Conjuncts

http://www.devipaduka.com/formsandpublications/Sanskrit--Module-01-V10-final.pdf

तुमचा दोन मुर्कांचा उदाहरण खरा आहे पण शिकणाऱ्याना माहिती पुष्कल आणि वेगळ्या वेगळ्या रस्त्याने घेता येते। फक्त इच्छा असावी। अदुनिक्ता आमच्या समोहर उभी आहे। ज्यांच्या कड़े जाणीव आहे ते आपल्या तर्फे शिकन गया। पण ह्या बापतित माता वर ठेवा आणि फूड निघा। हा एक उपाय।

राष्ट्राचो वोदिल /वडील
راشتراچو ودل

http://www.arshavidyacenter.org/new/sanskrit/segment1.2.pdf

नमो नमः
औं द्धयः
ह्रिम हृम ह्रीम
 ःरोम ह्रोम् ःअम वं हं अं
क्रोम क्रिम क्रम
स्त स्ता स्ति स्ती स्तु स्तू स्ते स्तै स्तो स्तौ स्तं स्तः
http://www.learnsanskrit.org/references/devanagari/conjunct
జయన

http://sanskritdocuments.org/learning_tutorial_wikner/P058.html

Beej aksharas (seed syllables).
Beej-ing myself through them. There are hundreds.
द्द द्दा द्दि द्दी द्दु द्दू द्दे द्दै द्दो द्दौ द्दं द्दः (dd…)

द्भ द्भा द्भि द्भी द्भु द्भू द्भे द्भै द्भो द्भौ द्भं द्भः (dbha…)

र्न्य र्न्या र्न्यि र्न्यी र्न्यु र्न्यू र्न्ये र्न्यै र्न्यो र्न्यौ र्न्यं र्न्यः (rny…)
श्व श्वा श्वि श्वी श्वु श्वू श्वे श्वै श्वो श्वौ श्वं श्वः (śva…)
ह्य ह्या ह्यु ह्यू ह्यि ह्यी ह्ये ह्यै ह्यो ह्यौ ह्यं ह्यः (hya…)

द्म द्मा द्मु द्मू द्मि द्मी द्मे द्मै द्मो द्मौ  XX द्मः (dma…)

** त्स्न्य त्स्न्या त्स्न्यि त्स्न्यी त्स्न्यु त्स्न्यू त्स्न्ये त्स्नयै त्स्न्यो त्स्न्यौ त्स्न्यतं त्स्न्यतः  (tsnya…)

** द्ध्य द्ध्या द्ध्यि द्ध्यी द्ध्यु द्ध्यू द्ध्ये द्ध्यै द्ध्यो द्ध्यौ  द्ध्यः (ddhy…)

त्स्न त्स्ना त्स्नि त्स्नी  त्स्नु त्स्नू त्स्ने त्स्नै त्स्नो त्स्नौ त्स्नं त्स्नः

ज्ज ज्जा ज्जि ज्जी ज्जु ज्जू ज्जे ज्जै ज्जो ज्जौ ज्जं ज्जः (jj…)
ज्झ            (jjh…)
ज्ञ ज्ञा ज्ञ्यु ज्ञि ज्ञे ज्ञै ज्ञो ज्ञौ ज्ञं ज्ञः (jna…)
ज्ञ्य ज्ञ्यु ज्ञ्ये ज्ञ्यै ज्ञ्यो ज्ञ्यौ ज्ञ्यं ज्ञ्यः (jny…)
ज्म ज्मा ज्मु ज्मू ज्मि ज्मी ज्मे ज्मै ज्मो ज्मौ ज्मं ज्मः (jm…)
ज्य ज्या ज्यि ज्यी ज्यु ज्यू ज्ये ज्यै ज्यो जयौ XX ज्यः(jy…)
ज्र ज्रा ज्रि ज्री ज्रु ज्रू ज्रे ज्रै ज्रो ज्रौ ज्रं ज्रः (jr…)
ज्व ज्वा ज्वि ज्वी ज्वु ज्वू ज्वे ज्वै जवं ज्वः (jv…)
ञ्च ञ्चा ञ्चि ञ्चु ञ्चे ञ्चै ञ्चो ञ्चौ ञ्चं ञ्चः (nca…)
ङ्क्ष्व (nkshva…)
त्प्स्य
र्द्ध्म र्द्ध्मा र्द्ध्मे र्द्धमै र्द्ध्मु र्द्ध्मू र्द्ध्मे र्द्ध्मै र्द्ध्मो र्द्ध्मौ र्द्ध्मं र्द्ध्मः (rddhm…)

