Blog

As I hit the “pay” button on my food delivery app, I could very well visualize the hot molten cheese dripping from that delicious slice … but even after waiting for an hour, when it didn’t show up, I had to accept – albeit with a lot of chagrin and discontent – that that slice of pizza was never meant for me!

Having missed Thanksgiving, I wanted to put down some year-end thoughts during Christmas, but Christmas came and went when I was about 37,000 feet above the ground, feeling cold & gloomy on a homebound flight that was delayed beyond measure. Christmas this time was a distant slice of pizza for me.

But while chewing the cold, stale food in a dark cabin, I got the idea to write this blog, which is a bonus. And it occurred to me, that a slice is always there for me – maybe in places I’ve not looked yet.

In search of a 'slice'

Way back in 2017, just a few years into my rejuvenated art practice, I thought I made some good decisions about it, followed by some equally good investments –one of them being to invest in a website.

While I had ideas about how to design a painting, one could easily understand that webpage or website design is a completely different ball game. And like many artists, I too faced a roadblock there. After months of research, I finally decided to join FASO, as more than half the work was already done by them – the template for design, a unique domain, SEO, web hosting, etc all came with the package & I simply grabbed it. For technically challenged artists like me, it was Godsend.

Since early days, I always wrote blogs on my website as an additional way to express my art experiences and share my learnings with others. For whoever cared to read, the truth was always out there. And every time I wrote one, I got an automated prompt from the host that it could be published on a common platform accessible for all users to read – not just the ones from my mailing list.

And though there were some great blogs written by other fellow artists that were shared and I’ve read on that platform, but mine never showed up. Maybe it never clicked all the boxes for selection, or it was just waitlisted till the next time – I don’t know. Or maybe it was just an unreasonable expectation from my side.

No complaints there - but maybe it was just another slice of pizza not meant for me.

But one day I got to realize the several other benefits I derived from the same website. So many fruitful connections – with prospective buyers, quite a few fans & even publishers – have all happened here, thanks to my website. And thus, over the years, it turned out to be an invaluable resource for me. A great investment indeed.

And there I could find my slice of pizza once again!

Putting together a round-up for this year & having to mention my website, it felt only natural to talk about the new sub-section I’ve started in my portfolio called ‘exploratory’.

This automatically presupposes the opposite – the more ‘known’ territory (for me), put under the sub-section of ‘conventional’.

Going by numbers, it reads about 9 to 10 different ‘explorations’ I’ve had in 2023 – though not all have been uploaded from my phone gallery yet.

Many of these explorations happened because of some rejection – the ‘lost’ slice of pizza if you may – that pushed me to try something else.

But in the process, I have gained significantly different insights and a new perspective. A new slice of the pizza!

While some of these explorations are the result of my interest in ‘tonalism’ – the American art movement that focused on tone & color - & the Japanese concept of Notan, some others are influenced by the works of artists as diverse as Nathan Fowkes, Pam Wenger & Banksy.

Parallely, in my professional world, I found a new trend gaining a foothold - from interior design to fashion, from graphics to the digital design of websites, illustrations, etc, I noticed widespread use of pastel colors. Colors like pink, lilac, baby blue, mint green, lavender, and pale yellow seemed to have a power to create a calm and relaxing atmosphere while conveying a sense of lightness and harmony. My growing admiration for this dreamy palette, combined with my newfound interest in Tonalism, guided my next set of explorations – mostly based on the 7^th century Dravidian Shore Temple in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu.

My treasured John Whorf Book

One of the major incidents recorded for me this year was the re-availability of the only authoritative book on the great American artist John Whorf in a Provincetown bookstore. “John Whorf Rediscovered” by AFA Publishing is a book I’ve been looking for years & finally received this March. I was so thrilled with it that I felt I ought to pay some tribute to the great master. That counted as one more exploration - a slice of pizza I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.

And sometimes a slice (or two) of pizza can arrive from unexpected areas also – like the opportunity of a complete demo in the Watercolor Artist magazine (Fall 2023 issue) or a chance to interview a top watercolorist face-to-face.

The article including a demo in Watercolor Artist Magazine (Fall 2023)

And as we approach the time to eat the last slice of pizza this year, I cannot help but wonder what would it feel like to have all my slices made available to me all the time.

Would it be one slice too many?