Venantiusaneum: Being & Artistic Labour

Being, Rigor & Phenomena

2012-01-19T20:58:00.000-08:00

My name is Anthony Gonsalves is a blog post on Anthony Prabhu Gonsalves, written with verve, sensitivity and sincerity by Rajan Parrikar. Rajan is a passionate being who calls a spade a spade, like referring to Bacchan's humor as oafish nonsense (I can now die). The other point he makes is: Kishore Kumar’s pronunciation of “Gonsalves” even today grates on every Goan ear. The syllable “Gon” is phonetically close to “gone,” not to “lone.”

In the area of music, film music in India — very little is know of the contribution of the Christians, and worse barring a few, very little is understood by those whose entire being appears to be propped up by that music. The point is simply that very few understand how influences, mentorships, resonances and other phenomena lead to satiation in ones being. It is such awareness, which have made your music heroes who they are in your eyes today as also the confusion as to what constitutes influence which help one forge new perspective albeit often with the same raw materials.

So why is that? Give that a thought. A clue: The modernity that many of us imbibe so comfortably has come at a price in many ways on the part of a lot of specific and rigorous productivities on the part of others, who are not in the majority. They are part of India’s minorities. This is not baseless, nor is intended to take the shine away from the big names; rather, it is to draw attention to the base on which ones heroes stand tall in our own eyes.

Shunning the Shine

2012-01-06T16:21:00.000-08:00

We are all different yet at times conveniently presume we are all the same, uttering platitudes to elevate our selves while massaging in conceit. We hear the same words differently, as said by different people; are easily impressed; as also, easily turned off; besides being quick to think one has understood intended meaning. We are not talking of painting here. Basically, many of us live in conservative worlds with conservative concerns; but, in no way suggesting anything close to a liberal, progressive, or other egalitarian mode of being.

John the Baptist and Venantius in front of
the Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan 2011.
Thanks to Sylvain Guintard’s (Kuban)
suggestion, I made it to Kurashiki.

We would like to shun those who hurt us, but more often than not are unable to hold accountable those who assault our sense and sensibility. That goes for remaining silent when ones environment is torn asunder — the spine of lived reality kicked in. One is not talking of simply feeling offended but committing offences which only serves (hardly inadvertent) the offenders, whose trope is to harangue at the cost of clamouring to tell the truth. There is a cost, and they know it. By lived environment, one refers to the relationships between people and place. To clarify further, and beyond the usual--office, play environments, home, children, public spaces--and others more complex — relational, one must look at relationships with institutions — the larger Church, the Church at large, as also within such paradigms, at the humble cog (as perceived), the humble cure of souls, the Parish Priest.

Perhaps this already is too much said. In that vein, its always worth thinking on the issues presented at the following link.

NOTE: I follow these things and share them in a general sense--much as I may mention a shloka, a proverb, a text, or a movie. There is a reason for someone engaged closely with art to do certain things in certain ways, without spelling it out. Tracing contours. Sharing process. Unfortunately, not many like to do that, so take my word, leave it, or disparage it. It all works.

To ATTACK with LOVE!

2012-01-02T06:53:00.000-08:00

There is something to being addressed as a Pastor and then have acid poured on your face. Something intensely forlorn and anguished. Of course the same may be said cynically or sarcastically, but then it would sound different to the ear. One would perceive a threat in the tone. The idea and a dastardly one at that, is to as we say in India attack with love (प्रेम से मारना/prem se marna = to kill with love; हमला करना/prem se hamla karna = to attack with love). Such dastardliness is not mere cowardice, it is a contemptible meanness rooted in a hollow interior existence and shows up in other forms in including in individuals with hallows apparently intact, as far as the mind can perceive.

http://persecutedchurch.info/2012/01/02/muslim-extremists-in-uganda-throw-acid-on-bishop/

CorrespondAnce: NY< – >DOBROWA DOLNA–the edge of the world

2011-12-24T13:40:00.000-08:00

It is a great distance between New York city and Dabrowa Dolna, a quiet village situated in central Poland at the foot of the Bald Mountains (Łysogóry), or as Radoslaw (Radek) Nowakowski puts it, “maybe the oldest mountains in Europe, who knows...” Time and place, encounters, brushes or immersions with them influence what we do. I met Radek in 2006 when four of my Moleskeine books with drawings had been accepted for International Book Art Festival VIII edition Łódź, Poland; curated by Alicja Slowikowska. Soon thereafter came an opportunity to visit Poland. In early 2011, began a new thread in our on/off correspondence resulting in CorrespondAnce, a book written, designed, and produced in all aspects by Radek at the Liberatorium, with my drawings of dance(rs).

To understand another human being you have to gain some insight into the conditions that made him what he is. —Margaret Bourke-White

In early 2010, an opportunity to observe and draw dancers presented itself. The venue was the Fiorello LaGuardia High School of Music and Art & Performing Arts, in the Graham Technique class conducted by Elisa King. Dance as a conduit of phenomena fits into my concerns with consciousness, sexuality and religion.

My relationship with dance and dancers has been most variegated: regularly attending performances; designing graphic organs with Sandy Graff for dance companies; painting bodies for Celeste Hasting’s Butoh Rockettes; and reading on dance. Although I have drawn performances seated in the audience, this opportunity at LaGuardia High was different. It brought me closer to and into the world of getting to observe dancers as aesthetic objects in the making. “Aesthetic objects? Dancers may become that in the public mind. And we may further wonder if the dancer will eventually evolve into that which bears the full status of a work of Art.” (Friedman, James Michael 1980. Dancer and Other Aesthetic Objects. pg 108. San Francisco, Ballet Monographs, Dance Unbounded). Movement although it stirs within us, much of it is learnt through a praxis of a lived aesthetic and imbuing techniques.

It pleased me that Micky–Michelle Mathesius, the Vice-Principal approved my presence at class, and I embarked to get a sense of the core of dancing via drawing. And draw I did — a few hundred drawings.

For a dancer to dance requires a combustion of motivations within ones core. (vjp)

I felt I had to share those drawings out to those who matter to me. On March 30 of this year I shared some of those drawings with a few friends, among them Radoslaw/Radek Nowakowscy. Radek responded suggesting a CorrespondAance!

CorrespondAnce begins with text written by Radek which reveals how the book came about: One day I saw on my monitor sketches; or sumi-e paintings, Venantius had made at a ballet school (Dance Dept. class, Fiorello H LaGuardia HS of Art & Music and Performing Arts, vjp). The very next day I saw in my mind a book. This was a big surprise to me because I have been involved in some other projects. Because I am not a dancer. I am a drummer, writer, translator, designer, and whatever else, but I am not a dancer. My head is full of ideas and visions in no way related to dancing that have been waiting patiently to be completed sooner than later and there should be no space for anything unexpected. Nevertheless the next day after that “very next day” I wrote to Venantius and asked him: Would you like to correspondAnce with me? He answered immediately: Yes, I would. So, he would, I would, we would: Good. And?

Speaking for myself, I was happy to see those drawings would have life in a book designed and written by Radek; certainly of a kind I could not have envisaged for them. In the next few days I sent him more and then stepped back. And waited. In equanimity, I waited.

Radek continues:

Well, it looks like in my case the process of making a book is a reverse of making an ink sketch. The brush is like a lightning, but before it strikes, heavy dark clouds must gather. A book, entirely ready, appears in my min as fast as a trace of brush dancing on paper. Yes, just a flash, and it’s ready. There, In my head. Now, how can I get it out from there? Oh, this takes much more time and effort than to imagine it…

Yes, there is the ocean of water, of culture, of tradition, of experiences between us. But it’s not that bad: thrice upon a time I was in New York, five years ago Venantius visited me and spent in Dabrowa Dolna a few hours – what a visit it was! as intensive and colorful as his paintings are, as precise as his carvings. What does it mean? Does it matter? Dance it matter?

There is an ocean of language between us. Which and what language? He does not understand at all my mother tongue. I don’t understand his mother tongue. He doesn’t understand my father tongue. I don’t understand his father tongue. He doesn’t understand my brother tongue. I don’t understand his brother tongue. He doesn’t understand my uncle-and-aunt tongue. I don’t understand his uncle-and-aunt tongue. He doesn’t understand my cousin tongue. I don’t understand his cousin tongue. And so on. Up to friend-and-enemy-of-ours tongue …… to the acquaintance-tongue which we share to some extent …… or rather the acquainDance tongue …… Tongue or tango? Or maybe T’ang…Oh! Language is

the most crazy dance ever.