र्दध्म्न र्दध्म्ना र्दध्म्नु र्दध्म्नि र्दध्म्नु र्दध्म्ने र्दध्म्नो र्दध्म्नौ र्दध्म्नं र्दध्म्नः (rddhmn…)

न्त्व

http://www.virtualvinodh.com/grantha/grantha-2-ayogavaha.pdf

अमृत्प मृत्प
मोन्सून मोन्सूना मोन्सूनु



(nksha…)
ज्ज ज्जा

फ्म फ्मा फ्मि फ्मी फ्मु फ्मू फ्मे फ्मै फ्मो फ्मौ फ्मं फ्मः (phm…)
म्प्र म्प्रा म्प्रि म्प्री म्प्रु म्प्रू म्प्रे म्प्रै म्प्रो म्प्रौ म्प्रं म्प्रः (mpr…)
क्ष (क + ष ) क्षा क्षि क्षी क्षु क्षू क्षे क्षौ क्षो क्षौ क्षं क्षः (ksh = क्ष [क + ष])
ष्ट ष्टा  ष्टी ष्टु ष्टू ष्टि

विचारे सर शुभेच्छा.
होय मी खरोखर येणे आशेने होतो, पण तारखा खूप उशीर ठरविले होते. सर, मी सध्या न्यूयॉर्क मध्ये स्ताहिक. आणि विसरण्यापूर्वी…तुम्ही आश्चर्यकारक पहायला म्हणू पाहिजे.

Bagatela

A collaboration with Marco Patiño, Pachuca, Mexico. 

Conversation, sharing ideas, beers, and more ideas. 

Ballpoint, jell pen, and crayons on beer bottle separators.

Venantius** “vouging” Kanji characters

मार दो हथौड़ा 

Stokes as sweeps, slashes, and flicks 

rendered as metaphors, imbued in our minds,

into muscular memory,  sense, sensibility, 
facility, and conviction.applied, expressed, 
and impressed on paper, silk, wood. As also on bodies.

Steatite, clay, wood, rubber stamped—within minds and the sands of time

The word initiated our corporeality and continues shaping us. 
Bringing to us the Eijihappo.

The Eight principles have reached us under considerable influence
via the Seven Powers by Lady Wei Shuo of Eastern Jin.
Madame Wei, or as she was know Maoyi—made it her focus
despite Uncle Wei Heng’s objections to study Shufa;
when it was not considered a female virtue.
Assisting at grinding ink at the inkstone, watching and absorbing
the movement in the characters—practicing discretely in her room.
Upon seeing her work one day Uncle Heng so as to,
“not foil her aspirations” graciously stepped back.
Upon seeing a stone falling; Maoyi desired to capture its thrust!
Drawing inspiration from the spirit of matter and materiality.
Influenced she is said to have Wang Xizhi’s running style.
The principles received praise from Li Zongyuan of the Tang;
Unique metaphors created by Li Puyang of the Yuan.

That stone falling sideways

Spawning a seeing of dots, thrusts of our personhood!  

Adumbrations, mysteries of what is contained within.

Regard the O-hou, the Cho-hou, and Gan-pou
manners that will define your will if you so will

Ancestors, Rinsho practice, and Providence belittle not.

a jade case, abuts an an iron pillar, 
from whose base be prepared to summon 
that jump: grace which only you can summon as your own

an elemental argument with your mortality

pulling away from gravity—weightless,

coalescing into the next movement

a crabs claw, the hook! Raise and lash the horsewhip 

a tigers fang, slashes new meaning to your personhood 
unbounded through sweeps, slashes, and strokes of light movement. 
Be, bringing fluidity to thy being. Incorporate the curve of a rhinoceros’ horn. 

Unite with your fellows in Saado, Kado and Kodo.

Nuances, compressed movements; open up the universe

Aikido, Iaido, and Shodo, 
Kyudo, the way of Archery

Stroke, one flowing into the other.

Seeking our mark—towards eternity from our temporality!

