Art 🎨

social media post:

Field of Beginnings

Ikig.ai

Faces in the Mirror

portrait i made for a friend’s bday 🙂

design i made for an initiative to give retirement benefits to police canines!

dreamcatcher! printed this one out on t-shirts

durga (hindu goddess) faces i made for my grandma!

 

Robotics Team Logo (We Love Pi)

Canva:

Robotics team outreach brochures

We Love Pi Outreach Brochures

Robotics team infographic (community outreach)

AP ART!

This year I’ve been working on an AP Art portfolio and I’m doing my investigation on a few different threads. One of the threads is an exploration of the experiences I’ve had with my Kashmiri side, vicariously seeing the land and interacting with the culture through Kashmiri art and handicrafts (a dying art because of the crisis there) as well as my family’s story.  Another thread is the process of being diagnosed and treated for cancer, something I’ve seen in both my grandmothers, and helping out in a cancer clinic. It mainly explores the mental volatility of someone who is going through the extreme stress of the process. My last thread (I’ll upload this before the portfolio is due in April) is one about mental health and how it’s impacted my family and I in an environment in which it’s largely been very stigmatized. All these threads have been very personal to me since they’ve been inspired by recent experiences and family changes. I’m glad that through this art, I was able to have a catharsis from everything that’s going on and have an outlet to express and consolidate my feelings. I’ve learned so much through this process about myself, my family, and what motivates me, and I’m so glad I was able to rekindle my love for art by doing something so personal to me! Thanks for reading this whole intro– now here’s my art with some descriptions.

Ever since I was little, my garage has been filled with boxes of Kashmiri shawls, the inventory for my dad’s business selling them. Folding the shawls into boxes to send across the country, putting the shawls on mannequins and photographing them for the website, I’ve developed an attachment to the countless paisleys and flowers I’ve touched and artisan’s stories I’ve packaged. Because I’ve never been able to visit Kashmir, interacting with the shawls is one of the ways I’ve always been able to interact with my history and culture.  The next two pieces are based on the concept that I’ve been able to see Kashmir through the thread of the shawls, taking in the beauty but also the conflict in Kashmir by helping my dad in his work, as well as through the stories told to me by him, my aunt, and my grandmother.

The white shawl above has typical sozni embroidery on it – known for its intricacy and detail. I felt like that level of beauty really resonated with the stories I had heard of the landscape in Kashmir. In the background of the shawl, I watercolored the landscape from Dal Lake in Srinagar, where my dad’s family is from. From the mountains to the  houseboats to the shikara (wooden boat) in the foreground, I wanted to convey a sense of dreamy beauty. After the watercolor, I extended the pattern on the shawl and drew it so that the thread was unraveling and almost revealing the landscape, like how the shawls have been the physical manifestation of all the wonderful stories I’ve heard.

This black shawl exhibits aari embroidery, a type of Kashmiri embroidery known for its thickness, strength and durability. I feel like it parallels that same trait in the Kashmiri people, who’ve endured and are still going through so much strife to make their voices heard. This piece is definitely the antithesis to the previous piece: it’s done in the same style, with a shawl in the foreground, and line art and watercolor in the background. It’s still based on the stories I’ve heard from family, but this time, it’s the not-so-pretty side of Kashmir. This side has become increasingly evident to me especially this year, with the revocation of Article 370 and the religious and political strife always broadcast on my TV. It’s only added to my father’s family’s stories of fleeing from their homeland after militant attacks, and painted an even grimmer picture of the land.  As with most things, Kashmir’s story is a juxtaposition and a dichotomy: of two shawls, showing natural beauty in peace and the beauty of the people’s perseverance through war.

Kashmiri Christmas Tree – Usually at my house, my Christmas tree is adorned with paper-mache Kashmiri ornaments. They’re an essential part of Christmas spirit and feel like a window to my culture. I’m really happy that the personality of each of the ornaments on this tree shone through– I think in a way, they each show the personality of the artist who made them. I did this one in acrylic to try out the medium- actually quite liked it!

* A little side note- Kashmiri artisans have been making paper-mache crafts for years but because of the persistent conflict in their homeland, the time-honored tradition of making them has morphed into making paper-mache Christmas ornaments! Support their craft by buying handmade ones online.

A Kashmiri paper mache bowl with my grandmother sitting inside, inspired by her stories of perseverance as a single woman & professional in a very patriarchal Kashmir and the backlash she faced, as well as harrowing tales of experiences she’s had escaping from militants in Kashmir. I really feel that my grandmother’s devotion to her work as a director, as well as to her religion, culture, and family are what allowed her to succeed in such a hostile environment. She inspires me every day.

A picture of my grandmother and a sketch of it 🙂

Exploring my grandmother’s story made me realize how specifically women’s voices in Kashmir are silenced. On both sides of the crisis, men create and foment the discord, a sad consequence of conflict reaffirming gender norms. The first step to uplifting Kashmiri women is, of course, ending this patriarchal conflict, and after doing this investigation, I’m motivated to do my part to advocate for my family and culture.