To create bokuga (ink drawings/paintings) requires an understanding of unique relationships — of ink to paper, viscocity of the ink, transparency, and layering. One works fast; and in drawing dancers almost as if one has to get ahead of oneself. I knew that this medium and approach would complement my absorption of movement and rhythm — allowing me line and tone, the possibility for traces of the brush to show, as well as well bleeding ink into paper — essentially a broad idiom, along with the spontaneity developed over the years.

Manifestations are visions of separate elements coalesced into a unified experience: a totality of meaning. (vjp)

The opportunity to travel to Poland in 2006, was a flash out of the blue. A friend who worked in security for Ogivy NY. had won two round trip tickets to Poland in a raffle from a Polish bank in Williamsburg, NY. Freddy offered them to me for the price of one! Thus Cecilia and I made it to Łódź, Poland and hand delivered my Moleskeine books that had been accepted for IBAF VIII ed. Radek played a huge role in facilitating the interaction, and then extended us an invitation to visit him. That was essentially a liberation, moving into unplanned territory and getting to hear about his Liberatorium. I guess he saw that we were easy-going, and wiling to take things as they come! This opportunity brought us to Kielce and Dabrowa Dolna to Radek and Krystyna’s home. It was a splendid meet up, essentially “at the edge of the world.” At his home/studio he shared his love of books, the books he makes, his polymath being, and the entire process of producing a book that resides in his mind out in the open as a physical entity.

Collaborations come about in various forms. Often the intent is not at all to collaborate, but things happen—and what seems as a collaboration is not such. I see ours as a concert, an alliance — indeed a cor-respondence, a correspondence, a correspondAnce from a number of factors, beginning from our interaction in 2006. I see correspondAnce as stemming from shared kinship and respect with Radek. CorrespondAnce-Sein is a level of consciousness, different from what I experience/d when drawing the dancers. That difference became apparent upon reviewing the text and design which lent the book its nature! Some collaborations are very involved, there is a lengthy back and forth; others are reflections; in some collaborations the material is hashed over, reworked and peered at closely, argued and integrated towards a comfortable whole; yet others strive for a more precarious balance until both/all parties feel they are on the same page. In our case it was a correspondence by virtue of a particular brand of trust. Two individuals who take their own skills and modalities seriously, and respect the same in the other(s). Is that not what a part of dance is also about; about hitting one’s mark, about not being dropped, about being supplemented with counter energies that complement as well as provide tension to one’s own movement in space?

Learning form, accepting the path

2011-12-19T21:56:00.000-08:00

March MMXI. An assignment for Nihon Shuji although it was not graded. Rendered with the brush dipped four times from start to finish. First dip to write 9 characters and subsequently 4, 5, and 10. Very interesting to write while the brush is losing ink; but in the hands of the really adept such writing takes place at a very heightened pace and rhythm. Perhaps I will get there in few years, yet I am glad I went for it.

Conscience meets Crucifixion

2011-12-18T17:26:00.000-08:00

The Rejected,

Ink on Kozo paper, 38.5"x72", 2000.

Let us look at the question Chris Hedges asked recently in Liberty Square in New York City “as part of an appeal to Trinity Church to turn over to the Occupy Wall Street movement an empty lot:”

Where were you when they crucified my Lord?

The above should be seen as an exhortation towards self-examination. The examination of ones conscience. A self examination which prepares one to respond to the question when it is encountered in ones being. The crucifixion is a two pronged metaphor: the injustices that people face, as well as those who subject others--their bodies, minds and indeed the souls to strife. Everything else follows from here.

The crucifixion in Christian thought happens every time a grave injustice is done; injustices where dignity is stripped away, wills are forced: rapaciousness, and mayhem is loosed upon the weak—those with less reach. It happens daily. The conscience asks this question of the Christian every time ones core becomes aware that something egregious had come to pass, and ones place in that injustice. The core can be ignored but the question comes up—it is always asked.

The conscience also asks the same question of others, and I presume on the following lines: In your being and knowing, did you not see their plight?

There is an obvious, and not oblivious aspect in play here. So the question is a yardstick, a plumb line, a spirit level if you will--towards a consideration for ones fellows.

Seeking lessons from within one’s interior

2011-12-12T23:26:00.000-08:00

Helen Pinto’s response to a post by Smita Shah Shetty’s on Facebook brought to mind thoughts on interiority. It may may seem like an extrapolation, but some consideration to my thoughts will be appreciated.

Smita Shetty posted the following:

I asked myself how to handle life.

My room gave me the perfect answer.

Roof said: Aim high.

Fan: Be cool.

Clock: Value time.

Calendar: Be up to date.

Wallet: Save now for future.

Mirror: Observe yourself.

Wall: Share other's load.

Window: Expand the vision.

Floor: Always be down to earth..

Have A Good Day.....

The directness and sincerity of Helen Pinto’s response to Smita Shah Shetty: Amazing is it not - lessons can be learnt so close to home, only if we care to…, struck me as a quality utterly lacking in many of us today. This ability in a response to greet, touch, to celebrate the other at the same time, from wherever we may be—by giving words consideration, seeing the meaning in them is a waning quality.

Over the years I have seen too many of my compatriots as being less in personhood and more individualistic; where anything uttered from the opposite mouth does not matter and is regarded as inconsequential. Often we but cannot see that it is the simpler conduits that show us where within wholeness we belong. Reason gives meaning to reality, and the power to understand it, alongside the experiences we encounter and attempt to process.

Only someone who is silent is listening. And only the invisible is transparent. To be sure, a deeper silence than mere abstention from speech and utterance is required. There is also interior speech which must also become mute, so things might find their proper utterance (Pieper, 1991).

Within a more secular frame of seeing: The ability to make analogies is in a way a gift; which of course can be learnt. However, applying any understanding, and maintaining the focus and fortitude to do so—nay, the resolve, is a whole other struggle. It is as though one has little choice but to shape a personal pedagogy (since we tend to slip and we do often slip); one that addresses the need to ceaselessly look within or glean meaning from within. That awareness changes how we see the outside, learn from the surrounds, and mesh ourselves with those thoughts and energies.

____________________________________________________________

Pieper, Josef. 1991. A Brief Reader on the Virtues of the Human Heart. San Francisco: Ignatius.

images: In the Distance of Affection; calligraphy: Seikou Kaneko

Shodoka Michiko Imai: Embrace your treasure/s

2011-12-06T02:45:00.000-08:00

When I learnt via FB that the Shodoka, Michiko Imai would have a demonstration at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston—my mind was made up to go to Boston. In the West, there are few opportunities to be in the presence of persons practicing any form ardently and persuasively—breathing it, so to speak. Experience teaches us what is and what is not. Having observed her manner in the virtual world that is Facebook, and having had the opportunity to appreciate her works, there was no hesitation in making a decision: Tat tvam asi (Sanskrit) That thou art.

We had planned to get there early from New York on the 6:50 am bus, and stay the length of the demonstration. I along with Noriko Miyawaki were there for only one reason—to see, meet and greet Shodoka Michiko Imai. Thats still one reason! Unfortunately, our bus was very late (not one but two breakdowns on Megabus).

But we were glad to get to see her brush three pieces: Sei Shonagon’s, Makura no soshi 枕草子 (Pillow book)/the winter section, in Kana; the charcater Ai 愛 (Love) in Gyosho (semi-cursive); and Ryu 辰(dragon), which is in the zodiac calendar 干支 (Kanshi/Eto) in Sosho (cursive). In the Pillow book piece, Michiko brought out/made extant the sound contained in the section relating to snow very admirably. Shodo has many components, and its Ways may be paralleled with being and existence itself. This becomes evident when one learns to see what a shodoka’s unique ability, and sensibility to manifest consciousness through line, with its two principal attendants—nijimi 滲み (blotting, blurring…) and kasure 掠れ (brush traces) among other inflections, can convey to a character, a line, and certainly to a body of text. In that sense, and solely in my opinion, a Shodoka and the way of Shodo is closer to Iaido and Aikido on the one hand; and Chado/Sado (Way of Tea), Kado (Way of Flowers) and Kodo (Way of Incense) on the other. It is decisive yet deliberate—honed through ones being over time. The mind through all of this is clear and tranquil.