At the swayamvara in Panchala dressed as a Brahmin,
Arjuna stands; taking a moment to focus on the piscean image
set on high, atop a rotating wheel, and reflecting in the pool at his feet.
The arrow pierces. The discerning Pandavas…take to heart, 
and hearth—Draupadi: Panchali, Mahabhaaratii, Sairandhri, Yajnaseni, Agnijyotsna. 
Kṛṣṇə Draupadī, A son with each of the Pandavas—
with the eldest Yudhishthira begat she Prativindhya. 
Likewise Sutasoma from Bheema, Srutakirti from Arjuna, 
Satanika from Nakula, and Srutakarma from Sahadeva


There are laws and there are boons. Shivan no less. 
Understandably, no Eijihappo for them as for the Tamilians…
There are ways and ways, and Ways of ways.
Karikala Chola to Athirajendra. Chola’ all. But philosophies similar…
and rigorous. Kalaripayattu. Dandpattas. and wagh nakkas.
Tanaji climbed Singhagad’s crags aided by the monitor…lizard.
Seek to discern, the tools you shall keep receiving.
The brush was flung. Kobo Daishi made the mark.
Distance must not awe. Its a journey, and remember,
that your tools may be usurped from you.
Eklavya the archer, gave up his thumb, so willed
Dronacharya his guru to maintain the status quo!

Remembering Ki no Tsurayuki from the Hyakunin Isshu…
The depths of the hearts (Hito was isa)
Of humankind cannot be known. (Kokoro mo shirazu)
But in my birthplace (Furusato wa)
The plum blossoms smell the same (Hana zo mukashi no) 
As in the years gone by. (Ka ni nioi keru)

Damayanti of Vidarbha, and Nala. Heera and Ranjha.
Laila and Majnu. Lines and movement in the mind of time.
Abelhard and Heloise. Narcissus and Goldmund—
A wandering towards “a meaning of life.” A Way.
Rani of Jhansi, son strapped to her spine, wades into mayhem—
battling obfuscation by the English…flurry of words. Centered.
Karna looked at the Sun and howled spasms of righteous wrath
Bypass we must those who toil attempting foiling ones path.
Dash through heath and scar. Mark the forehead.

A bird pecking—seeking, 

a dismemberment for real on paper 

and more so when blood was spilt 

Now it remains in metaphor as a wave, 

pressure exerted with focus and we have 

The golden sword that unders, dissects, and rends minds 
and minds.

Dividing space, yet holding it together 
Dissection. More meat on bones or more as Lady Wei

unified yet distinct. Tremors. 

Movement becomes us,

we imbue it, it extends us, 

Radiating minds; extending our being

outside of our temporality the surround. 

See the Eiji Happo,

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/8_Strokes_of_Han_Characters.svg

Rewrite:

The Eight Principles of Yong (Chinese: 永字八法; pinyin: Yǒngzì Bā Fǎ; Japanese: 永字八法/えいじはっぽう,eiji happō; Korean: 영자팔법, Yeongjapalbeop; Vietnamese: Vĩnh Tự Bát Pháp/Tám Phương Pháp viết Chữ Vĩnh) explain how to write eight common strokes in regular script which are found all in the one character, 永(pinyin: yǒng, "forever", "permanence"). It was traditionally believed that the frequent practice of these principles as a beginning calligrapher could ensure beauty in one's writing.

http://www.shodopedia.com/E/EightPrinciplesOfTheCharacter 

Eight Principles of The Character “永 (えい, ei, i.e “eternity”)”; (永字八法, えいじ はっぽうeiji happō)

This calligraphic theory, set forth by a Sui dynasty (隋朝, pinyin: Suí cháo, 581 – 618 C.E.) calligrapher named Zhi Yong (智永, pinyin: Zhì Yǒng, birth and death dates unknown), defines eight out of a total of 37 basic strokes of the standard script (楷書, かいしょ, kaisho). These are:

1. 側 （そく, soku） lit. “vicinity”. It is also referred to as 点 (てん, ten) – “a dot”, or 怪石 (かいせき, kaiseki) – “oddly shaped stone” (from its appearance of a rounded rock).

2. 勒 （ろく, roku）”a halter”, also referred to as “jade table” (玉案, ぎょくずき, gyokuzuki) of smooth and even surface.

3. 努 （ど, do）means “to exert”. This vertical stroke is also known as 鉄柱 (てっちゅう, tetchū) – “iron pole”, from its solid and rigid appearance.

4. 趯 （てき, teki）suggests “lifting”, or “a hook”, also referred to as 蟹爪 (かいそう, kaisō, i.e. “crab pincer”).

