Time for some art

 A lot of online classes for Pilla, especially specials and except GYM, I can relax a little. I am just doing spatial prompting and relaxing till next batch of assignments come up. Except GYM (that I do it with him) and Spanish (that I want to do with him), all the others are sitting somewhere in perephery and reading news on cellphone (the only time I can do it). 

The year started with a very sweet art teacher. Ohh...she was cute in an old woman kind of way, with slow, low melodious voice, a sweet smile and very understanding voice. But her art seemed a little basic but yes, season and festival (read halloween...) related. Then the reshuffling happened and she disappeared, only to be replaced by a robust and boisterous woman. After bieng used to lovely warm water, when your shower decides to be cold suddenly, the very same way. My first impression of her was LOUD...and OUCH. I mean who teaches Yayoi Kusama in her second class?? But she kind of grew on me. Especially me and the teacher's assistant, as in first few sessions, we were the only one logged in for the session. But I was surprised but also impressed when she started passing a lot of 'gratuit' stuff like unused watercolors, construction paper and wise for the upcoming sessions. And I liked that she absolutely used all mediums. Be it paper, glue , crayons, color pencils but also a bit more tricky but rich watercolors. 

Slowly I started getting pulled in the sessions so much that poor Pilla had to fight for his turns. My hidden artist was getting encouraged and nurtured by this exuberant art magician...hope to learn ...I have a long way to go...

Chicken dance

 Pilla's gym class is good. They plan it in such a way that kids are not bored of the same old routine. (yup, inspite of it bieng an online class) A small choice of exercise video then a dance (new addition) and then ball throwing techniques.

What has slowly got my attention is the dance routine. 4 easy steps in 4 directions then a free dance then again 4 easy steps in 4 directions and so on till the dance gets over.

For someone who always had two left feet in dancing. Nopes, I am flexible enough to do yogasanas and have a nice voice. I am not tone deaf...but beat deaf definitely. But these steps caught my attention. So much so that I started doing them almost involuntarily in car, when cooking etc etc. And incase you are wondering if I have lost it...who cares, maybe I have but its worth it. Now I have to search for some such dances...that can get me in beat...cocka doodle do....

Just in case you want to see what I am talking about...here it is: voila....le dance de "chicken"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xmV5uHWNag 

The more we get together

 A few things created a deep ripple in thought process and a normal relaxed mind didn't understand when the tea ended, the taste absent in the brain register and so was warmth. Uthi uthi ba changed to majhe maher and my my mind was finding it hard to concentrate on the usual appealing highs and lows of pt. Bheemsen Joshi. After the song ended, I switched off the playlist only to start it again. Rereading a mediocre book that I kept away.

After a rather dwarf like structure of pattcharitra which looked rather a monster than a pleasant to the eye, I kept my pencil and got up to do what I had got so many days back. A cheaper piece of canvas from dollar store and an idea. And slowly I got immersed in it. With the folk art that showed a few dancing, a few giving the beats, and I came out of the trance only after I heard Pilla's excited voice as he does when when he gets up. Given a chance this guy would never sleep. I looked down at the canvas to see outlines idea. I had got the blueprint and now just a choice of colors. This painting had surely brought me out of the monologus questions that my mind was continiously   badgering me with. My mind did have questions now but strangely the badgering had stopped. I breathed hard as I smiled as I hummed the song from Pilla's online music class "the more we get together the happier we will be..."

A wierd tomato I fell in love with

 "Whats that?" my better(?) half asked as I sliced into a light orange brown beauty. "Ohh...you want to taste it?" but looking into his expression, I didnt pass the plate to him as I sat down with the few pieces with my current read "kitchen yarns" by Anne hood. "aha...next time I am going to buy a bit softer ones, I said to my self as I relished the softer flesh , my teeth biting into tomato like interior but unlike tomato, a crackly skin.