Michiko Imai was born in Nara. Her calligraphy studies began at the tender age of four at the Baikou Calligraphy school; she subsequently gained membership to the Tenshin Kai, and later to the Cho-ko Guild. Her work has been displayed at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Osaka Municipal Museum Of Art, Nara City Museum Of Art and the Kyoto Municipal Museum Of Art; and she “is among the few to have won multiple best of category awards in national competitions (Japan).” More information may be found on her site.

Her setup for the demonstration was in the Druker Family Pavilion, Community Room 159 at the MFA Boston—a lovely space fronted by glass and open to viewing from the expansive corridor which had some people doing just that while relaxing in lovely chairs. Michiko looked resplendent working on red felts; in a dark kimono, a compact obi, and spotless tabi. Above all she moved well, and in her movement, both in her Sho as well as her artistic deportment, and overall comportment—in turn moved her audience. She spoke about the totality of her art practice (the materials, work and presentation), relationship of space to the brushed characters, a bit about brushes and absorbency; her choice of a particular brush and relationship to paper—for writing the character Ryu. she explained why it is essential for her to mount her own kakejiku (scroll). Ms Imai is also an artisan artist (Hyougushi)—one who mounts/makes scrolls; which she learnt during her apprentice at Mizuno Hyougu-ten, while she also taught calligraphy. The piece she spoke about (see image below) was well constructed and had a unique sense of balance and space dynamics. These are aspects that take years to imbue and I could not stop sharing the nomenclature of the various parts of a scroll with Noriko. That happens when one enjoys such pursuits.

Ryu (dragon) in Sosho

It was also good to see the other pieces around the room, which she has calligraphed earlier, alongside various other study examples. At the back of the room, there were adjoining tables with all seats taken with visitors/afficionados keen on trying their hand at Shodo. The overall energy was very palpable and a credit to Michiko Imai.

It was soon time to leave. We managed to get an earlier bus back to New York—happy that we had availed of this opportunity. Embrace your treasure/s, thats besides: inkstone, inkstick, paper and brush for sure! Thats what happened, except that it was Ms Imai who graciously reached out and embraced, a hug in American parlance—a circle completed, the line taken back to the Big Apple.

PS: Excuse the poor angles of the images.

These links may be of interest:

http://www.michikostudio.com/

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

http://earlywomenmasters.net/soundings/index.html

What is Drawing? Towards wholeness…

2011-12-05T18:04:00.000-08:00

Drawing though the agency of line is a vehicle to express emotion: implied or explicit, however fragmented the sensation received from the subject, which gets formulated into consciousness upon contemplation. The outpouring consciousness from the experience seeks expression in its own way, through marks: uneven, thick, thin, curved, jagged, rolling, reluctant or swift lines articulating a particular emotion where the line makes the layers of emotion whole. The experience is memorized as real and the drawing surface harmonizes into a whole; in unity with one’s reality.

To engage with thoughts, and those of others

a larger consciousness. Sympathetic space.

The why of things, occurrences, stirrings, evocations,

the space between one's legs, a visage, the tilt of a head,

Spaces that certain people simply seem to inhabit.

(excerpted from my unpublished essay Speculatio through Drawing. 2011)

The Middle Kingdoms keeps playing Oppugner

2011-12-03T23:16:00.001-08:00

This may come to haunt me someday, perhaps in getting a visa, or worse perhaps a distant future in calligraphy connected with Chinese calligraphers; but Chinese leaders truly fight some of the most inane battles, now including race issues—and worse on issues related to Buddhism which in any case reached China from what is now India. China with its resilience, its brand of capitalism grafted onto communism as well a highly inculcated sense of patriotism—has so much going for them. But still it continues to oppugn—in a continuum of opposition to India, which is on its own trip anyways.

http://tehelka.com/story_main51.asp?filename=Ne101211Battle.asp
The Battle for Buddha: The latest Indo-China spat is just another chapter in the ‘Great Game with Buddhist characteristics’, says Ashok Malik
“Beijing tried to convey,” a Ministry of External Affairs official then said, “that China, South Korea and Japan being nations of Mongoloid people were closer to East Asia, while India, Australia and New Zealand were not.” The target was India, which China wanted to keep out of the ASEAN inner track.”

Johnny ML on Ramdas Tadka (1968-2010)

2011-12-03T13:49:00.000-08:00

Ramdas Tadka goes Behind the Shadow of Big Bose

http://johnyml.blogspot.com/2011/11/ramdas-tadka-goes-behind-shadow-of-big.html

An incisive piece that respectfully gets into peering within the persona artists create and pass off as having been integral to their beginnings. It is awesome to see Macwan bring, The Other JJs together to showcase Ramdas Tadka. This is certainly very rare in India, and Johnny ML has also done a splendid take by writing about the book. Johnny ML is compassionate, yet lays bare human/artistic mores, concerns with their individual trajectories—in seeing how the artists invited to speak of Ramdas Tadka essentially use the book, perhaps inadvertently as a platform for themselves. In a sense, I dare add—it succeeds in a very christian and gracious vein in the manner of acknowledging Tadka’s being, drive and hopes, much as Julius Macwan set out to do. The invited artists have all been there, done this that and the other, yet clarity is missing. The reason for their being part of the book seems to be clouded. Essentially success has not eluded them, but something called “Kalatmik manuski” has. Having said that this is not an affront but rather a nod to the survivors an African proverb, “until lions have their historians, the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”

Having your ace and eating it too

2011-11-24T12:29:00.000-08:00

Nothing worse than being regarded as an ace in the hole. Basically, being set up to being manipulated instance by instance, among the many when you lower your guard. The reasons ranging from living with certain values—a belief in goodness, compassion, grace, even the graciousness in permitting the other to tell you what you mean to them—although there nothing of recent vintage offered to back up those acclamations of praise gushed out in uneven breaths. Something is amiss and it is not rediscovering affections raised by old memories; it is the realization that their worlds are incomplete. Jealousies too that others are walking upon paths they themselves ignored.

Some need has surfaced and their sights are set. Furthermore, no cordiality; warmth; affability; reciprocity, if only to mask/soften selfish reasons. All such is anathema, as one very politically aware individual flared at me years ago when I mentioned the congruity to be courteous/show courtesy.

But all this matters not in the back stroking world, yet every attempt made to commandeer anybody from outside lacking within their fawning fraternity! The belief is that there is always someone who will stroke the most coarse backs. The idea is simply—that whatever you have is something that can be capitalized on, albeit projected as a you too can gain something. Essentially about being owned, feudalism.

Image details from, So Shall You Reap
http://www.flickr.com/photos/venantius/231316724/in/set-72157594350797294
Original size: http://www.flickr.com/photos/venantius/231316724/sizes/o/in/set-72157594350797294/

Reinforcing drawing; Learning about line via drawing and by carving it

2011-11-11T21:16:00.001-08:00

Over the years I have been drawing quite a bit in ballpoint. It gives me an immediacy and reinforces an ongoing practice in terms of a sure line. Anyway, these are a few drawings for a seal design for a young woman with an unusual name: Kazusa. Normally, I would be using a brush and sumi/boku, rather than ballpoint/biro. Unorthodox but works for me. These designs will be finessed later or perhaps directly when carving. It has been a little over a year and a half since I began carving seals and have carved 73 or so stones, some on multiple sides, Carving seals has made me see line in ways that I would perhaps not have seen by only drawing on paper and other surfaces. More on this later.

The notes below correspond to the styles of seasl scripts as drawn in the image on the right.Right, top down:
1. Koukotsubun Oracle bone script (Chinese, Jiaguwen) 甲骨文
2. Kinbun (Chinese, Jinwen) 金文

Middle:

1. Kinbun 金文

2. Moushikei kun boshi 孟敬訓墓誌 (Chinese, Mèngjìngxun mùzhì), from the 新書道字典 Shin Shodo Jiten (A New Dictionary of Shodo/New Calligraphy Dictionary). This script is taken from the tomb stone of Moushikei. The Chinese have a tradition of absorbing various inputs in the pursuit of refining their calligraphic abilities, including copying from grave markers and stones; and this goes back many centuries. 孟敬 (Moushikei, a name), 訓 (teaching), 墓 (grave) 誌. collectively epitaph 墓誌 as on the grave “marker/stone.”