5. 策 （さく, saku, i.e. “a horsewhip”）, or虎牙 (こが, koga, i.e. “tiger fang”).

6. 掠 （りゃく, ryaku）. One of the meanings is ‘to graze”, like the non-lethal cut of an expert swordsman. Another name for this stroke is 犀角 (さいかく, saikaku, i.e. “rhinoceros horn”).

7. 啄 （たく, taku, i.e. “a peck”）or “bird’s peck” (鳥啄, ちょうたく, chōtaku).

8. 磔 （たく, taku, i.e. “dismemberment”）, also known as 金刀 (きんとう, kintō, i.e. “golden Dao sword”).

More detailed information regarding standard script is to be found here.

側 soku :: dot, (Japanese) ten
勒 roku :: horizontal stroke, yokoga 

努 do :: vertical stroke, tatega 

趯 teki :: upward flick from a vertical or horizontal stroke,** hane

** diagonal flick from the point where a stoke culminates 

策 saku :: upward right flick, migihane 

掠 taku leftward downstroke :: hidaribarai 

啄 taku leftward downflick :: hidarihane 

磔 taku rightward downstroke :: migibarai

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

http://www.japanvisitor.com/japanese-culture/language/japanese-shodo

Read more: http://www.japanvisitor.com/japanese-culture/language/japanese-shodo#ixzz2kU6xkriO

怪石, 玉案, (鐵柱/铁柱), 蟹爪, 虎牙, 犀角, (鳥啄)/(鸟啄), 金刀 

Guài shí, Yù àn, (Tiě zhù/tiě zhù), Xiè zhuǎ, Hǔyá, Xījiǎo, (Niǎo zhuó)/(niǎo zhuó), Jīn dāo 

Mysterious/strange rock/stone, Jade Case/table, iron posts, Crab piner, Tigers tooth, Rhino horn, (Bird pecking) / (Bird pecking), Golden sword

on Academia.edu

Offering some of my texts on Academia.edu, focussed on drawing through various conduits. Hopefully a new fork in my journey through writing, if not a whole new jtrajectory. 

Speculatio through drawing, is a paper I presented on Sept 14, 2014 at Crossing the Line 2, at the American University in Dubai. 

Thank you all.

UGLY :: Feo :: Gacho :: Culero

In, UGLY:: FEO issue, Combo #7, Pachuca, Mexico. 

Illus: Venantius J Pinto with Pete K. 

Thank you Pete for the interaction and chats. Thanks Marco & COMBO. 

The Pratices in the Practice

Rinsho 臨書
hairin 背臨

Mosho 

Ansho

Hosho 

Jiun

Reflection reveals a lot. Its heuristics really. For instance asking for assistance as happens via social media. 

七転び八起き。Nana korobi ya oki. Lit. means "Seven falls (falling seven times), getting up eight times.” Essentially not giving up.

The flânerie and potlatches of the Itinerant Illustrator

photo: Mo Riza

Seeking minds or states of being is a response, a responsibility, which the illustrator as an itinerant soul simply must embrace to visualize meaning to texts or stand alone visual narratives. The objective of illustrators is to conveys emphatic meanings or visual corollaries. Traversing as they do many spaces, illustrators violate, invigorate, celebrate while dynamically mediating to shape paths that often intercede to create visual entities.

One must make an association with the flânerie of the flâneur walking the streets nonchalantly taking in the sights, the movement and pulse of the city. That aimlessness apparently frees the mind to associate. Being itinerant is not being vagrant. Rather it’s about making conjectures, and associations. An uprooted rootedness. I see the illustrator, as very much a nomad of the mind, a pilgrim, an outsider looking in before appearing as an insider delving into a thought, teasing at form, seeking Ephphata, from the Aramaic — to be opened.

Jeremiah 6:16: Stand at the cross roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.

A pilgrim then? What sustains? The sustenance is as Whiman put it “the tasteless water of souls.”

My artistic labor spans many styles, approaches, binaries, subjects, and movements as in force. This perennial juggling of potlatches, is a giving and gaining from Indic forms, and thought; lines from Kana and more forms of Shodo; seeking depth in language, and reasoning; a vocabulary of mark making from the more severe to the agitated; of employing the illogical to create logical devices, metaphors, characters and characterizations — all towards formulating possibilities and realities. Its all about dynamics and the answering is in the nature of the realizations that come when what is paramount is to give meaning. 