A sketch – faces from the thread of a Kashmiri carpet! My dad often explains the process of how Kashmiri textiles are made by hand and embroidered and I feel that I can see artisans and people behind the art in that way. It’s definitely something I want to try including in a future piece!

My exploration of my Kashmiri heritage has been largely because of the mounting tensions I’ve seen in the country, paired with family changes causing me to spend more time helping my dad with his shawl-selling from the garage, as well as assisting my family and grandmother with her cancer treatment plan. There have been so many changes that have led me to a greater level of appreciation for my background this past year, and so grateful to them for allowing me to mature in my worldview.

It is ironic that I’ve learned so much about my culture through the dying art of the region, as many artisans are not making crafts, shawls, and carets, etc. because of the impracticability in such a volatile political situation. After doing this art, I’ve gained a newfound appreciation for their work, and definitely want to continue supporting them in one way or another.

Though my maternal grandmother went through cancer and passed away around 5 years ago, I also want to explore my Bengali side as well, and honor my maternal grandmother through that. My mom’s definitely been an undying pillar of strength in my house, and has helped me and my family get through trying times this winter as well as in the past. I also want to delve into I definitely realize I’m in the unique position of being in a multicultural and multireligious family, and one of the pieces I’m planning is an exploration of how my intersectional background has influenced my perception of unity, as well as how I hope to apply that to whatever I do and continue transcending boundaries. I’m so happy to have a family that’s been so supportive of this process– a part of my investigation this year is a thank you letter to my family for all the sacrifice I’ve seen them go through, and all the experiences and memories we’ve had and made together, in the good and the bad.

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These next pieces were some of the first I did this year, documenting my experience seeing my family going through cancer. My paternal grandmother had just been diagnosed with cancer when school started so those feelings were fresh in my mind, and I had been recalling the memories of my late grandmother and her diagnosis from years ago.

Diagnosis I – This was my first piece of the year. I used colored pencils and markers, which ended up with it getting a cartoony feel, but somewhat paradoxically melancholy at the same time. It portrays with the initial shock of being diagnosed with cancer and the flurry of thoughts and ideas that come into one’s mind. I’ve seen my grandmothers both be overwhelmed by negativity and fear, something so poignant and moving for me, that I just had to capture this moment. Though it’s not the most graceful (and a little unsavory), I felt like this was a good first piece to just get my thoughts on paper.

Diagnosis II – I’m really happy with how my artistry evolved even from the first piece by this one. In the first piece, I used a lot of symbolism that was obvious and evident on the surface. However, switching to a more subtle scheme, I feel, made my art more nuanced and interesting to explore. The bricks as cells were a motif I continued from the previous piece– in this one, I simply conveyed the ubiquity of cancer in a cancer patient’s mind, and how it essentially takes over their life, a phenomenon I’ve seen with both my grandmothers. The cracks in the bricks with cells coming out were fun to draw, and I even glued eraser shavings to the sky on top to add a little bit of texture. The ivy and the shadow took the LONGEST. I’m really happy with the final product, but my hand almost fell off from running through a green and a black colored pencil…

Diagnosis III – This final diagnosis piece was motivated by my paternal grandmother’s fear of entering an MRI machine. I tried to portray it in a way that also conveyed an underlying fear of the treatment process, of feeling out of control of one’s own body because of all the hands working on it. While I’m happy I got a lot of practice with hands and was able to illustrate this well, I realized at this point that my exploration into cancer wasn’t as positive as I’d hoped it would be; I had wanted to celebrate the perseverance and positivity of my grandmothers in the trying times they’d gone through, but instead I was more exploring the dark side of the disease. Though I definitely am proud of these three diagnosis pieces that illustrate the shock and mental degradation of someone with cancer, I decided from here on that I wanted to portray my family in a positive light. After some thought, this is when I shifted to the thread of exploring my culture through objects in my house. This was I could honor my grandmother’s struggles and the amount they had taught me about my background in a positive way.

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These next three images are concept maps I did at the start of the year to brainstorm for my sustained investigation. Originally I was pretty unsure what to do so I decided to just draw whatever my mind came to and see what connections came out of it. Even though I began to do art relating to cancer after dong these, I’m really happy that these lighthearted and fun exercises sort of got me into the mindset I needed for the year of art. And even my cancer investigation morphed into something else after a while! I’m really happy that all the art pieces I made (including these) have contributed to my maturation as a person, storyteller, and artist.

Egg Concept Map – this was a fun one: I did it on a whim but I came out with a new appreciation for how aesthetic eggs are.

Map Concept Map (haha)! I’ve always loved gazing at maps so I thought exploring them through art might be a cool way to share my love for them with others. Will definitely use this idea for a future piece 🙂

Sickness concept map – I was helping my grandmother with dealing with treatment and diagnosis of cancer at this time, so this was on my mind a lot. Making these connections (albeit they were a bit cold) helped me flesh out what I wanted my cancer investigation to be, though I do feel like it contributed to the dark-ish tone of my cancer diagnosis pieces.

I’ll be posting more works here as I finish them. Thanks so much for taking a look 🙂