Left:

1. Tetsusenshoten 鉃線小篆 (loose trans. Iron line Small seal script)

2. Daiten Big Seal script (Chinese, Dazhuan) 大篆

[btw, Smaller seal script Japanese Shoten,

Chinese Xiaozhuang 小篆]

3. Kaninten 漢印篆

OK, its Halloween!

2011-10-31T19:03:00.000-07:00

Earlier today, I was talking to Jocelyn, a friend of ours, who told me that she was born in a cemetery in Port au Prince, Haiti! There was no ambulance to be found at 2 am, so her mother, father, the grandmother and the maid began walking to get to L’Hospital Generale. Jocelyn’s mother was ready to deliver; and the only place close by was in the cemetery which was on the way down the mountain leading to the city. So, there is this entity/spirit Baron Samedi, Le Maître du cimetière (The Master of the cemetery). His presence is seen as light passing as a flash. So when Jocelyn was being delivered herfolks saw Baron Samedi passing by. As many Haitains have told her: Fille. vous êtes protégé. Vous êtes sous la protection de Baron Samedi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Samedi

Swallow coming

2011-10-22T20:20:00.000-07:00

玄馬至 (つばめきたる, swallow coming).

Copied for practice from works of senior Tenkoku artists in Kyoiku Shuji text. Oct MMXI. In progress.

These are all carved in reverse. So the ones on the left and middle are 至馬玄, and will read left to right 玄馬至 when impressed. The third seal on the left reads left to right, then bottom to top. The reading is as follows: first the one on the right 玄; in the second column there are two characters, but the bottom one 馬 precedes the last one 至–at the top!

Taking that step…

2011-09-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

The act of philosophizing, genuine poetry, any aesthetic encounter, in fact, as well as prayer, springs from some shock. And when such a shock is experienced, man senses the non-finality of this world of daily care; he transcends it, takes a step beyond it.
(from The Philosphical Act by Josef Pieper)

Maqbool Fida Hussain's mortality has been claimed. (1915-2011)

2011-08-15T23:57:00.000-07:00

Fundamentally, Hussain was an Indian. Having two selves, is something uniquely Indian among India's minorities. His sense of being, imbued Indianess replete with its Deties and iconographies. No matter what may be said of what he should or should not have done, Hussain in this sense was a manifestation of Indian culture and was suffused in it. That is the point that cannot be discounted. His was not an objectified self. He was a social construct, a unique expression of Indian culture and how it permeates us all.

Way back Hussain took a position, essentially moving from becoming, towards being a brand; a manifestation that enthralled and fascinated Indians with its potentiality of what an artistic existence meant. He set himself a trajectory—a high-wire reality, while believing it "unlikely that any particular incident will have any influence" on him, since he drew inspiration from "everything under the sun." This gives us a tiny sense of how he perhaps viewed the idea of influences and impacts—which affects all artists. The mark of a person who wishes to zealously set himself apart from others. He oozed the very notion of culture, and projected strength in all that he did and touched.

Where did he get his chutzpah -- that nawabi mien, that Indians across the spectrum saw and gushed over, and in recent years many disdained the object of their adulation. A maverick who had to be branded! Did he regard anyone as a significant mentor: Souza perhaps? Or did he consider himself as an entirely self-made entity. Or were there a range of factors that only a few know? These questions do dovetail his artistic reach, his acumen, the subjects he painted over the decades, his singularity, force of will, as also being closer to the ground sans footwear.

Although much has been made of his intellect, his work was far from complex, in fact very accessible. A contradiction? Or an ability to work in a "getable" vein? Perhaps both. Yet Hussain walked his walk, he talked his talk; opening himself up to opportunities where he engaged with other artists, students and Indians. His body of work embraced the idea of Indian—vast as it is. He thought big. He was an artist of many hats, including to many--a political artist. Many consider it imperative to apply to Hussain the sobriquet "Picasso of India,' but Hussain's most relevant contribution to Indian modernity would be that by living his unique artistic act, He gave Indian artists a primer in branding themselves (aka an artistic spine, and the much cherished reach).

Then tragedy visited in waves. The banishment—forced or self-imposed? Exile. Forces arrayed themselves against him in mind and spirit. A forced exile, as it is seen in most corridors of silence. Qatar received him. India was down by one of its sons.

Art is a peculiar beast with its connotations and denotations. In a country where the idea of common law is still not enforced--other issues will get complicated. But yet we all wish for our interstice of modernity, alongside our spiritual underpinnings.

"I'd like to die like a soldier with the boots on," he had said. A turn of phrase perhaps. In that regard Maqbool Fida Hussain was a sipahi, a sentinel of the Indian avante-garde to Indian mores and exuberance. He is no more but yet there will be many Hussains of the mind. He was one and many, like the proverbial Kokopelli. Mysterious and magical. Time will reveal more, but for sure each of us has a Hussain in and of our minds.

Barricading oneself

2011-07-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

There is a saying in Konkanim, “Kednaim zomnirlo fattor uthon toklear podd’ta.” Sometimes the stone (lying) on the ground raises itself and lands/falls on ones head! I see it also as an apt analogy for one form of resentment. An inability to celebrate another being as also the fruits of that journey. In essence not celebrating ones own existence; its awareness being clouded by concerns and the setting up of conditions (barricading oneself) predicated by narrow sense of being, spirit, and self.

Alacrity of Being

2011-07-10T18:54:00.000-07:00

One often hears about life being a two way street, suggesting that mutuality in various forms is to be esteemed. However, such alacrity of being is rarely the case, even from those who profess notions of dharma and karma—albeit within intense cultural etudes. So what leads to going after ever more larger slices of the pie. The pie, or laddoo for that matter is large enough for all, and will always be.

What is small is the footprint of our existential reasoning. Hence the street turning into a one way street, where the only option remains that of saluting the feudal detritus moving directly upon ones being. Of course such is not acceptable. In the meanwhile the appetites of even those whom one admired has mushroomed, continues, and apparently shows no signs of abatement. Yesterdays apparitions, along with their transactional libidos have been manifested into the widest gamut of successes. But still the transactional element that makes one human (or is this some quaint notion) is expected for oneself, but not accorded towards the other. Of course every interaction has its place. We know that. Small victories in ones limited sphere are regarded sullenly, as though in spite of all dharmic dimensions and possibilities—one is claiming more of that karmic pie! Again one respects as is only fitting in the culture I was raised within.

Even the most fake among us have their place and are respected by someone dear, if not by the many whose lives they impact. They too must have our respect, not in the way they expect obeisance and being fawned upon, but an accord within the precincts of their own dharma. Indeed, this is very becoming of the ideas that regards one an Indian.

Manifest gain?

2011-07-01T07:09:00.000-07:00

What is it about certain people who come through/towards you/for you, although one cannot say they came through, when one did not even think or expect anything from them/through them, or thought that X, or Y should/or even could do something for you. Of course it counts that they give of themselves, and it must be seen of/in larger spirit. That has been my lot recently—towards manifest gain really, as also a clarity in the the cloudy impermeability of existence. Yugen anyone?

An Inscription on a painting by Chi'i Pai Shih

2011-06-19T11:43:00.000-07:00

Inscription by Chi'i Pai Shih on a picture of Narcissus and Stone of Grotesque shape (in Chi'i Pai Shih, by T. C. Lai)
The stone is grotesque like a monkey,
The narcissus is unfeeling like ice.
The artist has the heart of a monk
Having broken the world's chains.

How line moves through space

2011-06-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

How does a line move through space? As I see it, in Drawing for a line to move something has to impact you, essentially move you. A line fertilizes space. To consider but a few agents of motivation, a line may be compelled, impelled, or propelled to interact with space and shape it. Intent is primary since it imparts impetus and furthermore a meaningful trajectory to the line. Ergo, we are moved by a sensorial experience, the line manifests, it moves, we are further moved by its substantiation. When we see a line move as in dance, a gesture, a leap, a tendu, we are fluidly swayed.

