There is beauty in everything and God is in Details. Such has been my experience and journey. I have been inspired by the tiniest and the grandest sight in nature - from the soft and gentle flower petals to the thorny cactus and the old twisted trees, the everchanging clouds and colours of sunrises and sunsets. Nature is my homecoming.

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Since childhood I have liked to draw and paint. I used to like pencil work and would copy (by observation) the Rajasthani women paintings on the "Season's Greeting's" cards that would come every Diwali. I would also look at photographs specially of tigers and leopards and create them on cartridge paper with various pencils. Before I reached College of Art (New Delhi) for Applied Art, I had painted large murals of Rajasthani women scenery using poster colours on my room walls, many times over. I liked doing portraits and sat many a people down for a wonderful experience of being able to do it.

 

College taught me the commercial aspect of art - logos, graphics, photography,  posters, campaigns and the fact that advertising (that which we were learning to accomplish) was a huge lie. So it was clear in my heart that I was not going to put my energy in to some field that is blindly dishonest and we would be just branding products that may be projecting false information to the innocent public. My favorite subjects were History of Art and Aesthetics. I finally felt that I was re-connecting to something bigger that I had already known. I loved studying Indian art and architecture and the knowledge of all the Sutras and Shastras that have made the awe -inspiring ancient temples of India possible. I had come to a deep knowing that what people called Indian "Mythology" is no myth, its the greatest truth. And the same can be applied for Greek and any other "mythology". How it happened was my biggest question.

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The life stories and works of great artists like Van Gogh, Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Monet, Modigliani, Klimt, Dali, Goya and so many more inspired me to paint like them. Renaissance was my greatest learning about the western world. I fell in love with Leonardo Da Vinci and his mystical life, mind and works, Michelangelo and his works made me want to travel to all the places of his legacy.

 

By the time I finished college I had new dreams of "one day", traveling all of south India by car (with someone because "a girl can't travel alone in India") and explore all the temples and structures that I'd learnt about. I also got this huge urge to go to Santorini (Greece) one day, but wanted to go with someone special. But all this had to wait as I had already made plans to go do my Masters in Fine Arts in USA. My dream was San Francisco but New York called me to School of Visual Arts for MFA in Computer Arts, Multimedia in 1999.

Here my programmer arose along with intuitive designer, the musician and photographer. Apart from my class work being creative, exciting and expansive, my thesis, A Symphony of Black and Grey, an interactive multimedia piece that takes the viewer into a day of my life in New York, won the Paula Rhodes Award. Unfortunately, Director (multimedia software) and Lingo (its programming language) was made obsolete within 6 months of my graduation.

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2001 Working in New York

I worked with Guggenheim.com for about 6 months before the attack on the World Trade Towers made them shut shop. I had 'somehow' overslept that day else I would have been inside the train station in the basement of the burning buildings, or walking to my office situated two blocks away from the twin towers. I watched the second tower come down in front of my eyes across the Hudson river, while I stood at Newport waterfront in sadness, shock and a voice in my head that said that I will not bring another child in this world because this world is not meant for the innocent anymore. I will adopt a child as there are many out there that need love and guidance. I was 24. Soon I was standing in line to receive my paycheck from Red Cross, hearing the scary, sad, unfortunate, mysterious, and many synchronistic stories. In my heart I did not like standing there because I felt someone else might have the needed the money more than me. Soon I was ferrying across the river to work at a head-hunter firm as a Tech Support Manager for Citibank for about a year before moving back to India. 

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In Delhi, I started working as a Freelance Multimedia Artist which included my print media skills as well. Over the next 13 years I taught and upgraded myself in Flash, XHTML, JavaScript, PHP, CSS and CMS. Its when WordPress came to make the entire web world look like a newspaper/ magazine and the clients wanted that, I let go of freelancing as a Website Designer, Developer and Host. I had a stint for 6 months with GE (2005) which made me realise that I'm not cut out for the corporate misogyny, chauvinism and politics and to top that they paid me half of what i was earning by myself as a freelancer.

 

I had also taken up pottery in 2005 and had a group exhibition in 2006 with 4 other friends, 100 pieces each. Pottery taught me Patience. It taught me how to breathe, and let go. "Sab Maaya Hai" - Everything is an Illusion - my pottery teacher Anil Sir, would often repeat the proverb, especially when a beautiful piece went into the final fire and didn't make it out allright.  After the successful exhibition my freelance work got momentum and I bought myself a car and named her Daisy.

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Then I got married, moved to Geneva, learnt French, made soul-sister friends, paraglided and then I fled for my life from the wife beater. I fought for justice in Delhi with the mother of the groom coming to courts for two and half years and signing the divorce papers too.

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Now I needed pen and paper and paints

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But before that I had to listen to my soul calling to learn Yoga in such a manner that I never have to look for a class to go to anymore. Plus i was broken and wanted to run away from EVERYTHING for a few months at least if not a year. Just SILENCE. In January 2013, I was blessed to have been initiated to Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudeva, and my journey then on has been a wondrous one - spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally and creatively.  I started emptying my self out, thanks to Yoga, by drawing, sketching, writing, traveling and just being. I started literally with doodling the way I used to in school behind my notebooks. I’ve always had a few traveling journals all my life, to jot down everything and nothing, making maps, scribbling, to do lists, poetry, measurements, ideas, thoughts – you know how it is. I’ve also written many books in my mind and slowly been working on them too.

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Back to doodling. In 2015, I allowed myself to draw abstract. Mainly lines and patterns seem to flow and complete the picture. While the picture emerged in front of my eyes, my being present made me feel and understand the image and its lines. I felt guided step by step. from within to change the pattern, or darken an area. I felt the energy of the elements and forces as I drew various types of lines depicting air, water, fire, earth and flow. My breath was different when I started but always relaxed and mind calm and easy every time I finished a session of drawing. Sometimes I have felt blocked and done rough drawings with a pencil before committing to it. My Doodles and Drawings like my other works are channeled and evolve over an elongated period of time and place. They all have a story in them and lately I’ve felt prophecies too.