Births and rebirths

My illustration for So, you’re birthing a book!, by Gouri Dange in HIMAL Southasian, Nepal - May 11 2011. The idea being the ferocity with which books are birthed or produced in South Asia. Any and everyone wishes to have their book see print. Towards that end this illustration attempts to reflect the pandemonium of the process seen through a frenetic machine going full steam.  

When work gets selected to appear on a stringently judged site, on a blog, or in a book, the doer can only but take solace in that they are walking with some of the best. For those like me who have seen many rejections on account of certain vagaries, any acceptance sheds light anew to keep going — facing, and accepting the roads ahead. I also believe that no one is doling out favors; and such nods could influence or create a favorable impression in the mind of some other. C’est la vie.

Seeking an accord: Consonances to the rhythm of the rails

Drawing begun on an Amtrak/ Rail Canada train

Two round-trip journeys sparkle in my minds eye: New York-Chicago Albuquerque, and New York-Toronto. Dad, an engine driver ferried freight from Mumbai's docks to the holding yards. His stories still impact me, catalyzing my thoughts arriving in the stillness. An Amtrak Residency, I feel would realign my soul; moreover certainly to the rhythm of its rails. Here, the American landscape would be a backdrop to my being — as a naturalized American. 

It is the shaping line moving though space that shapes my mind, relays meaning, conveys an essence of something which in turn extends/ unfurls/ amplifies it. Embarking on a journey is essentially about being synonymous with a line wrought by the behemoth running on tracks, moving through space, shearing it yet in engagement with the ground against its own image and of the traveler. A line represents the intent instilled through it as it spans two or more points. My search is for possibilities in phenomena that pass across and within my senses.

The geography of my imagination reflects on phenomena as experienced. Language informs my work, and I would like to continue using my dual path of  expression, which also includes drawing at a complex level. So I straddle text and image, buttressed by meaning sought through writing.

Pulsation: theologies of line, and of journey. The train denotes and connotes line, and linearity, yet in no way is limited to linear thinking. A train journey, enacted by the engine, the cars, its staff and passengers runs along a finite route as far as the eye can see, a seeing that would surely collate expanses, vistas, undulations in topologies, into thoughts.

Writing expands my reasoning, both analogous to my character and fortitude. I arrive at meaning via encounters I seek. I imagine that the residency would provide for various forms of interaction: with the train, the journey, the day sweeping by, thoughts as they reveal themselves much like ephphata (Aramaic, “an opening”) to mean awareness.

On, Illustration Daily site, NL: Feminism and the sex worker

One from a samll suite of drawings for Feminism and the sex worker. For the article "Sex and the pity" by Meena Saraswathi Seshu. The stigmatisation of sex workers stems from misconceptions and squeamishness about sex.

Source: From a suite of drawings for HIMAL SouthAsian, Kathmandu, Nepal. Sex and Work issue (Aug 2010 issue). http://www.illustrationdaily.com/

I hope to follow up with some text in a few days.

Kali in the round

ABOUT THE CHAPTER SILHOUETTES (Kali in the round: 14 silhouettes), in Encountering Kali: In the Margins, at the Center, in the West. Rachell Fell McDermott and Jeffrey J. Kripal (Eds). pub. by Univ of California Press.

My work incorporates my interaction with a broad range of media, suitable to bringing out energies manifest in ideas that relate to what I call “meshes of the continuum.” These meshes are a weaving of my mind, experienced through being touched by truth — a flow of relationships and events stemming from the evolving archaeology of my existence that began in India. I draw and paint to realize fragments and wholes, through a layering process using traditional as well as digital media. “Layering” is a metaphor to express whatever I wish to contain in space: the memory of time, deity, culture, power, and compassion, and my existence as a Christian amid myriad religiosities. These elements are brought together spatially in what becomes for me a layered mandala. I use color as discrete units of energy in an attempt to portray an ineffable, archetypal numinosity. I assign meaning to evolve a new whole, energized by my breath and charged with a vision from a sanctuary of “knowing.”