I laughed when my better(?) half gave my exploration a rating. "if I am 4 in exploring, you are 8 or even more than 8 on 10 in exploring. " I just shrugged my shoulders. "Unless its not vegetarian or smells like one, I can eat it" . That of course includes seaweed, considered by many as delicacy but which is so much stinky fishy in taste for me that I really cant eat it. But the same seaweed when combines in a miso soup (nope, I don't make, I just tear a packet in hot cup of water) creates a warming and comforting effect.

But yes, a lot of foods, condiments and sauces, I can explore. I want to put a taste picture into something read in a book.

So when once, we went to Hmart, I tried something called fuyu persimmon. Just one or two, so that I dont waste if I dont like the taste. As I bit into one, it tasted so good. A sweet honey like taste, the skin cracking under the teeth and the seeds crunching. A sweet aroma completed the taste experience. Next time I got more, 4 to be precise and so on till one day their season got over and my love got forgotten with many other loves like cherries which I can easily finish a pound and a half only for them to give my stomach a diuretic effect. But that does not stop me from having them or even a bit high on pricing pineapple, a ripe to have jackfruit at whole foods (I always found the jackfruit at Hmart cut before ripe. The pieces confused if they should be eaten as a ripe fruit or used in a curry. As they are too ripe for gravy and raw to eat just like that. Whole foods jackfruit is a different ambrosial story.

Ofcourse I tried dragon fruit and liked its neutral taste but diddi had some nasty description, comparing the seeds to hair lice and I never had guts to put a piece in my mouth again (yes I hate her)

Back to persimmons. So my this love was lost only to surface when due to COVID scare we went Hmart rather after many months. While cherries and lychees had already bid bye and ever present grapes and apples jostled for attention, my eyes went to these cuties. And I jumped on them. Not the pristine ones in boxes which cost more for their perfection but those which were set aside because they were not good enough for the box. A soft spot here (sign of perfect honey ripeness) or blemish (only physically, not flesh deep to allow "KITANUS" to ruin them). And every single time they please me. I try to save them for saturday fasting but I am not that lucky every single time. And just yesterday when I sat with one ripe perfection , my normally disinterested pilla tried some bites.

I wish just like my dada exposed me to myrid collection of fruits costing a few pennies or a fortune, I wish I can expose pilla to same passion of fruit eating as I have.

But more than that I hope I can teach him that perfection is not in the interiors of box but interiors of so called imperfect specimens which stay waiting for that someone who can appreciate them without their external imperfections.

A new favourite author

I dont know how many people know this but I LOVE reading about food. Food memoirs are a pleasant way to read while eating and most of them (read MFK Fisher, Jaques Pepin , David Lebovitz) have received stains of whatever I am eating then. I avoid reading them any time else for the fear of developing phantom hunger.

A seemingly new but an old favourite Anne Hood (whose the knitting circle is dogeared at aaibai's) led me to Laurie Colwin and now I have a bit yellowed Home cooking and More home cooking (yellowed because she died young at the age of 52 in 1992)

Laurie colwin is very straightforward. No high fi, dictionary seeking language but here is someone who genuinely loved food and not only that but also knew how to write. People do like Ruth Reichl but as many as books I borrowed of her, they were a one time read. Needless to say, I preferred spending my pennies on Colwin, Lebovitz (his humor is wierd and can be understood only by wierdos like me) MFK ( a legend but nice to read and reread the encyclopedic volume I have consisting of her 6 books) and ofcourse some who have blogs like bongmom or the wednesday chef. 

As I finish this writeup, I searched and kept a stack of books that I essentially dont see the purpose on the bookshelf. Parenting books taken and never read, some book memoirs that I am not keen in reading again. In the near future I can see selling them on a website more in a hope to circulate them than gaining some money for them.

But Laurie Colwin, MFK or Jaccques Pepin...they are here to stay.

Start of fall aka winter

Hours slip to days to months and voila, we are already in the middle of August. The last 4 of the months will begin soon.

