Happy New Year

Hello,

How was your last year? What do you think looking back?

 I learnt to be grateful last year, for all those things that we take for granted. Thank you for visiting here and sharing some moments of your 2017 with me.

Wishing you a very  healing and fulfilling new year.

This is a wax resist drawing made using crayons and watercolour on handmade watercolour rag paper. hope you like it.

What is the best gift you can give yourself on your birthday?

Like most others I have gathered a lot of things over the years and actually need to sort them so that I can get rid of some of them as soon as possible. Hence no buying new things for this birthday. Actually de-cluttering my space would be a good gift.

If you are also a person who takes herself seriously so much so that you think you can't commit any mistake, then it will be good to know that nobody you admire has become what he/she has become without making mistakes. Forgive yourself for God's sake. You know you are trying and you are just a human being.  By giving ourselves permission to commit mistakes and even fail might open a lot new doors. And it will be easier on ourselves.

Humour can help. I re-learnt this from my daughter. All the women that I knew and loved from childhood were great and I got to learn a lot from them. But they were all too serious. On the contrary, all my maternal uncles were and are so much fun. They always had something witty and funny to say for every occasion. That made life so much easier for all. Can we just laugh more this year?

Another way to be kinder to ourselves is to continue doing good things that we are doing for our body machine. Yoga, workout, walks, health food whatever you are into and whatever works for you, is great. The idea is to  pay attention to our wellbeing consciously and deliberately as we grow by one more year.

Whether it is your birthday to Un-birthday have fun and be happy today.
Some more ink experiments from exotic book. 😄

Thank you.

The Book of Exotic Feelings! HA HA HA!

This is the name I gave to the book I made out of my experimentations with ink on paper. I found it in the mess of my art room and I think I should post some of the ink experiments here. The were done on scraps of printmaking papers of different types and stuck on black drawing notebook that you get in art shops,so that I don't have to spend time for binding the book. It was a part of weekly critique along with some more work. The name would be more appropriate if I also write something on each page.




 

Do you see the letters "Golden Energy" embossed on the paper?

Loved doing this. I am not sure the photographs will do justice but it is great to hold it in hand and watch the inks mixed and frozen in time at that moment. I have not been so comfortable with watercolours so far.

Thank you.

Intestines?

Looks great in real life.

Bye now.

Tara Books

I want to talk here today about Tara Books. It simply is a very brave undertaking in the country where not very many people are aware of existence of art books, leave alone need of collecting them. Tara publishers are based out of Chennai. Their books, mostly written in English, are very visual. At Tara, they have been consistently trying to showcase traditional artists from the nook and corners of the country and keeping different styles,traditions alive. Still their books are affordable. They also have collaborated with international artists.

They have their own print shop where the artisans do everything by hand from making silkscreen prints to binding the books. These products produced at print shop are fair-trade articles. Pl take a look at their colourful website Tara Books and support them.

My name is red.

Creation is not always an artwork, sometimes it is some mundane but necessary household chore like making chilli powder. Yes, at home.  Okey so you choose two different types of chillies. One is for color and one for hotness. They need to be dry enough. And this is what you get.
I loved the book "My Name is Red." But more about that some other day.
for now,.....

https://manjireemanolkarbook.blogspot.in

Crayons again

Crayons, black india ink on handmade 100% rags paper which is locally made.

Thanks.

After a big slumber or November ramble

After a big slumber I am back to post, to write, to share and to ramble. Bear with me.

https://manjireemanolkarbook.blogspot.in

Thank you.