Blessing A Day

India Art Journal July3,4,5 By Meera Rao

One of the first things I always do when I get to India is to visit the Ganesha Temple right across from my parents' house and give my thanks for  having had a safe journey over seas and continents :)  At the temple there is always tasty 'prasada' that is distributed to the devotees. In most of the temples, leaf bowls are used to make it easier for all to either consume it right there or take it home while also being environmental fiendly- a practice that is actually very ancient.

Most all Hindu household yards have a little special 'pot' where 'tulasi' plant is grown. Tulasi is considered as sacred, used in religious services and worshipped every day. It also is proven to have potent medicinal qualities and used in traditional treatments.

The lady in the last skectch is decorating the temple entrance with rangoli - elaborate designs that are drawn free hand with rice powder. While chatting with her I found out that she does this almost every morning as a volunteer 'seva' to the Lord. I definitely did not do justice to her beautiful 'rangoli' design.

I would like to end with a quote by Mark Twain from an account of his trip to India:

"In religion, India is the only millionaire....the One land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of all the rest of the globe combined."

~Mark Twain.  

Textured Story

Reverie  mixed media 15x13" by Meera Rao

"Only this: if you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer. It means you are so busy keeping one eye on the commercial market, or one ear peeled for the avant-garde coterie, that you are not being yourself. You don't even know yourself. For the first thing a writer should be is—excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms. Without such vigor, he might as well be out picking peaches or digging ditches; God knows it'd be better for his health."  These words are by one of my favorite authors, Ray Bradbury from his :"Zen in the Art of Writing"   'Writer', I think, can be easily substituted by 'painter.'    

One way for me to be excited is by experimenting. I played with watercolors, gesso, stencils and collage and the resulting painting is Reverie - conjuring up the image of a serene lady I remembered from many years ago on a rainy day at the foot of a hill near what seemed like a thousand steps leading to a temple at the very top. She was making garlands for the devotees to buy and offer it as a prayer when they get to the temple but was really lost in her own world.  I added textures with gesso, stencils, and collaging torn bits of rangoli designs, tissue and handmade paper.  

As Ray Bradbury said in his essay, "And the stories began to burst, to explode from those memories, hidden in the nouns, lost in the lists." Not as eloquent as his stories, nonetheless, one all my own. 

Meandering Lines

A Day in The Life - Rangoli doodle pilot G-2 pen

I am not sure  cleaning up my doodle when I transfered it to the Fiction Project sketchbook was a good idea.  After tearing off a couple of pages (now I have fewer pages to fill!) because my freehand doodle was not going the way I wanted, I realised forced doodling is not going to have a free flowing feeling to it!!! I have a weakness for rangoli doodles so I can free hand a rangoli when I have to and not check any rangoli design books.  Rangoli with these continuous lines are my favorite - I try to see how long I can go on with the line before it meets the starting point.  Some traditional rangoli start with even or odd numbered dots and you weave the lines around it. How you place the dots, how many  dots  in each subsequent rows, and how many rows of dots all lead to different designs. With regard to the sketchbook, I have decided to draw only on the right hand side of the book, not fight the thin papers and just accept imperfections.

Did you know Google has special doodles of its logo to celebrate important dates in a calender year. Check out their Google doodle art! 

Masterful Storytelling

Kathakali is a beautiful form of dance-drama from the state of Kerala in India. In very expressive body language and precise hand movements called mudras, with extremely elaborate costumes and make up that enhances facial expressions, tales from the great Indian epics are told to melodious music and spirited percussion beats. For years these were usually all night performances, with the exciting climax coming at the wee hours of the morning.

I painted this face using some photographs and lots of memories as reference on a sheet of cold press watercolor paper on which I had done some calligraphy and rangoli painting. The colored words in this blog entry are links to various picture galleries and more information on Kathakali.

Face of a story watermedia 12x9"

Invocation by Design

This week it was my turn with the 'painted prayers.' I made simple and small 'rangoli' for friends who are getting ready for pooja celebrations. The first photograph shows three made on plates using different lentils/dals etc. The other two are on wooden boards. I roughly sketched the designs with a erasable marker on the plates. My friend Sudha helped me fill in with the grains and lentils. The designs on the wooden boards were done the traditional way using dots to plot out and then painted with white acrylic (the middle two) and chalk (last one). The links for my other posts on the age old custom of rangoli, mandala and explanations can be reached by clicking on the title of this post.

Traditionally, Rangolis are created in color or with just white rice powder as invocations to deities for protection and blessings. The rice powder also stops the ants etc by the door too! They vary in designs, form and style from region to region. They are painted daily or on special occasions by the alters, by the front door or gate, or anyplace a ceremony is to be held. Stephen H. Huyler's books Painted Prayers: Women's Art in Village India and Meeting God: Elements of Hindu Devotion are good references on rangoli. I embroidered a rangoli to hang in my living room when we first purchased our house - my way of having a rangoli in the house all the time :). I feel blessed to be a part of the sacred ritual that brings balance to the daily existence.

Painting A Prayer

To witness the concentration, reverence and the skill with which the Buddhist monks construct a Mandala is a mystical experience. For the past ten years, every summer, we have had the privilege of looking into the Tibetan Buddhism and culture as the Monks spend a week paint and then ritually deconstruct a mandala. 'Rangoli' from India, Buddhist Mandala, Native American sand paintings all speak of yearning of the soul for enlightenment and I feel, are really painted prayers. Mandala Meditation is one of my attempts to capture that spiritual language. I originally posted this as one of the paintings in a slide show of my paintings last November, but decided this week, in honor of the Monks who are back in town, to post it by itself. You may check my other posts and paintings on this topic here. I am looking forward to watching the prayers unfold this week all over again.

Mandala Meditation, color pencils 11x14"

Gift of Vision

I encountered these goats on our last trip to India while visiting my Uncle in the countryside. We had to wait for the herd to cross a very country road. It was a hot summer day with the sun blazing in full glory. In this painting  I have tried to simplify the scene and show the heat, sun and the docile goats on their daily walk. Now it is framed and stays leaning against other paintings in my dining room waiting for a chance to hang somewhere. 

I need a still life set up, a photograph or two, a landscape or a model to look at so I can draw or paint. I do an abstract every now and then but mostly I use some kind of physical reference to paint from. None of my paintings are larger than 40" though most are much smaller.  I still have most of the paintings I have created.  When I was younger, many mornings we did a  fresh  but simple 'rangoli' on the front yard by the door with the rice flour or chalk. I didn't think twice about sweeping it off the next morning. Every 'navaratri' festival, my grandmother had us all help her make a big rangoli with colorful flower petals. We were a bit more attached to these elaborate creations wanting it to last longer. Now, every August, I admire the Buddhist monks diligently paint a sand mandala slowly, taking a full week to finish it- only to deconstruct it couple of hours later. Check this link to watch Peter Donnaly in Christ Church, New Zealand create beautiful masterpiece on sand every  day by the beach and and offer it to the ocean as tide comes in.  All this has me reflecting - what does it mean to create, share, hold on or let go?