Lines represent themselves as well as the intent instilled in them as they move through space, shear it, penetrate it, fecundate it, vitalize it, enamor it/us. It is the shaping line moving though space that shapes our mind, relays meaning, conveys an essense of something which in turn extends/unfurls/amplifies our mind.

image: On/In/Of Sympathetic, Apathetic and Pathetic Spaces: 5:11

Speculatio through Drawing, an abstract

2011-04-25T12:26:00.000-07:00

My presentation at UNIDCOM / IADE 6th Intl Conf (Oct 2011, Lisbon), in the category THE Sense of DRAWING, Making Sense through Sensibility (knowing through drawing) will proceed from the following abstract. (Due to extenuating circumstances and reasons beyond my control, this paper was not presented in Lisbon)

Speculatio through Drawing
Drawing allows me to reflect on ideas that lend themselves to deep introspection—a search for possibilities in phenomena that pass across and within my senses—works which are reflections on concerns situated at the intersection and layering of religion, sexuality, and consciousness. “Layering” is a metaphor for encapsulating fragments and wholes that convey, power, compassion, and the memory of time & culture.

Through drawing, I attempt to achieve organic marks which reveal the underlying emotions of our thoughts and ideas—a receiving. I enter spaces to bring out natures within my being, and comprehend through speculatio--contemplative reflection—to which otherwise I would not be privy.

My drawings are an attempt at wholeness; an orison—towards assigning marks and generating form of the formless, often within extreme abstraction; employing a broad range of media and approaches, some learnt through an ongoing practice in Shodo. More recent works fall within the following areas: a book of thirty drawings on torture; works on the theme We do not come by our Thoughts, They come to us; drawing letterforms and other subjects while glimpsing, gleaning and assigning meaning to the works in the manner approached and through the act and dynamics of drawing.

The knowing, comes from an innate desire to flesh out a thought through drawing—where the mind works with "memories" harnessing the body and its dynamics, as one lays down marks accordingly—from seeing the thought in the way it reveals itself, and/or as one reflects upon it—modulating the information as it gets constructed, and even as the piece reveals itself. I draw from ideas—with some concreteness as in a fictional character constructed by a writer/poet perhaps from accumulated experiential angst; or with more diaphanous notions as in the epiphanic, the euphonious; or by seeing possibilities for expressing ineffabilities—following the stirrings that one cannot place, yet are real and palpable...knowing has begun. The realization is a drawing.

The concreteness of working with time—the attempt to represent visually is two-fold. One is embracing the thought to the best of ones ability—this being a visual manifestation. The other is conveying glimpses of time in one piece—but without freezing a moment. Spatiality, temporality, looking at appearances, drawing from within those perceptions--what appears reliable—and attempting to weave such consciousness into one’s experience is my drawing practice.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/venantius/sets

image: Vicissitudes of Exile IV

Flank attacks :: Young turks

2011-04-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

As we get into our 50s, even mid 40s it helps to remember that the younger generation will often impetuously open flank attacks as a way of showcasing their presence and sense of knowing. Often it will be on issues which they have not bothered to engage with at a deeper concerted level, and that too when the privilege was graciously accorded to them (no ifs, ands and buts here). So it behooves us to step back, not introduce complexity -- since in the first place it is the uncommon, or esoteric that displaces them. This happens less with those who have sustained intellectual curiosity and are willing to go on a journey where learning matters. In talking this approach, one keeps oneself relatively intact as also ready to respond in and towards a cognizant awareness.

Image: Detail of We do not come by our Thoughts; They come to us: 6

Economic crimes and distancing

2011-04-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

"China's foreign ministry has confirmed that police are investigating artist Ai Weiwei for suspected economic crimes."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12994785

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|

The term "economic crimes", I presume it has been translated correctly: points to exactly where a country, its leaders, its people stand to get affected -- all in all, in all certainlty -- in different ways. Political strategy and philosphy (including the ancient, and that too very conveniently) is applied to maintain hierarchies and distancing. Such terms lay bare the paucity and yet the power contained in language in different hands and utterances - something that has not be done quite so bluntly in the West.

Being charaterized as an avatar of things to come is what is prescient here -- ones acts, actions, lived aesthetics that jeopardize -- status quos'. My motherland (for all realities a gender unto itself) wears out its people, others take theirs out -- make attempts to dispossess body, mind and spirit/ soul (yes this is it); while yet others make you ambivalent about who you are, what you could be, how do you maintain cohesion -- and the process accelerates.

On 8 April, at about 9.40am or so Anna Hazare unpon breaking his fast at Jantaar Mantar, (http://tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ws080411ThisIsAboutIndia.asp): “I fought for 10 years for the Right to Information Act. When it was enacted, it helped in the decentralisation of the power. The British centralized all laws. They said people should abide by the laws; the government would implement the laws. Whereas, the Right to Information Act says the government should abide by the laws, people would oversee their implementation.

“You see, the CBI, the Vigilance Commission, the Lokpal—all the agencies that are meant to curb corruption are under the control of the state. The CBI has so far inquired into many corruption cases. Did they send any minister to jail? Did any IAS or IPS officer go to jail?

“Because, if anyone tried to do that, the government would warn them, shut your mouth. Otherwise your shop will be shut."

Image: Detail of We do not come by our Thoughts; They come to us: 4

Lending substance to dreams

2011-04-07T00:03:00.000-07:00

Anant Pai (1929-2011), who conceptualised and created the Amar Chitra Katha series of comics, stands out as one of those who gave substance to our visualisation of Subcontinental mythology and history. Though working in a genre – comic books – that is often looked down upon, his influence in this regard is immense, akin to that of Raja Ravi Verma. Criticised as a defender of the status quo and simultaneously lionised for rekindling awareness of our traditions and past, Pai, for better or worse, was a seminal influence in envisioning the images which people our historical imagination. http://himalmag.com/component/content/article/4357-lending-substance-to-dreams.html

1000

2011-04-03T15:12:00.000-07:00

Thank you all -- 1000 unique visitors as of today.

Edith Stein says, "Lifepower that has gone into the real impulse spends itself partly in its runoff, partly in the doing that perhaps proceeds from it. Therefore the doing simultaneously represents the fulfillment or satisfaction of the impulse." (in Impulse and Inclination in Philosophy of Psychology and the Humanities)

General thoughts on Drawing: installation

2011-03-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

An expansive drawing installation is something I would like to attempt by MMXII.

Drawing on the walls of a gallery space, surfaces of old structures--outer walls of houses, and on other surfaces. Expressions that bridge the abstract and the named/ known forms--allowing for varied interaction in a shared didactic. There are sculptural; possibilities in drawing which I hope to get to/ arrive at in the next few years. The constructs underlying such expression as in the case of houses would take into account the lived aesthetics of the inhabitants arrived at through interaction. Most gallery spaces are relatively spartan and sterile -- devoid of the lived aspect, and this in turn allows for an engagement prioritized upon different
concerns.

Procellous Narratives

2011-03-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

The Procellous Narrative series is a deeply thought-provoking series to me. Exploration. Through it I allow myself to incorporate the detritus from my vocabulary of visual marks which have been arrived -- stumbled over my time; and which get redeemed via juxtapositing and relationships -- a part of my family of marks; albeit the combative/ 'dysfuntional' side or rather my principled side as I see it.
Procellous Narratives
http://www.flickr.com/photos/venantius/sets/72157594170017694/

Drawing: Procellous Narrative 3: Section 1

Onsen Musings: Agendas and lived aesthetics

2011-03-14T23:03:00.000-07:00

We are often approached by individuals with their agendas which sometimes overlap our focus and path but more often do not. Yet it behooves us to hold them in regard, although one may only hope but cannot have steadfast expectations that the same will be accorded to us.

Its worth noting what Max Siegel with G. F.Lichtenberg write in Know What Makes Them Tick, about someone making us feel uncomfortable -- at which point it helps to ask oneself whether what bothers us would be different if it was done/ asked in a "different way or in a different situation." Is it possible for the other to benefit from the ways in which we are different, as also the way we see the world.