I had a funny/queer habit of noting down the time sun rose in the morning. We have a building in front of us and having ground +2 floors, helped me peek from the kitchen to note the time the sun came up to 2nd, then first and then ground floor. Just this monday I noticed that there is huge difference of 45 minutes in the sunrise. Soon the trees near the apartment will be a burst of color and just like the moment when sun is the most beautiful before dusk, the same way one day they are orange, yellow and red, and next day they are at the foot of the naked tree, leaving it cold grey and naked to face the bracing winter.

The weather is now slowly changing to pleasant without bieng nippy or sultry. I like this weather for my semi nightly walk as the time I leave, the sun just decides to do a favor and come out. I have a field day in plucking noones flowers for god almighty at home and then a walk.

A nice practice of HIs have started. There is a small family owned diner on the way and the old owner almost always acknowleges my hi. Then a fast paced bispectacled lady meets me and mutual nod and smiles later I am on my own. Then the usual community mates on the track most of them of my countrymen and true to what I had been brought up with (which I long stopped practicing, thanks to greeting even a stranger thanks to my adopted country habit) "dont smile, wave or greet strangers". So my face becomes non commital again as I have been at looked at like a crazy smiling electric shocked haired, masked fast walking gal.

But a smile surely brightens the day, especially when time of staying at home for longer durations n me and pilla banging each others heads and better (?) half perpetually meditating, these smiles will surely act like nuts the squirrels gather. Frowns just drizzle away.

Is this the way life feels like..

A bit warm, a bit cold cold air blew on me, the gurgling whooshing sound as if making me smile. The air played with my fingers and made me wonder if this is what flying feels like, if this is what swimming feels like. I almost felt the air nudging my non existent wings to grow and fly, over the seas , over the mountains....

A lovely start to a sunny morning

I go for an early morning walks.  Mostly it's me and a person or two. Since it is start of summer, it's bright even at the time I go. The weather is cooler as sun has just decided to come out. It bright but not yet sunrise. It is also the time I pluck some flowers for my shrine. It maybe some marigolds or rose or even wildflowers. Summer actually pampers you for choice. So today as usual I plucked some and finished my rounds to a bad grumbling in my tummy. It was one of those days I knew I would not be as lively as usual. I skipped my static cycle and before I went for shower, I sorted the flowers. And a bhrrrr. A desperate fluttering of wings. I was badly startled. And scared near the window. It would be glad to be out. It was an insect that came at night time at aaibai's place sometimes . It was a preety flat, grey brown with black dot on each wing. But it stank when squashed. Now a days except roaches ,red ants and centipeds I leave all the others. Even spiders (I clean the cobwebs though). Spiders incidentally eat roaches, so they are protectors. Distressing thy name is yours truly...so I took a shower and came out, to see the poor one still trying to get out. I tried to get him on paper and then leave him in balcony. But he wouldn't. Scared maybe...as if something struck. I closed a small container on him. Then I collected him and freed it in balcony. Bhrrrr and it was gone...i could see the spec and the urgent fluttering of wings for some time and then leaves camouflaged it. I gave a half smile. A calm descending to the core as I  went back to kumar gandharva's uthi uthi gopala....a lovely beginning to a day starting on tired note

Art confusion

After having enough of pointillism starting with a banyan leaf, then a ballet dancer and starting with a sunflower, I started searching for next inspiration. Honestly I got so tired of screensavers and cropping them, saving them. There were just so many ideas in pintrest that I really got confused. Should I try a Kandinsky or a Picasso or pop art was better.

This was after I tried my hand at madhubani, warli and kerela mural.

