Icon Piece

Map peice

Unity

Still Life

Winter work

- Shadow sun

- just another rock

Delhi research assignment

Kalighat School of
art

The Kalighat School of art gets its name from its street
(Kalighat) in Kolkata which has a Kali temple in it. This art form emerged
during the early 1800s, and became more prominent when the British occupied
India. The British were interested in the arts, and had established institutes
that educated Indian artists in a European manner. One of these schools in
Kolkata influenced the traditional form of art in Kolkata, and merged to create
the Kalighat School of art. Although this school of art's name revolves around
Kali (a Hindu god), and revolves around themes of Hindu gods, its art pieces
also includes other themes within them

Kalighat paintings make use of bold lines, and vibrant colours, with a simplistic background. Its
simplistic background helps in making its bold lines, and vibrant colours stick
out, and thus focuses more on the subject in the center as seen here :

http://www.mapinpub.in/bookinfo.php?id=163

http://www.vamuseum.in/kalighat-paintings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalighat_painting

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DohzvhUZ6IQ/ThSP7U9G9EI/AAAAAAAALFA/8kdcH_czBzk/s1600/Bhairavi+-+19th+Century+Kalighat+Painting.jpg

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore was a philosopher and was a symbolic
figure to the changes in several arts and India. He was born on the 7th of May
1861, and died on 7th of August 1941. His works in literature were aberrations,
and looked at positively, as it brought a fresh breath of air. His themes
revolved around more personal and political topics, which were influenced by
the British occupation of India during his lifetime. He was also a part of the
Bengal renaissance, which was similar to the European renaissance, as they
strived for freedom.

He was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1913. He started gaining recognition for his works worldwide
during the early 1900s, where he traveled from Europe to America, and stopped
along a few South East Asian countries on his way back to India. He was very
involved in contributing literary works to magazines since an early age, and
this might have been an encouraging factor for him as people responded favorably
to his works. He is well known for his short stories, as they usually consisted
of rhythm, optimism, and were lyrical. His contributions to the present era can
be seen in the two national anthems that he had composed for India, and
Bangladesh. His poems and other works are still famous today as they have
influenced other poets like Pablo Neruda, and Gabriela Minstral, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tagore3.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore

http://www.calcuttaweb.com/tagore/

Six Concentration Pieces

- Complete at mind

- Needles of calmness

- The goal, journey, and the deep breath before it.

- The moment before a blast.

- Solitude at paradise rock

- Standstill at dusk.

Calmness is a word that has one definition when looked at by the general population, yet has several meanings when looked at by an individual. Calmness has several definitions when looked at from different perspectives and I choose this topic to explore how one can find calmness out of anything, even the most mundane or desolate thing by trying to switch perspectives. An example would be seeing a nuclear fallout as silence enveloping the world as human technology stops eating up nature. I hope to show the calmer outlook in my artwork, even though at first glance they may not seem so.

The few pieces which won't appear calm at first glance comes from my exposure to video games. I have been playing various genres of video games with different art styles and themes, which all had one thing in common: calmness. It seemed like a far-fetched idea to find calmness in video games, but I found that by trying to find calmness in any situations even from someone else's perspective, one will always find it (calmness).

The pieces I make will mostly take on an unconventional perspective. Like Hitler getting calmness out of the holocaust while the World cringes. However, there will be a few traditional calm pieces like a nice scenery. I chose this topic out of a need to challenge my creativity, and to find the simple calmness embedded within almost anything.

Semester one concentration

Concentration batch #3

- home
- Standstill

Sapam October Concentration

- Complete at mind

- The goal, destination, and the deep breath before it.

Aditya Sapam

Katharina Denzinger, 1 Toy, toi toi, Drawing, pen and ink, 2008

Michael Nelson, I Don't Want to be Defeated, pencil on paper, 2010


John Casey, Day Dreamer, Graphite, 2010

Ilinca Balaban, Rituals by Which We Are Determined, Graphite on paper 2010

Erik Parra, observation deck 6::graphite, ink and marker on paper, 2011

Part 2: Synthesis

1. Explain what it is you like about these 5 artworks (elements/common threads).

- I like its simple, yet complex use of pens, pencils and markers. It's lack of color adds more to the peices instead of making it boring, because of the details given to these works. The white backgrounds help give an emphasis on the work's main subjects, because it makes the darker colors stand out. I am fond of the sort of shading the artists employed in their works. The beauty of their shading comes from its distinct values with its differences of light and dark, which also adds to the detail.

It's abstract and surrealistic values adds to its attractiveness too.

2. What is it that these elements are expressing?

- Collectively, they are expressing some sort of rebellion and plainness, through its surrealistic style. It gives off an odd, yet warm feel, as these pieces deal with perspectives, and human thoughts. It's general shape reminds of the human heart. This could be an indication of how the artist felt towards her toys from the artwork.

More in-depth: the 1st piece: It is filled with toys, as the title indicates. However, at the same time, it is viewed through the artists' eyes, and it deals with how human perspective changes.