Further, as pointed out in Know What Makes Them Tick, in love opposites attract, but in business opposites tend to shy away/ resist. Rank opportunism pushes banality to the fore and obliterates or perhaps blunts ones perspective to see mutual benefit and allowing things to flourish within a genuinely worthy framework. A tepid lived aesthetic as also an absolute lack of personal ethics also play out as a part and parcel of such agendas; dovetailing often with aggrandizement.

Know What Makes Them Tick: How to Successfully Negotiate Almost Any Situation / Max Siegel with G. F.Lichtenberg. Harper, 2010.

Drawing: Onsen Musings 06

The Sanctuary of Line

2011-03-12T23:47:00.000-08:00

In the year 1991, I worked on a piece Meshes of an Ineffable Sanctuary. It was a digital piece, which won the Mayor of Hiroshima Prize the following year in a student competition, The Bridge to Hiroshima.

I took this nod among others as a sign towards validation of my endeavor--which later led me to see possibilities for myself and my sensibility through Japanese idioms.

The drawings at the top of this page are rendered on Japanese media which are normally used to write poetry. http://www.yamagata-art-museum.or.jp/en/j_collec/02.html My drawings are manifested by phenomena and subtleties that have impacted my thinking, where I have come to see line as a sanctuary -- a pointing that modulates itself as well as requires modulation which in turn leads to knowing. That sense of knowing is in itself a sanctuary and knowing via drawing is truly a priviledge. Drawing, in a sense is about working with time and revelling in ones passage as traversed without any attempt to control it. http://www.flickr.com/photos/venantius/sets/1815184/with/147669555/

Drawings from left to right: Biomorphic déjà vu I-III, Lonespace

Speculatio through Drawing

2011-03-11T15:26:00.000-08:00

My abstract titled Speculatio through Drawing (working title) has been accepted for UNIDCOM / IADE 6th Intl Conf (Oct 2011, Lisbon), in the category THE Sense of DRAWING, Making Sense through Sensibility (knowing through drawing). Its as though this category was made for me.

My presentation will last 20 minutes, and the abstract developed further; but will probably not be turned into a paper for this conference. It is a good beginning for me at this point in time to merit a slot and forum to present my artistic labor and thoughts, to a wide audience comprising fellow artists, academicians, arts professionals in the visual arts—and of course, designers and illustrators.

Speculatio through Drawing
Drawing allows me to reflect on ideas that lend themselves to deep introspection—a search for possibilities in phenomena that pass across and within my senses—works which are reflections on concerns situated at the intersection and layering of religion, sexuality, and social consciousness. “Layering” is a metaphor for encapsulating fragments and wholes that convey, power, compassion, and the memory of time & culture.

Through drawing, I attempt to achieve organic marks which reveal the underlying emotions of our thoughts and ideas—a receiving. I enter spaces to bring out natures within my being, and comprehend through speculatio--contemplative reflection, which I otherwise would not be privy to.

My drawings are an attempt at wholeness; an orison—towards assigning marks and generating form from the formless, often within extreme abstraction; employing a broad range of media and approaches, some learnt through an ongoing practice in Shodo. Ongoing works fall within the following areas: a book of thirty drawings reflecting on torture; We do not come by our Thoughts, They come to us; to drawing letterforms, as also, other subjects while glimpsing, gleaning and assigning meaning to the works in the manner approached as also through the act of drawing.

Netas, Pitas and Batatas

2011-03-06T03:54:00.000-08:00

Consider the excerpt below; look at our Goan political lenduks (turds, contemptible persons), and how various political minds operate. The point here, is to note the certainty that many of our Netas, Pitas and Batatas (leaders, fathers, and potatoes) operate within. Where does it come from--which altar, what monstrance are they staring at, which devata--cool or otherwise:http://tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ne120311COVERSTORY.asp

Jairam (Ramesh) is deeply rooted in Hindu culture. This gifts him with a redeeming sense of ambiguity. (“The difference between me and many of my colleagues in the growth constituency is that I have many doubts. I am not full of certainties. I find many of my colleagues are very certain that their path is the only path.”) He is also a student of Buddhism. Both these spiritual persuasions, in a sense, arm him with the stamina for a difficult situation. Music is his third refuge.

Drawing: For Indra Sinha’s short story Blah Blah Blah in the July 2010 issue of Himal South Asian. The centipede is a Congressman. One scorpion is a BJP stalwart, the other a Communist. Animal is feeding them quail from the Jehan Nabz.

Manuring and Stroking

2011-03-04T23:09:00.000-08:00

It is something to see the manner in which people I know consume news--many of whom are in media! Yet, these same people are constantly negotiating interactions on a profoundly crass level--seeing themselves as analytical, yet also stating that they are not the quickest of thinkers, often misunderstanding simple words, terms and interactions; offering up excuses for quality of writing--which they see as inadequate, and worse--those who are in broadcast; having issues with simple social terms (!!!); as also a reticence to stand with, put out, and promulgate work by artists, poets, etc., while also maintaining a lackadaisical take--on--in any case being aesthetically tepid culture vultures--cultural arbitrators.

Before we go further -- lets be clear that this is about observed phenomena which directly rears uncouthly in front of ones lived aesthetics and ethics. The intent here is to consider and be aware of tribal consciousness and rank opportunism. This is not about tribes as we know -- Indian, Native American, those in South America.

On the other end, there are others who know me, and are ensconced in corporations, holding posts that bring in a lot to their tables and almirahs (or banks). As always genuine power to these beings and their lives.These characters incessantly talk about sharing, opening doors of perception, eyes, someones gray matter to other matters. All this without a whiff of: Hey, lets talk about funding this or that. Basically the idea being: Imagine we are giving you an audience that you can impress (I know you can--and you will get a kick out of it. I tell you this!), and disseminate your gnyan (knowledge). I think: Well is that the way you see it generally or are you carrying an outdated picture in your mind? Is this an offering for the Legion of Mary kids or some impoverished child welfare society.

Which brings us to: Well, well are you not going to bite. No. No!? Why not--and I thought you were an artist--interested in community, being egalitarian, one who shared in good spirit. Yet they will not do their homework or show a willingness to learn. I surmise its on account of what they see as worth their while--having given themselves the time to see if this, that and the other in their parlance makes it in the manner they subscribe to notions of success. All this is good, in fact laudable in the way people shape their lives; and worth pointing out too.

As I was asked recently: What good is what I do if I do not share my work, ideas and artistic labor. It caught me unawares--to think how this person could peg me without having any clue of my life and its trajectory. This considering the fact that its in the open that I critique, advice students, and interact with individuals of varying dispositions, interests and skills. But is this another way where a tribal consciousness and rank opportunism-takes issue with talent and focus--when one is simply living ones life. At least get to understand ones path. Would it help such a boor if I rendered some hurt unto it! Would that be a way of then feeling needed?!

Others--born to the manor take comfort in their opportunistic acumen, and indeed villainy to pronounce on matters of success without quite spelling out what is it that they are willing to offer other than presumably a haze of some legacy. All this regardless of salvaging any ethical principles--and never a concern for who the other is--other than believing that one has absorbed all there is. Middlemen all; crude, and mean ones. The notion of these cultural darwans (doormen) is to shine light upon one being and endeavors on their terms while hoping that you will consent to take the bulbous contraption along with the accompanying mask with you when your spirit ceases. or should that be the spirit being sized and seized.

And I presume too, that they go to their asylums and stroke their tailbones.

Drawing inspired by Indra Sinha's Animal

Brutality: Take one

2011-03-04T18:33:00.000-08:00

More than ever I now accept that the land of my birth and citizenship is one the most brutal countries I know. It employs a form of brutality which wears one down, no matter which government is in power---pushing the already poor and marginalized towards despair, thanks not merely to people referred to as Babus (petty officials). Proffer a lot, hand a little. This is something one cannot expect of India in this day after over 60 years since independence.

People believe that smiling politicians are like ones grandfathers and its okay to sit on their laps so to speak. They will not pimp you. India simply wears you out. It is a technique used by the brokers, power barons, those new to power. Its a galli (by lanes) mentality refined to suit and manipulate the constitution.

