This video and the earlier one are how my day-to-day journal drawing takes place. I sit down with my book and try to draw what’s on my mind. Sometimes I start by drawing what’s in front of me – which is why there are so many drawings of Orin eating! At other times I draw the day, how things went, what I listened to, or read. Sometimes my mind is blank and quite often the fear of the empty page threatens to take over.
But the important thing is to show up, and get over that fear, the fear of not being good enough, the fear of not living up to your own expectations. And after some time, I find the flow, I start to commune with myself, and joy takes over.
One evening in San Fransisco from a couple of years ago has been on my mind for the past few days. Deez was celebrating her birthday with some friends, and I joined in, glad to have caught up with her on this the trip. Here are my journal pages from that day.
“How many times in your life do you meet strangers and they have read your blog? Nothing like a surprise burst of celebrity-dom to bolster my ego!”
“In full entertainer mode I regaled everyone with stories of how the brown boy and I got together, and how did our little tornado come into our life.”
“We went for a long moonlight walk through the streets of Mission, took in the street art and curiosities peculiar to the culture. Arati told us stories of how the Mission came to be, and Deez her past selves that had moved through the area. We had awesome Mexican food and laughed so much.”
“There was happy birthday flan and we remembered all the stories of a dragonfly childhood. Remembered all the missing friends and how important they are.”
Some of you know our friend Parsa. Back in 2008 I had drawn a story for his birthday The one and only Parsa. On Tuesday 4th Feb, he passed away. He and I were flatmates in Ahmedabad back in 2001-2002 along with our other friends Reshmy and Rahul Das.
One night another friend Tuttu had come over. Suddenly –
Anyway, we found some water for him…
and that was that…
Another day…
Parsa: Nandisoo Look at me! I am the messiah! Soo: Dude you slept with the window open again!
Another time –
Parsa: We’ll take you to the Oscar awards ceremony with us, Nandisoo… Rahul Das: Yes, you’re sweet to us and help us and we will take you when we win…
Parsa was not like the rest of us. He had so much passion and so much drive. These last few months he gave us a lot of attention with his daily messages and sometime later I understood that was his way of showing love…
Drawings from my journals about some of the lovely people I have met here. Most of these are drawn from memory, like cartoonists often tend to do, but the discipline of drawing from life is always required.
This was drawn the day I started feeling like I belonged…
A lovely Andhra dinner at Teju’s – it was also our friend Pallavi’s birthday that day.
It’s a milestone indeed when one of your friends says something nice about your work. Here’s Nityan, artist and erstwhile potter, who is an inspiration with his beautiful sketchbooks and his prolific expression.
“The only difference between your sketchbooks and mine are that you draw so much better…”
A couple of years ago I had a free weekend on a work trip and I flew up to Seattle to spend it with my friend Lekha. She had planned the most marvellous time for us.
First we had brunch at Pike Place Market and then we walked to the Olympic Sculpture Park. I saw most of the sculptures for the first time so you can imagine what an experience it was. Here’s the biggest Calder I have ever seen, the Eagle.
Here’s me in front of yet another inspiration from my past, Ellsworth Kelley. He had used weathering steel, knowing that a patina of rust would gather over time, and the piece would continue to change visibly over time.
“When you draw, you suddenly see what you’re afraid of.”
Louise Bourgeois
It was such an experience with Lekha – we were meeting after years and there was so much to catch up on. Amidst Richard Serra’s grand and majestic Wake we talked about our deepest feelings.
“Serra went to the shipyard, saw the way the ships were being built, and became entranced with it. It became a power thing for him, to make powerful gutsy statements that fit his personality. “
The sculpture park was so beautiful and perfect it filled the art-shaped hole in my heart.
In the afternoon we lay on the grass in the park and watched the boats on the waterfront. On the flight back I quickly drew everything before I forgot – it was such a lovely holiday!
inktales 