My Art

M

Myy art is a collage of thoughts and visuals. the mix bag of thoughts, emotions, the visuals that pass me by, the things I touch..their textures, feel and buoyancy. 

I wish I could say my art means this and this but I can’t, cause it doesn’t. At best, I am trying to make sense of what is going in my head and with my hands. In fact I respect, my not so dexterous, hands a lot and respect everything they do. I don't like my mind controling my hands. The brain's job is to give the stimulus and leave the rest to the hand. I truly believe that. This is the first time that I am writing about my work. I don't feel art should be written about. It should be seen, felt, experienced…not explained. 

Then why am i writing? Cause I need to be confident about my thoughts and feelings. And when push comes to shove I should be able to fish out the right words to “explain” my work to my self and to those who want answers in words. 

I am not trying to express myself nor am I ernest about people understanding me. I would love my work to slowly disintegrate and disappear cause their purpose to come to fruition is over. But what I create is not like food or rangoli or light drawings. it is solid and permanent (it will definitely survive my lifetime) and hence i need to find a place to keep them, store them…sell them.  Awkward but true. 

All my creative pursuits have been a process of self discovery, observation of the self. It is not an attempt to understand the self but often to just observe ( a bit like how a baby plays with her own hands and feet).  My pursuits in Visual arts, my works in natural materials like wood, clay, gourds are almost always a process to observe how my subconscious interacts with my physicality to create something. The natural world is a mental landscape for me as much as it is a physical one and I remain intrinsically aware of humans as a part of nature.  As an educator my intrigue lies in the inception of thought in the very young minds. I choose the medium of expression depending on the need of the subject. Be it filmmaking, carving wood, bending metal or working with children in a learning space, are all the amorphous journey of creative pursuits. The Documentary Ramji Thakkar Bhimji Thakkar on the folk form of garba was a journey into my growing up years to relook at what shaped me, what shaped a generation and how a city and its culture can influence each other.