To arrive at a contemporary visualization of the Corpus Kali, I began looking for a model whose life and art spoke of an intense sexual energy. The Lolitaesque renditions of Kali as seen in Indian calendar art and popular posters were simply not reasonable models of inspiration. I see her as a dancer, always moving in relationship to a chronology of timelessness. In the dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, I have found an appropriate conceptual model for Kali. Her dances and technique come in part from a deeply sexual source. The image on the cover of the paperback edition of this volume is a homage to the Kali in Graham. Kali luxuriates in a very Graham-like expression of movement that thrusts the glory of her being out at us. It sings its eroticism right down to the particular velvet dark-blue that contains her energy in perfect equipoise. Kali's dark, luminous color and the expression on her face at once make her accessible emotionally and yet distance her from intimate communion. Visualizing the Goddess in this way stills the nervous system; one is becalmed under the fiery yet benevolent stare of the Devi, the luxuriant Goddess, the Mother and exemplar of intense feelings. Continuing to see her in the round, I have also created a series of fourteen drawings that appear as silhouettes throughout the book. These silhouettes help project the depth of Kali's force. She helps one belong, particularly in the nascent dawn of late capitalism. There is much to see and understand.

Lamenting the dusk, Eclipsing twilights—and Gaussian geometries (cont. I)

Lamenting the Dusk, Eclipsing twilights—and Gaussian geometries is an essay in progress.

This night in the late seventies exemplified the blackness of Sumi, its wide spectrum which incloud’s a deafening depth through a range of luscious gradation: sumi no notan. This analogy, and metaphor has been gifted by my journey having led me to study Shodo and Boku-ga. It was in Batim, Ilhas Goa; the birthplace of my mother, where the night howled a storm, spraying its gaussian distribution of electricity in streaks of lighting, appearing to stand still above as if these spectaculars was meant only for this quiet village. The palm trees were fleetingly projecting shivering shadows, changing shapes, with forms intermingling and presenting fresher frights. Perhaps if one were to make ink out of the soot of burnt palm trees — would it be as dark as the Japanese and Chinese made sumi? The blacks appeared blacker than the Cardinal India Ink, through which I had been introduced to the concept of blackness, abysmal in density, a  richness of material form, far distant from any analogy to wealth. This was a richness of tone: in depth, in texture, coalescing into phantasmal umbras, conjured by sudden flashes into the darkness. It all begins here.

The wagons crept silently up the shunting slope, a low hillock upon which two rail lines delineated a broad-gauge track. The track had borne countless freight loads as they slowly lumbered their way up the mound, to be shunted according to destinations where their arrival was awaited. It must have been one of those mildly chilly late mornings, when the smoke and dust from the steam engines, the haze from fumes of the large diesels, and the shigris (coal fired stoves) hung close to the ground. Only the other day yet another individual had been run over by a train, on the local Harbour Line. The level crossing had been there for years but discipline had always been lacking. Some mother lost her child on that crossing about fifty meters as the crow flies. A woman with an infant across her breast was slowly making her way approaching the shunting slope, and would soon reach the top. It really all begins here.

The crow cawed that morning in the shade of the parapet, and she took that as a sign. Kitem re cawlea. Borro murre tum—kavo kit. What Sir Crow. You are something: rich in your blackness. She regarded every spell of cawing, even the briefest one as a sign to her and her alone. It was a call to gather her self up, focus a bit, and make sure things were in order. One never knew what the day or even the morrow would bring. The bridge would be built in a few years, until then it meant crossing the shunting yard.

She had perhaps looked in the direction in which wagons appeared over the hump and not seen a thing to elicit any concern. Or yet, she had simply missed the contour of the lead wagon as it stealthily trundled up the slope coupled as it was to others behind it, and propelled by the steam engine at the back, to be shunted down the hill to form consists, to mean complete train sets — a trajectory reaching somewhere into the vast Indian nation. All she remembered later upon having stepped across the rail of the broad gauge track, was seeing two vague details in a trembling of painted brick red of what could only be a wagon: the knuckle which couples wagons, and the bumper zooming in indecently close to her face. And then, a strong force pulled her from behind clear of the bumper which had almost kissed her. She realized being on her feet, as though she has been placed there, but on looking back there was silence. All was still. A crow cawed somewhere nearby. The presence had vanished. 

The bridge finally got built, years later looking down from it she would sometimes see herself walking across the tracks with her precious bundle, a gift she had high hopes for, and for which she had chosen a nome especial. It had survived and so had she. She always nurtured high hopes for him.

The child that day on the shunting hillock developed a predilection to think in the visual. Folds and falls in gowns, sarees, salwars, dhotis, and parkars, the creases in rumals, patkas, churidhars and shawls postures and actions: lezim (martial exercises) squatting, spitting, dancing with abandon, grime ingrained in surfaces, pock marked faces, all tonalities of brown complexions. There was a lot to see and absorb in the railway colony. The rumors that the disappearance of the deaf-mute in the colony could only mean that he had been sacrificed in the piling of the bridge — never quite died. And then the ideas began crashing upon him. 