The idea is to exhaust and use everything to make sure one simply give up, or dies in the process--although fasting is something that could land you in jail and get beaten in the process too. Beating is something that the police only know too well--one form by which they certainly please their own masters as also assuage their own sense of administering justice. We talk from both sides if the mouth, all the time espousing this or that Upanishad--talking from above in lilting high floating tones.

We have a tendency to mete out our own justice. Perhpas cause its so hard to expect fairness and of course justice. So snuffing out entire families is something that those who mutter paap (sin) this and paap that, find uplifting--I presume.
1984. Riots in Pataudi. Not a whisper escapedhttp://tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ne120311EXCLUSIVE.asp
As the media focusses in Haryana's Hondh-Chillar massacre, Avalok Langer unearths evidence of another anit-Sikh carnage never reported before.

Gurjeet narrates the story of two sisters, Harmeet Kaur, 16, and Karamjeet Kaur, 19. “The mob dragged them out into the street, stripped them, abused them, beat them, urinated on their faces and burnt them alive,” he says. “There was no sense of human dignity, no sense of compassion. What role did these girls have in Mrs Gandhi’s assassination? Were we all responsible? Sardaron ke bachche hai, tho marao (They are children of sardars, so kill them).”

Patriotism is expected--a state of being that is used against those who argue, or have a mind that responds, helps others fight the system--business as usual policies. The biggest mistake we made was to accept and apply to our reality the ways of the Chicago School of Economics. It has helped no one but only those who know how to direct money flows. The fakir rope trick is alive and well--things just disappear into thin air while shayari (verse, couplets, poetry) is recited in ones ears, attar sprinkled, the aroma of starched saris, kurta-pajamas, lungis, sherwanis attacks ones nostrils, and smarmy grins disarm you in a bathetic akhada (wrestling pit).

Drawing: Congeries of Lust

Ekaksana

2011-03-01T22:32:00.000-08:00

What we are today is the result of millenia in process. Nothing happens in huge leaps, but is the result of an ongoing evolution, as also evolutions within evolution. Whether it be a deft flick of a brush, or a mark that enthralls, they as other approaches are backed by credible process--including within the individual. Incredible as it may appear, it is Ekaksana--the one moment when one is in the act of creating--in artistic labor, one goes through a layering of many such moments until the work itself informs ones being that it is complete. Time to move to the next piece or peer into another slice of the multiverse--so to speak.

Drawing: Ekaksana

Natural-isation

2010-12-15T18:25:00.000-08:00

This piece appeared in HIMAL Southasian’s Dec 2010 issue.

Deeper instinct and prescience

2010-11-26T11:46:00.000-08:00

Came across the following on Sylvain Guintard's FB page: Use your deeper instinct to choose the people around you, the road you want ti take, to have the courage to create the life you want... ---Lily S Giraud

This prescience is an elegant path to any ones future. One thing I have noticed is that it helps to ignore the failings (if so) among those one is aligned with at a certain level for valid reasons, as also attempt to function with them in spite of their being excruciatingly demanding and boorish -- since truly their ways are of manipulations, and not as we often perceive them to be -- mere harmless idiosyncrasies.

Incestuous smugness and Self-loathing

2010-10-30T21:44:00.000-07:00

Its startling to observe those around us, who are doing well by all indicators -- arbiters of various persuasions; getting bent out of shape at common courtesies and expressions, including words /phrases such as - thank you, sharing, engaging together; like to be of help, etc. If one is driven to anticipate lurking motives behind such utterances in spite of knowing the utterer-- then perhaps one is living in some form of incestuous smugness and self-loathing; seeking parity with others in that they abide by shared fears.

Momentum & Change

2010-10-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

The rate of change of momentum is directly proportional to the impressed force and takes place in the direction of the force. (Newtons 2nd Law of Motion)

(excerpts from Why Germany Has It So Good...)
Geoghegan: You see a story in the New York Times every six weeks -- ever since I graduated from college in 1971 -- about how Europe is going to collapse. They come out like clockwork.

McNally: I pulled one of those Times articles in May when the Greek crisis was hot. The headline: "Europeans Fear Crisis Threatens Liberal Benefits." But you point out that when a country like Germany takes something away from the safety net, they usually balance it with a benefit.

Geoghegan: They cut back on holiday and they add a nursing home benefit. But the US press always focuses on the cutback. One of the reasons I wrote this book was to show that there's a leadership class over there that is very clever about these things. I don't mean in a spurious, tricky way, but actually thinking, "What do we have to cut back now so that we can go forward in the future?"

To quote a wonderful line from the Lampedusa novel, The Leopard: as the old order is collapsing, the Sicilian aristocrat says to his young prince, "We have to change so that everything remains the same." How do you change social democracy so that you preserve it, and maybe even create an opportunity to expand it in a year or two when the wheel of fortune turns again?

Forbearance

2010-09-14T19:56:00.001-07:00

Forbearance is a virtue, which even if practiced as an offshoot of cultural Christianity--will be tested by the pricks (that segment comprising the worst among women; and I know some fine women), and the bitches (that breed of quasi-cerebral emasculated males). So?! One may but hold ones head high. In the meanwhile you will count pigs as your friends and may find equanimity. A tall order, but considering whats on tap--it behooves one to stay the course.

A venomous state of Being

2010-09-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

Jiski fitrat hi dassna ho to wo dasséga, mat socha kar.
--Antra, Tanha Tanha Mat Sochar kar, Mehdi Hassan ke ghazal se

If its in ones nature to be venomous--"it" could attack at any moment, so
why waste much thought over "it."
--Opening from the ghazal Tanha Tanha Mat Sochar kar by Mehdi Hassan

in Konkani:
Zecho bes zaun assa viisecho, zalear gans pois na, tor tenchem chintim
nakaim--soddun di tencam.
(In those of venomous character, the bite/strike is not far behind, so
don't consider them--leave them alone) --Survat chi olli Mehdi Hassanachem
ghazalatun Tanha Tanha Mat Sochar kar

Realization: Education

2010-09-04T23:09:00.000-07:00

I came to a realization today, that I am tremendously fortunate not to have studied with certain teachers, and also fortunate to have studied with some serious sycophants. Needless to say, one learnt a lot that I did not have to. The egalitarian approach was not taught, but was a gift. So no need for pitiful strategies.

Having somehow managed to stay on my path--as it has unfolded, paying all tolls along the way (toll naka, toll "junction"[tollbooth]), I can only say that I am still walking the walk.

Vulgarism in the visual imagination

2010-08-31T22:55:00.000-07:00

Never image complex forms, specific bodies, and movements which stem out of certain philosophies--ex, ballet, if you are not intimately familiar with them. Unless you are doing it for the hoohah factor, wow value. Why? Because it shows. Certainly not to all, but it shows. And if you do limit it to your sense of comprehension. No need to overreach into unfamiliar territory. Study. Its comes across as grotesque, in the real sense of the word. A certain vulgarity, again in the precise and classic sense of the word. At least read and see what people from those culture

It comes across as grotesque, in the real sense of the word. A vulgarity, again in the precise and classic sense of the word. At least read and see what people from those cultures have done. Be enlightened though their eyes--through their lived aesthetic. This applies to drawing, painting, photography, also commentary, and criticism,

M.I.A

2010-08-28T18:21:00.000-07:00

This read on Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam may twist your synapses a bit. Perhaps quite a bit.

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main46.asp?filename=hub040910MLAruins.asp

John Aki-Bua

2010-08-14T10:56:00.000-07:00

Today John Aki-Bua came to mind. Certain people come to mind when Goa engulfs my mind--a certain way. Many years ago I met Dave Hemery (bronze medallist, 400-meter hurdles at Munich 1972) in Marlborough, England at the redundant church of Sts Peter and Paul.

From the NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/25/sports/john-akii-bua-47-is-dead-ugandan-won-olympic-gold.html

In 1972, after only one international competition, Akii-Bua arrived at the Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. His opposition in the 400-meter hurdles included Dave Hemery of Britain, the world record-holder and defending Olympic champion, and Ralph Mann, an American. His only pair of running shoes was two years old, and one shoe was missing a spike.