The 2nd piece: Reminds me of one discarding an old toy to move onto something new. At the same time, the one doing the discarded seems to look back at his old body in a fond manner, which provides the warm feeling as he might be going through the good memories. It is also leaving its old body in search of something new, and going against the natural order of death.

The 3rd piece: It seems to look towards something positive with the man looking up. Along with his flask of coffee or a drink, it gives off the warm human. This is because, we like to look at fascinating things with food or drinks; like how most people enjoy popcorn and coke when watching a movie. Even his black shadow looks up to what the man is looking at. The rebellion in this piece comes from the fact that the man's black shadow, which seem evil, looks toward the man's fascination too. This is a rebellion as it is detracting from its natural task of making angry faces or whispering bad ideas into the man's ears, etc. Add the shadow's hands with its weird placement, and it's simply funny, as it seems like the shadow is about to dance.

The 4th piece: It can seen in the light of how people are meant to be a part of nature too, as Balaban places the trees in a living room setting. The trees could be an indication of the furniture within the living room, except in its raw form. It shows how Humans have turned or 'twisted' things from nature for their convenience. The title combined with the drawing works to give off its warm feeling, because its just a man, who's come back home to relax. The rebellion comes from reality itself, as Humans go against nature by destroying and morphing nature for their own benefit.

The 5th piece: It expresses some sort of desolation as seen by its plain background of hills and the flatlands. It's title is justified as the orange color makes the observations stand out. Other than the use of colors to make things stand out, everything else seems plain, yet nice to look at, as the colors compliment each other.

3. How could you take some of these strategies and apply them to your own work -- either in terms of media, formal qualities, and/or theme?

- I could use a unique color to make certain objects in my work stand out while the background and the rest remain fairly plain. It should be helpful if I placed objects in such a way that they resemble something else. Ideas of creating alter egos through mediums like shadows and water could also be something I could make use of.

Part 3: Artist In-Depth

3. Choose one artist and research what has influenced his or her work. If the artist is alive and has a website you should look at what they've written about their work. If the artist is not contemporary, then research what others have written about this artist.

- I choose John Casey, because he mainly deals with perspectives. He also mentions that he enjoys drawing, which is similar to my preferences. John Casey's artwork is a mix of perspectives of his childhood and his present mindset. It is a mix because, the creatures he draws now would have been perceived as a monster by his childhood mind. However, his present perspective sees his creatures as a self portrait in some way or the other. The complexity of his idea appeals to me, because the example of monster/ creatures that he uses to show his change in perspective is clever.

Images URL links:

http://www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram/share_portfolio.cfm?pf=311

http://www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram/share_portfolio.cfm?pf=6609

http://www.erikparra.com/works_files/page18-1016-full.html

http://www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram/portfolio.cfm

http://www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram/share_portfolio.cfm?pf=5072

Sapam: Concentration work 2

- It is a rock resembling a whale, with a knight, a tree, fire and smoke on top it. The fire resembles the water that whales pump out from their backs. The tree resembles a fin, up to a certain degree.

The source of calmness within this desolate setting where the background is blank comes form the smoke. The smoke shows the the man things he wants to see to get through the night or his journey. The smoke is provided by the rock, whose face emanates a sense of calmness.

Despite the desolate surrounding, which simply consists of water, and a blank sky, there are other rocks harboring other travelers similar to the knight too. These other rocks are seen as two specks in the background.

Sapam: Concentration Work 1

-When people have distracting or angry thoughts, they try to calm themselves with a certain item. In my case, I simply think of a nail in various backgrounds, which mainly serves as that item that blocks every other thought in my head and gives me a sense of calm.

I have always wondered about how amazing it would be to have a blue sun, so I put it in my work. along with that I reversed the natural order of colors with the sun with the sky too. I believe still water serves as a source of calmness (not influenced by chinese movies), which is why I put in still water that serves to reflect the nail.

Max Ernst's L'Ange du Foyeur

Max Ernst is known many things in terms of art. But, he is mostly famous for greatly contributing to the surrealist movement. He was born in Germany at April 2nd 1891 and died one day before his 85th birthday.

L'Ange du Foyeur by Max Ernst is one of his famous surrealist paintings, which could be interpreted in many ways. To me it first seemed like an ugly dragon/ lizard like creature stomping the ground. After I took a good look, it resembles a creature dissatisfied with its habits and behavior which is running around with a pained expression, no sense of direction; and tearing itself apart with every step. Yet it wants to retain its old self as seen by the green thing on the left, which can be interpreted as temptation. It could also be interpreted as something to do with the world wars and other worldly matters, but I feel that my opinion expressed above gives the basic and accurate idea of the possible meanings behind the L'Ange du Foyeur.

Calmness

A word that has one definition when looked at by the general population, yet has several meanings when looked at by an individual is calmness. Calmness has several definitions when looked at from different perspectives and I choose this topic to explore how one can find calmness out of anything, even the most mundane thing by trying to switch perspectives. I believe that anything can be seen in a calm manner, not just mundane things but even nuclear fallout. With an open-mind, I hope to show the calmer outlook in my artwork, even though they will all not be ‘calm’ to the general population at first glance. I hope to convey my perspective of seeing things in a calm manner.