ठाणे जिल्ह्यातील काही महत्वाची मंदिर
(१) श्री कौपीनेश्वर मंदिर :: ठाणे, ठाणे
(२) श्री शिव मंदिर :: अंबरनाथ, उल्हासगर 
(३) श्री वज्रेश्वरी देसी मंदिर :: वज्रेश्वरी, भिवंडी
(४) गरम पाण्याचे कुंड :: अकलोली, भिवंडी
(५) श्री रामेश्वर मंदिर :: अकलोली, भिवंडी
(६) श्री महालक्ष्मी मंदिर :: महालक्ष्मी गड, डहाणु 
(७) श्री महालक्ष्मी मंदिर :: बिबलवेदेः, डहाणु 
(८) श्री शंखोद्धार तीर्थ :: वाढवणे, डहाणु 
(९) श्री गणपती मंदिर :: टिटवाला, कल्याण
(१०) श्री गणेश मंदिर संस्थान :: टिटवाला, कल्याण
(११) श्री स्वामी समर्थ वाडी :: कासगाव-बदलापूर, उल्हासनगर
(१२) श्री मलंगगड :: मलंगगड, उल्हासनगर
(१३) श्री मयूरेश्वर मंदिर :: भोपर, कल्याण
(१४) श्री महिकावती देवी मंदिर :: वडराई-के. माहिम, पालघर
(१५) गरम पाण्याचे कुंड :: सातीवली, पालघर
(१६) श्री वाल्मिकी ऋषि समाधी :: अजागड, शहापूर 
(१७) श्री क्षेत्र गंगा देवस्थान :: वाफे-शहापूर, शहापूर
(१८) श्री जीवदानी माता मंदिर :: विरार, वसई
(१९) श्री शंकराचार्य समाधी मंदिर-निर्मळ क्षेत्र :: निर्मळ, वसई
(२०) श्री तुंगरेश्वर मंदिर :: फे. सातिवली, वसई
(२१) श्री परशुराम मंदिर ::  गुंज, वाडा
(२२) श्री वज्रेश्वरी योगिनी देवी मूळ स्थान ::  गुंज काटी, वाडा
(२३) श्री गजानन महाराज मंदिर :: कल्याण, कल्याण
(२४) श्री भीमशंकर मंदिर :: गणेशपुरी, भिवंडी
(२५) श्री नित्यानंदस्वमी समाधी मंदिर :: गणेशपुरी, भिवंडी

In, An Illustrated Life. Danny Gregory. 2008.

An Illustrated Life Drawing inspiration from the private sketchbooks of artists, illustrators and designers, by Danny Gregory. 2008.

http://parkablogs.com/content/illustrated-life-venantius-j-pinto

Contents:
Illustrated lives: an introduction, Mattias Adolfsson, Peter Arkle, Rick Beerhorst, Butch Belair, France Belleville, Bill Brown, Simonetta Capecchi, Robert Crumb, Peter Cusack, Penelope Dullaghan, Mark Fisher, Enrique Flores, Paola Gaviria, Barry Gott, Seamus Heffernan, Kurt Hollomon, Christine Castro Hughes, Rama Hughes, James Jean, Cathy Johnson, Noah Z. Jones, Tom Kane, Amanda Kavanagh, Don Kilpatrick, James Kochalka, Gay Kraeger, Jane Lafazio, Christina Lopp, Paul Madonna, Hal Mayforth, Adam Mccauley, Prashant Miranda, Christoph Mueller, Brody Neuenschwander, Christoph Neimann, Marilyn Patrizio, Everett Peck, Venantius J. Pinto, Edel Rodriguez, Trevor Romain, Stefan Sagmeister, Christian Slade, Elwood Smith, Paul Soupiset, Roz Stendahl, Chris Ware, Melanie Wilson, Cindy Woods, Bryce Wymer, Acknowledgments.

Venantius grew up in Bombay, India. He studied advertising, design and illustration at the Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art, then communication design and computer graphics at Pratt Institute in New York. He now works  a digital artist. His work can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos.venantius/sets. 

The purpose is indeed to depict the metaphor that resides fleetingly in my mind’s eye. My books give clarity to the thoughts that come to me. I believe we do not come by our thoughts, they come to us. 