But he was built ideally (6 feet 2 inches and 170 pounds), and he had trained with frightening intensity. In the six months before the Olympics, his training had included wearing a vest weighted with 25 pounds in lead as he ran 1,500 meters over five hurdles that were 42 inches high -- the hurdles for his race were 36 inches. He did four sets of those repetitions, twice a day, every day.

He won the Olympic gold medal in 47.82 seconds, a world record, leaving the silver medalist, Mann (48.51 seconds), and the bronze medalist, Hemery (48.52), six meters behind. Then he ran a victory lap and jumped over the hurdles again.

++++++++++++

Kobayashi Issa_sari nagara

2010-08-10T13:44:00.000-07:00

露の世は露の世ながらさりながら
Tsuyu no yo wa tsuyu no yo nagara sari nagara
The world of dew --
A world of dew it is indeed,
And yet, and yet

Kobayashi Issa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayashi_Issa

Reading Meaning and "Greatness" of any Art rooted in Religion, in terms of collective consciousness

2010-08-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

The Meaning and Greatness of Christian Art by R.J. Rushdoony, at the link below is well worth a read. In a similar vein Hindus and others should consider putting out thoughts on shall we say "The Meaning and Greatness of Hindu Art (leading into contemporaneity), art from a Hindu awareness, or the lived aesthetic through INDIAN art." However, my concerns are Goacentric.

I am at least 15 years away from writing from/for the Hindu side; ie., of course, if no one else does (it is very difficult needless to say), or my interests change even further, and if I do not completely move into oblivion. Part of it is also that I am not a scholar, in the way I understand that form of knowing, and do not wish even a quarter-baked scholar to consider going after me. There are better things to do with ones time. One need more methodology to include of course the qualitative.

But I trust that the progeny of the mahants, our erudite litterateurs both Hindus and Christians, also of assorted high-profile businessman and scholars will rectify the paucity of expressive texts connecting the visual to the spiritual, to the existential, and to lived aesthetics.

Read John Berger's Ways of Seein; Art and Revolution: Ernst Neizvestny, Endurance, and the Role of the Artist, as also Ben Shahn's The Shape of Content, as eloquent texts in forming understanding.

++++++++++++
The Meaning and Greatness of Christian Art
© 1993 by R.J. Rushdoony

Art is the making well, or properly arranging, of anything whatever that needs to be arranged

http://www.artsreformation.com/a001/rr-great-art.html

Sex and Work: Drawings for HIMAL South Asia

2010-08-05T12:18:00.000-07:00

A drawing each in both the following pieces in the Sex and Work issue of HIMAL South Asian (August 2010). These two are part of a suite of four drawings which may be viewed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/venantius/

The entire Issue: http://www.himalmag.com/

Sex and the pity
By: Meena Saraswathi Seshu
The stigmatisation of sex workers stems from misconceptions and squeamishness about sex.

The feminist and the sex worker: Lessons from the Indian experience
By: Srilatha Batliwala
Despite decades of tension between feminists and sex workers, it is finally becoming clear that the former has much to learn from the latter.

The Lost Supper

2010-08-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

Sorvespor kitlo boro, tacho mae mog shim naslolo
Sorvespor kitlo boro, tacho mae mog shim naslolo

The Dhanapati (Dhonia, also Good Shepherd [Dhangar]) in this case is the Aam Admi (Common Man) presiding at the Lost Supper---in that cartoon sitting in the the place of Jesus, who presided at the Last Supper. To me this Lost Supper is a meal of missed opportunity, where the Politicians are not loosing a moment to take it in. It is as though this is their last meal with the Aam Aadmi and what they do henceforth will be done in memory of him--of the Aam Admi. That the common man is dead, or quite so--or so it is desired. Manmohan Singh is in his blue turban (as in Hail to the UN) is there as are all the Ballbusters. Perhaps Montek was serving wine.

Christians--of all degrees and digressions, including nonchalants, etc., should have crossed themselves, with knowing smiles--that the basic idea of the Last Supper was being HANDILY and effectively employed by an Indian cartoonist to parody Indian Politicians. Perhaps, we do not wish to see, seek or do not want to get the basic underpinnings of what that line of thinking can do to our Spirits, Spines, and SHIT (help get it all together). The apostles too had their own problems. They were not the strongest folks in town at that table, but this is also not about them either.

If I was a Bishop, I would give this cartoonist an award OR have him talk at a convention on Iconography. That would have turned some tables, heads, how about minds, and yes help people see the COVENANT that a Christian presumably carries within ones being (which is respected by the very many, including non-Christians).

The Times of India newspaper in my opinion did not cave in, meaning thats not a cave in--although it appears so. Imagine at least in Goa people ignoring the paper; that would not be cool for TOI. On the contrary, I believe it meant nothing for them to apologize. This apology is not a double standard vis-a-vis MF Hussian, other pariahs, social lepers, etc., who have hurt the sentiments of other communities--as many see it and say so. The difference in the Lost Supper is that there is nothing that should have offended the most holier than thou Christian. Other than, seeing the general contours of an image in a different light. HAVING SAID THAT, I have more than a faint feeling that it could be only recently that the large number of Indian Christians, MAY have seen the Da Vinci'd Last Supper, the real one This was a sentimental cry for an apology. Apologies are strategic positions taken/rendered by those who wish to avoid the possibility of loosing something further down. They are perhaps laughing their brains out at the Christians and the hierarchy--Dum vivimus, vivamus** (**Lets live while we live [[but in the wrong poverty of spirit]]).

Bakibab Borkar

2010-07-07T09:32:00.000-07:00

I was not born in Goa, but relate to what Bakibab Borkar said about the refining of the human spirit.

"If I am to be born again and allowed to choose my birthplace...
I shall choose Goa... because its scenic beauty
has a supernatural quality of refining the human mind
and turning it inward into the depths of creativity and spirituality."

Bakibab Borkar

Being and Time

2010-07-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

My last note to my co-workers in Interactive at Ogilvy. June 30, MMX.

Hi All,
It has been good being a part of Interactive Design Dept. for the past many years; from the days of 16 color graphics! Working with the UN of Interactive. But, form changes, times change—a kind of shape-shifting, if you will.

from the Isha Upanishad:
“That moves and That moves not; That is far and the same is near;
That is within all this and That also is outside all this.”

Take care all.

venantius j pinto

+++++++++++
My coordinates:
venantius.pinto@gmail.com, h phone, anytime: 212 928 3955,
No cell yet : )

http://www.flickr.com/photos/venantius/sets/
http://venantiusjpinto.blogspot.com/2010/06/some-thoughts-on-yugen.html
Btw, some of my stuff is in this book, which also showcases among others R. Crumb’s books, and Stefan Sagmeister’s concept drawings: http://www.dannygregory.com/?p=29

Blah, Blah, Blah by Indra Sinha, after Bhopal Verdict

2010-07-02T21:38:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/venantius/4724721656/

The centipede is a Congressman. One scorpion is a BJP stalwart, the other a Communist. Animal is feeding them quail from the Jehan Nabz.

The story Blah, Blah, Blah by Indra Sinha is at:

http://www.himalmag.com/Blah-blah-blah_nw4596.html

Ivo Coelho's, Philosophical Musings blog

2010-06-28T23:30:00.000-07:00

Three interesting posts below from Ivo Coelho on his blog http://ivophil.blogspot.com/

William Richardson, SJ 25 June 2010
http://ivophil.blogspot.com/2010/06/william-richardson-sj.html

Retrieving Good Work 24 June 2010
http://ivophil.blogspot.com/2010/06/retrieving-good-work.html

Functional History 8 June 2010
http://ivophil.blogspot.com/2010/06/functional-history.html

_________________________________

Mundaka Upanishad 3.2.3
नायमात्मा प्रवचनेन लभ्यो
न मेधया न बहुना श्रुतेन।
यमेवैष वृणुते तेन लभ्य-
स्तस्यैष आत्मा विवृणुते तनूं स्वाम्‌॥ ३॥

nāyamātmā pravacanena labhyo
na medhayā na bahunā śrutena |
yamevaiṣa vṛṇute tena labhya-
stasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛṇute tanūṁ svām || 3||

You cannot have the knowledge of the Supreme Soul by
means of reasoning, erudition, or studying of the Vedas;
Only through causeless mercy does He reveal His own
person unto him whom He does accept as His own.