Nativity

Last year I created my ‘joy to the world’ card. This year I drew two more scenes from the Christmas story to complete the trilogy. Together they created a nice nativity scene.

Here is a detail of the ‘three wise men’

Detail of the ‘angel meets the shepherds’

Phir Milenge !!

Baby-proofing

Having Super-sis around is like an extra level of baby proofing in the house. You just need to tell her once what the baby cannot do and then she can raise the alarm when she sees the baby heading for trouble.

Phir Milenge!!

Another Project Completed.

Last year I started a project to illustrate Hindi alphabets. Having looked at the numerous and beautifully illustrated english alphabet books for pre-schoolers, I thought it would be nice to do the alphabet series myself. My daughter loves animal pictures so I set off with theme of incorporating cute land & sea animals, birds and nature into the drawings.

I gave myself a time frame but I got delayed. 10 months have gone by and finally, FINALLY this project is now complete. I have posted some progress images of this project here , here and here.  In case you are not following my Facebook page, you may have missed out  some of the illustrations I did so here is a compiled image of all the letters of the Hindi alphabet:

My client (my daughter) is very happy with the outcome and I am happy she is happy. I intend to refine it a bit more, put in some proper Hindi font (instead of my own handwriting) and create a wall poster for the children’s room but that will have to wait a little while longer. I will keep you posted.

Phir MIlenge!!

Sharing my two cents

Today I posted this image on my Facebook page, the next in my series of Hindi alphabet illustrations for my daughter.

I am way past the deadline that I had set for myself and still have a dozen or so left waiting to be drawn but I am not ready to call it quits just yet. For those who know me know that I give up easily. Fingers crossed hoping to cross the finish line on this one.

If only I had a penny for every blog post idea that I thought about , began but never completed nor posted, I would at least have 2 dimes. So I thought to myself – why not just share the ideas that popped but never lived to see the light of the day.
This weekend I even thought of taking the easy (easier) route to post pictures of food from our Friday night out. I usually eat the food before I can take a picture of it ( how my artist friends ever sketch and paint their food is incredible,) but this time I remembered and even instagrammed it.

It was supposed to be a quick costco run and we left the kids at home with my mom. When my husband asked if I wanted to grab a bite, I said yes but I didn’t expect he had a sit down dinner and fancy sushi/shashimi on his mind. An advantage of being married is that no make up is required. I was not dressed fancy, did not need to think about things we could talk about, no heart pounding nervousness there…. We had fun and the conversation just flowed. Given that we take kids everywhere with us , this was a nice evening of just being two of us.

Since spring is really eluding us in our part of the world, I haven’t been able to get out and take pictures in and around the city. Since my 10 week old daughter has not yet settled into a rhythm or routine, I haven’t really tested how much time I can get to do these things when she naps.

Few days ago I also intended to write , rather rant, about a discussion I had with an old friend of mine. I mean we don’t always stand on the same side of the fence when it comes to opinions but this time what my friend said was literally opposed to my core beliefs. I wondered if I even knew her anymore and if it was as easy to un-friend someone in life as it is in Facebook, she would not have known what hit her. But then isn’t this tolerance is about …. the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with.

On the subject of tolerance, I am noticing a kind of bullying happening on blogs, social media and public forums. It is as if one is being forced to agree and even celebrate and participate in certain kinds of opinion ( without being specific) and if you choose to disagree with the popular ideologies you are labelled as haters. Even if you are only politely disagreeing.

And then there is a whole list of all-time favorite topics of mine- motherhood and my children but they are enough blogs gushing over their children anyways, so I saved you another one.

The political environment in my city and my country of birth(india) also provides a lot of food for thoght but sadly even that failed to get me moving. I could go on and on about things I thought of but never developed enough to write. Over thinking on a particular topic is often as bad as jumping from topic to topic without giving proper consideration to any. The crux of the matter is this- I think it is better to write a few things than to only think of lot of things. Even sharing my undeveloped ideas here helped.

What strategies do you employ to get out of writing blocks?

Phir Milenge!!

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Present.Continous.Tense

Last week, almost Six weeks post the birth of my second daughter, I was able to revisit my old art projects. I posted the next in my series of hindi alphabet illustrations as well as worked on the sketchbook exchange.

Last week was also when I came across the following in a daily online magazine:

“The painter, Wayne Thiebaud, once said that “an artist has to train his responses more than other people do. He has to be as disciplined as a mathematician. Discipline is not a restriction but an aid to freedom.” Thiebaud insists that rather than being opposed to creativity, discipline provides the conduit through which creative engagement grows and develops freely.”

Oh ! I agree with the sentiment whole heartedly. I can tell you it was hard to get back to drawing after being passive for so long. It took longer to complete and I made more mistakes. I started this blog as another medium for self-expression – Started out as a mom-blog and then it converged with my drawing interests. Somewhere in between my writing lost it’s thrust and the blog went ignored for a very long period . Now, try as I may , I am yet to get back to my rhythm of posting regularly here. What my creative force still lacks is discipline. I have written about my struggle with disciplined creativity before but parenting two kids takes it to a whole new level.
Life with an infant is unpredictable. The daily routine I had going is not followed all the time. Depending on the baby, the schedule for my elder one changes. Sleeping, story time, reading and all other pursuits have to be constantly pushed around. Now-a-days my flair for story telling is limited to hashing out ever-new stories to get my three year old to eat her food or finish her chores (yes ! I have given her some chores . Yes . at HER age!but thats a topic for some other day) . With my mother around it has been easy. I have been able to find time to rest. I can’t imagine yet how hectic life will be when she goes back to India. The very thought makes me tense.

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.

Corrie Ten Boom

 

Even though , I am not actually creating a lot of work, I am certainly observing more and observing more intently. Creativity demands a presence of mind and a presence of Your self. My hope is that all the mental notes that I am taking for myself, I will be able to bring them to fore when I actually sit down to draw or create. I am trying to be present.

present to see

present to feel

present to process

Rather than getting disappointed at not finding enough time to do the thing, I am trying to keep the momentum going, the thoughts flowing and the process continuing.

continue to explore

continue to dream

continue to steal from time…a moment here and a moment there.

Phir Milenge!!