The books are documents of understanding and resolution, or MOUs (memoranda of understanding) with myself if you will. They are a budo, a way of life. “Illustrating Understanding,” or “Illustrating to Reveal” would be more my cup of thought. In a sense they are an art form unto themselves and are indeed stand alones. I am not averse to incorporating aspects into other works, thought that has not happened as yet. They are trenches of visual thinking where one works out process and emotions, and learns to overcome fear.

The nature of my drawing is not about documenting the day-to-day. It’s about helping me understand ideas that come to me, and drawing is a vehicle to help me register my absorption of those thoughts. I attempt to understand what it is that moved me. “We do not come by our thoughts, they come to us” is something I deeply believe in. This is very significant to the way we understand things. 

My first and only rule, or obsession, is rigor. So the work must have a place, a reason it was attempted and for which it will be finished—to contribute significantly to the discourse on analysis, form, color, technique and so on. That is all I care about. I am not interested in effects or fancy manipulation. Having said that, I must add that I am abundantly blessed and have refined my techniques.

A book functions as a repository of the mind, a compact, portable, narrative mural. One moves to the next page only after being satiated with the current one. One carries and adds to the understanding gained from page to page. The sharing commences from something being stirred, and then the feeling dissipates, at which point enough has been revealed. 

I am in the process of making a set of three large books, and I like the idea that a book can be closed after it has been shared. To me, drawing on loose sheets of paper does not have the togetherness of a book. I would prefer to keep even a loose set of drawings in a box. But scraps of paper have their own dynamic, particularly those that do not conform to logical shapes.

The consistent thread in my work has always been the pursuit of thought. Everything else shifts. There is a certain line quality that is consistent, but I must say that too is subservient to the idea at hand. Nothing subordinates the idea and the understanding of it. 

This is my second phase in my sketching, with a lull in between of almost fifteen years, during which I only did thumbnails. I began sketching when I was in the seventh grade but have nothing to show for it. My second phase began in 2001, and I have a ton of work since then. I am very happy with the way things turned out. The subjects that I work on are complex and have required me to impart a high degree of skill and technique to realize them. I will soon be working on long scrolls. There have been short periods when I stopped drawings in order to spend time thinking without paper and marking tools. 

I drew as a child, beginning around age three. My first drawing was on the threshold of our company apartment in Mumbai, India. My entire lived movement is based on line. I would be egotistical in saying that every move of mine is akin to drawing, Lines move me, and a hurried line kills me. 

 

I prefer accordion books. I also like books that are tightly bound and ring bound books from Maruzen. I buy the accordion books in Japan and at Kinokuniya on Forty-ninth Street and Soho Art Materials on Grand Street, New York (Kinokuniya is now at 1073 Ave. of the Americas; and Soho Art Materials moved to 7 Wooster Street). Other types of books I buy at Pearl Paint and at New York Central. I have bought books in Lahti (Finland), India, Berlin, Mexico, etI draw with ballpoint (biro), pen and ink, silverpoint, pencils, various inks (including walnut and sumi), var. watercolors (including Gansai), goldleaf, gouache, fingers, etc. 

I use cases to store the books. It’s a pretty impressive  experience when Customs in various countries have asked me to open my case(s). I had a Swiss border policeman ask for prices. I was traveling via train from Cremona (Italy) to Stockholm. In Stockholm, airport security asked me to open my case, and it was a sight to witness the awestruck smile of the agent, who I am sure, was of Sri Lankan origin. The others had stopped what they were doing to watch! I think they regarded this as something special—a cargo that had to be with me.  

 

When I look back through my books, frankly speaking, its hard to believe I did them. I keep certain books together, my script drawing books for instance. I also always have one book that is close to me, one that I may occasionally skim trough to take in the detail. It’s revealing how much I learn about possibilities, which in turn strengthen my resolve to keep moving towards more intriguing directions. I recently reviewed some of my books and could not understand the automatic-ism in the drawings. It’s almost as if despite all my thinking, something else has interjected itself, which made the work into a collaboration. Perhaps collaboration with the limbic region, that mysterious space to which some people attribute divine connotations. 

I have often suggested to people how a book may be approached: the nature of narrative structure. The significance of maintaining a meta-narrative through all the smaller narratives that make up our own narratology, an internal geography. How do we gain, aside from the nature of the gain, by seeing and observing the outside? Draw to understand yourself. —Venantius J Pinto