interpreted /experienced.

Abstract art as I see it, is an new born expression - each time!

Experimenting Yupo !!!

Yupo - A very unique name indeed! Well when I first heard of this, I assumed it had to do with some technique. However Yupo is a kind of synthetic paper which can be used to express your artistic talents. So what's unique about yupo - its water resistant, so when used with water colours, instead of soaking the color in, it can give it a very print like, glossy look. For environmentally conscious folks - YUPO is the 100% recyclable, waterproof, tree-free Synthetic Paper.

So I bought some paper and tried working on it. I started with making 11 x 14 size papers and made few very beautiful designs with Bombay Ink and Water Colours. Since it is water resistant, you can pour a bucket of water and it will still create a puddle vs. soak it in. So I decided to experiment and play around with it - I tried using ink and water colors with no water, little water and lots of water. Each one had such a drastic difference. Ink and water colors with no water created a thick blob like abstract, little water gave it a focussed design feel with areas without water untouched and more water gave it a very glass like look and feel. Gorgeous!

Once I had played around with it and gotten a feel, I used it to make bookmarks, thank you cards and larger pieces as gifts for family and friends. While oil, acrylic and water colors have their own beauty, yupo adds change to the world of art and creativity and allows some room for diversity.

I hope all my wonderful donors for my recent fundraising love the yupo cards and bookmarks I sent them :) will try to upload pics when I can...since I dont have a camera yet, its hard but I will figure some way to upload them.