Beautiful Dirty

These "beautiful dirty" photos have been inspired by the work of photographer Terry Richardson www.terryrichardson.com. I like the way he captures the beautiful grotesque dirty hotness of people, bodies and sexuality. It looks like he sets up his shots as if catching people through a candid lens. Its voyeuristic and shameless. Something about that appeals to me.

Native Geometriks

These two pieces above are called "Native Geometriks". The geometric reference is easy to get, you can see it in the work. But native? Huh? They are native to my sensibilities: odd colour combinations, ikat/mughal-inspired, pattern-focused and rhythmic, like the GOOD music I listened to while I made this art.

Thanks Segments!
[Segments is on 88.1 CKLN, Saturday mornings from 8-10am]

Now Or Never

These were words I started saying to myself a few months back. Like a personal guide, "Now Or Never" is helping me live a life without regret. As Hafiz has said: (translated, of course)

One regret, dear world,
That I am determined not to have
When I am lying on my deathbed
Is that
I did not kiss you enough.
- Hafiz

Of course, "Now Or Never" is not poetic as Hafiz, but I believe the sentiment is the same. It is about cultivating and sharing your love, in every moment, in every day. It is also about acknowledging, cherishing and following your dreams, kissing the world as it were.

For me, following my (creative) dreams has led me to quit my full-time job as of last week, travel to India as of next week and share my love as of now.

And what are these (creative) dreams that I am following? They come in two parts. Part 1: I want to make fresh to death art, design and photography while financially supporting my family. I also want to be able to teach "disadvantaged" (1) youth of colour creative skills and an appreciation of non-canonized aesthetics. Part 2: It will become clear as I slow down and spend some time away, in India.

In short, life is short, so if you can and you want to, then do it now. And if you can't, but you want to, then prepare to do it and do it when you are ready.

A special thanks to my friends and family who have supported and encouraged me to make art and design. You know who you are and I sure as hell couldn't have taken this step without you. Peace.

[btw: up there is an old collage of my nana, masi, mother and colonial India next to a new sketch of ek onkar.]

Blogs were not meant for footnotes! But here goes anyway:
(1) The "disadvantaged" are ALWAYS advantaged in ways those always/already "advantaged" can never be and can often not understand.

Sketchbook Pages

Love Letter...

...to god. Translation: Don't forget about me.

Holy Holi Besharam

I Love IKAT!

The above sketches are examples of the current direction my drawing is taking. Being first and foremost a graphic designer, I see that I am most attracted to line, shape, pattern and flat colour. Even when I work by hand, I gravitate towards these elements over any others.

Although only one painted sketch above is of an Ikat pattern (directly above), I must say it is something I would like to do more of. There are so many ways in which I can reproduce Ikat by hand, that it will take me some time to understand what works best. In any case, watch out for large-scale, hand-drawn Ikat patterns coming your way!

(Ikat is a style of weaving that uses a resist dyeing process similar to tie-dye on either the warp or weft before the threads are woven to create a pattern or design. It is commonly found in India among other countries.)

Cartoon Activists?

Hell no. Absolutely not. From what little I know about these two pictured above, they are not cartoon characters. At least not in their committed activism :) These photographs are from a mini photo shoot we did. The premise was simply that I wanted to practice studio work and they wanted to have photos taken that they could use at their upcoming wedding. But nobody wanted cheese. So, I took a humorous approach and played with the two aspects of their lives that I know a bit about: activism and an interest in lots of bright colour. This is what we came up with. Something a little laughter might fix ; )

Btw, their kaffiyehs came well before the local hipsters took a decontextualized liking.

Sacha Williamson via Nep Siddhu

Yep. That's the real ish. Remember the photo shoot I spoke about back in December of which I promised to post some images? Of course not. Don't worry, no hurt feelings here : ) Well, these are them. The best of them (in my opinion).

The day long shoot was a team production with Art Director and Stylist, Nep Siddhu (of Equinox Forward fame www.equinoxforward.com) at the helm. The photographers were Cyrus Irani www.cyrusirani.com, Ian and myself. Sacha Williamson www.myspace.com/sachawilliamson is the brilliant, soulful, vocalist featured in the shots. Although, these are pre-production images (i.e. each image will be cleaned up and given a graphic treatment before it is released into the world), are't they sick as is?

Give me a collaboration like this any day and i'm game.