Poetry of artist Sarita Chouhan

It is a delight when you have friends who not only paint but also write. For a while now I've been meaning to share the art-practise/writings of dear artist and friend Sarita. Originally from Delhi, Sarita lives with her husband, a script-writer for feature films and daughter in Bombay.

Some months ago I had visited her well-lit studio which is located in a nice residential locality at Four bungalows. Over tea we discussed art, life and other interesting matters. That day while going through the artist statement of her 2001 series, I happened to read the poem, 'There is one tune. And there is one song'. I was struck by her intimate understanding of 'stillness' and ‘movement within stillness', very subtle concepts. Since then I have wanted to share it on my blog.

A little about the artist- Sarita’s works were recently part of Studio Practices at Chemould Art Gallery. She has been exhibiting her works in solo and group shows since 1998. Her fifth solo exhibition, ‘appear, re-appear’ was at Museum Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2008, which I missed :( but made up for partly with the studio visit :)

I leave you with her poem,
as always love and light! :)

There is a one tune. And there is one song. Mix media assemblage on paper, 217 x 184 cms, 2001.

There is one tune. And there is one song.

If there is any stillness, let me feel it.
If there is stillness let me keep looking at it, till the time it makes me still.

And then both of us can come closer.
Be one and move together.
Move together and dance together.

We will go on moving till we again become still.

Now we lie still.
We are still. We are silent.
It seems nothing is moving. Everything is still. There is no sound but silence.

And then there is movement. Silence is also moving. What looks still is also moving.
Stillness is no more stillness. It is movement.

It is moving now. And with it everything around is moving.
There is one tune. And there is one song that is going on. And in its music all become one.


Sarita Chouhan, 2001

Never work a day in your life!

Boatman rowing people to Janjeera Fort, Murud, along Konkan coast.

“Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
- Confucius.

Recently I bought a book with lovely inspirational quotes and photographs, as a gift for a close friend. After returning from the bookstore when I was leafing through the book myself, on the very first page, I read the above quote. I paused for while, it felt as if it was life was speaking to me, especially now that I have embraced my new artist's life. I thought, how true, if you choose to do what you love then naturally you look forward to it each day. It becomes a play, you think ,“How best you can do this or that?”

Confucius' saying I think also points towards adopting a more positive attitude towards the existing profession we are in, because if we are not doing it with a playful attitude then it certainly becomes a job!

This same fun-filled attitude reminds me of one of my favourite persons, Marie from France. We met in Ladakh and stayed together for nearly three months. When about to try anything new for the first time she would cheerfully say, “It can be fun!" (and these activities could be anything, washing clothes, learning to make rotis and rajma!) I loved this attitude! When she left I felt as if I had learned something important.

So I would say even if you are presently doing something, of which even a small part is not what you like, then you have to ask yourself, if it is only the attitude which must change or perhaps you have to ask yourself a deeper question, what is it that you really want to do ? and then work towards it. Visualizing about it, I would say is the first step, the rest will happen as you take each step towards that goal. I am working on it too.

Love and light!

New Beginnings

Hello everyone :)
I know it has been a while since I blogged but let me not go on about that, what is important is that i'm writing again :) Well, I hope this time has been fruitful for everyone, in relation to the individual life-lessons we are all here to learn.

This month brings big changes for me. First of all I finally left my job at the art gallery - The Guild. Now that I've done so, it becomes clear that leaving Guild was really about commitment, to accepting that, yes, I truly want to be and live as an artist. My learning at Guild had come to its end. Presently, I'm taking each day as it comes, visiting artist-friends and sharing our works and thoughts, and most of all I finally moved into my new home which is really just a cozy flat, that I will also double up as a studio for my art-practise. I could not be more grateful to the Universe for revealing to me what path I must choose.
Surprsinlgy I am not afraid, not having a structure to my day like I did when I was working, each day I try to complete one task or a part of it, for instance, getting my kitchen to be functional, putting a few ferns in my balcony....our home is still all bare and Rigzin, my husband has yet to see it, but I'm putting my energy into it, vibration after vibration :)

I will post more about my experience at home/studio and around me soon.

Love and light and wishing you all the most romantic monsoons! :)

Making that Quantum Leap

'Leap of Faith' by Laurel Schwartz.

Have you ever had the experience, where, for no particular reason, you kept hearing a word or a particular phrase in your head and you didn’t really know why? and then when you were least expecting it, someone mentions it to you or you read it in a book or a magazine without having made a conscious effort to know its meaning or significance. Déjà vu anyone? You see, for a while now I’ve been hearing, ‘quantum leap’ in my head. My first strong memory/ association of it is from a passage in Susanne F.Fincher’s book, 'Creating Mandalas'.

“Early Buddhists established the belief that there are two planes of existence, two absolutely different worlds, between which there is no communication......one world is our familiar reality in which karma operates, and which is forever dying and being born again. The other world is nirvana, which is reached by a quantitative leap when karma, and the force which derives from it, is stopped or suppressed. This is accomplished when, through cognition and living experience, it is realized that the universe is “solely a becoming a flux” (Tucci, 1961:3). This arrests the momentum of the karmic process, and makes possible the leap into nirvana."
- Excerpt from ‘Creating Mandalas’ for insight, healing and self-expression by Susanne F.Fincher.

On reading this I had an aha! moment....I had never understood (on an intellectual level of course) how one could go from one's present mental state to that of total enlightenment (still a long...long way for me).

Nirvana or no nirvana, what has stayed embedded in my head is the phrase, ‘quantum leap', it has become my newest mantra (if I have'nt slipped into my old habbit-patterns....again!) towards reaching a goal however mundane or cherished! You can say I am able to trick my mind into doing things it would otherwise take ages to accomplish.

For example, if I say to myself during my saddhana/yoga practise, especially in a difficult pose, or one in which in which I'm trying to push my boundaries, that, I’m going to 'make that quantum leap', than I do! Which means there is hope for us mere mortals.........
by way of a quantum leap :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While surfing the internet for an inspiring image to go with this post I stumbled upon artist Laurel Schwartz ’s site. I love it that her paintings seem like personal mandalas as she does them intuitively, being guided by her higher self. These are my words but do read her artist statement :)

Love & light!
Om