There were a lot and lot of inspirations and ideas for middle school?? High school??? And at times elementary school??? Omg....these kiddos learn art? Of artists? I came to know of Monet and manet only after I started studying french...when I was in 20s and I came to know of Kandinsky in name ( no art known) only when I was d oung advanced diploma in german at university.  Then there were music composers whose cassettes I got at rhythm house ( yes there were cassettes then). But that's it. And these kids get to learn all this at such a small age? Then I remembered I had been to an exhibition at a high school and rather than searching for right room, I stood open mouthed, gaping at all the art of students adorning the wide aisles of school (much to the impatience of my better(?) Half who verbally berated me) and I almost wish now that I should have clicked pictures.
Compared to that, our art periods in schools were either portion recovery sessions or the teacher came and told to draw the usual mountain, tree, cloud sun landscape or sometimes some such idea. My sis learnt contrast but how it came to being, the famous artists who did contrasts etc were not known.
 I gave two qualifying exams but i am yet to remember what we studied besides still life . A book (by Subodh Narvekar) was refered but not compulsory. I was always fascinated by the paintings in it and even tried block painting in it but it's only recently that I came back to art.
So now it's on me. There is so much to explore and I have not even tried 1/8 of it. But looking at all these inspirations,  I have planned at least my years worth of weekends , just trying art of one artist at a time. Not something that can take eons to complete but something achievable over the weekend.
Now surely my next list from India will include a sketch book or two.

Of birds and bees

I like bird watching and animal watching and given a chance, I like to feed them as well, trying to treat them as the family member. (Read cutsie squirrels , gander and deer).

I love color. Maybe its the borderline artist in me. And god has given the birds are deal of color. As if he took each of them and painted them one by one at leisure. A palette of shades and tones and no photograph or painting can draw it that beautifully like god's another gift to the mankind, the naked eye sees. So even if I paint a little and know a lot about photography, I read and research thanks to google about the bird seen.

India is a tropical country and wherever there is lush greenery, you see a deluge of beauty. I associate green parrots/ parakeets with my college where we could see a colony of them, especially in winter mornings, with their spring green long plumage (which is sadly cut off when they are caged and sold off). Chirping and chatting these free birdies spent their wintry days and me gazing at them, whatever idle gossip that took place around me just becoming white noise. I would be so mesmerized by them.

I associate sparrows (male and female,  both beautiful but both oh so different in coloring, even if they have brown in them, the male having black around the eyes and female having dotted wings) , and crows (both the smaller ones, with a dull grey face and completely shiny dark ravens or dom kavla in my maternal language ) with my birth home where there was a huge common tree near the balcony (which incidentally flowered in summer of cute pink flowers .....called mimosa tree...researched as I was writing). Common then but since Mumbai is fast loosing tree cover, they are fast disappearing as well. A not that common kingfisher was a welcome sight as well.

I will always associate amercian robin  with North carolina where I first saw it and was utterly fascinated with its golden orange brown torso, eyes accustomed to black and brown specks. Cardinal (state bird of NC) which I saw rare but was always mesmerized by its striking red body and american short billed pigeon  (whose hu..huhu...I always associate with NC and which I really thought belonged to an owl, till I saw this guy perched on a roof making that sound and made me giggle at).

Nevada pampered us with beautiful hummingbirds (blue one seen only once but brown one was a common sight). . I still remember the first time we saw a tiny bright blue orb which looked liked a butterfly on airplane speed. A very beautiful sight to savour and remember.

And back in new jersey, along with the usual mates of sparrows and crows, my eyes delight in blackbirds gray cat birds , grey heron  , egrets  blue jays (which when I saw for the first time, I stood right at the side walk, gawking at the pastel blue beauty. Of-course since there is a thicket behind our place, we see  robins and cardinals as well. There is a small stream which when it rains becomes a rivulet (which explains egret and heron as there are small fishes in the stream. Some people enjoy fishing there, though I wonder if they have caught a tuna or a salmon. Jokes apart, there I have seen ducks or mallards maybe Somehow  ganders with their population explosion have become an every day affair. .

You may wonder these pictures and why did I put them up but I had to do that for my own sake. I love to know what I see in my daily observations and something as preety as these birds are definitely worth than just a mention right??