Yes. After a long break, I finally got my hands on to a sketchbook again. I participated in an artist community project organized by the Brooklyn Art Library, NY. It is a tour with sketchbooks filled out by artists participating from all over the world. The tour/ exhibition travels across 9 cities in the USA to different art galleries starting February 2011 till June 2011 . The topic I chose to work on was ‘first thing in the morning, last thing at night’. The Art Library sent each artist a moleskin sketchbook to fill out. Having had this fetish for sketchbooks always, I just grabbed this opportunity.

the making of the sketchbook

40 pages of my sketchbook will take you through a journey of ‘first things in the mornings and last things at night’. Here is a glimpse of a few pages from my sketchbook.

You can view the complete sketchbook here: http://arthousecoop.com/users/poornimavaidyanathan until the official website of the online exhibition is up that is due to be launched this month.

the sketchbook: a glimpse

The exhibition is currently on at the Brooklyn Art Library, NY for view until the 6th of March 2011. The sketchbooks travel to the Austin museum of Art, TX from here and will be on for view on March 12th, 2011. Here is the complete tour schedule: http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject/exhibitions. Do visit the exhibition if it’s in your town.

And there is more to come .. In sync with the launch of my website was the inauguration of a traveling exhibition/ artist community project in the USA I participated this year. Stay tuned for more on this ..

6th October 2010

Butterflies in our stomachs as our flight from Lisbon to Paris on a fine evening flutters its wings like the butterfly itself. Happy over a bite into my choco-chip cookies, I look out to admire the beautifully lit city and Eiffel tower from aside our wings from top. The flutter continued while a few feathers shiver with difficulty to fly. A screech and a bang and then the flutter again with an apology from the pilot.

“Bonjour madame” greets a big French smile outside the scary butterfly. With my connecting flight to India the next morning, I had ONE whole night to myself at the huge huge Paris Airport. Going by words from a few, I decided not to step out of the airport and instead “hopefully” find a few fellow travelers and stay over at the Air France lounge. The question then was were there any fellow travelers? Was there a lounge? Fellow travelers dispersed in different directions. Some outside the airport and some checked into the hotels within the airport. The lights got dim and some went off with no lounge left open. With dark hall-ways in front of me I stood there with a dark mind as well. Paris was asleep sooner than I blinked an eye. Just when it felt like it was a land with no humans, a thin ray opened from a swirling door of the Sheraton.

Skype with a loved one on a free WI-FI network from the Sheraton lounge didn’t seem like a bad idea after being let down by the staff who gave no room to stay. The black in red who kept making his rounds snarled at me at 1:00 am and said “you will have to leave now. We are closing doors”. The last did I expect even the swirling door would close – I thought they were meant to only swirl. I sat back on the black leather couch and stretched my legs to settle. The long coated staff came with the black now. “1:30 am it is; you will have to leave now.” she said while I struggled to understand if she spoke French or English. Refusing to go out back into the land with no humans, I pleaded her. “go to Terminal 2F and you’ll find a police protected waiting area there” is the last I heard from the voice of the long coat before the swirling door showed me the way out.

7th October 2010

2:00 am, beams of light over the way finding signages took a walk with me across the dark hall-ways again. ”Bonjour madame, how can I help?” came a voice with some smell of French wine. A drunken chatty cop to rescue pointed to 2F saying “Bollywood shooting huh?! Enjoy!”. The beams of light slowly turned into a bright hall way with the noise of humans. Yes it was a movie being filmed – much did my eyes look for one of the star Khans from India. But even better – a French movie being filmed at Terminal 2F with policemen in the vicinity. Safe and sound but heavy eyes and legs is what I traveled with now. “Action” and “Cut” innumerable times as I stay seated amidst the junior artist who sat there acting as travelers. I am guessing the camera frame couldn’t help but capture me in the frame.

4:00 am, having forgotten to carry my coat from Lisbon, I was beginning to freeze a bit. 2F still looked busy but drifting suddenly. The policemen were packing their bags and walking away with the French hero. They were done with the filming and the policemen were no longer policemen. Actually they were never policemen – they were the actors who staged as policemen:-). God bless my long coated friend from Sheraton I thought!

Time ticked and I was about to board my next scary butterfly back home.

Those were the days when it was cool to stand on the foot board of a Bus when Mommy wasn’t looking at me. When I would end up eating too much at the canteen and had no money left to reach home in a rickshaw. When I thought I could have some giggles with some friends on the move. When I felt guilty I’d asked Big Daddy for money more than once a week. When I dreadfully lost my wallet to some looser. Yes – those were the days in a bus for me.

It took One whole decade, One long distant work place, One sprained ankle, One fired driver and One sweaty day to get me on to that One Bus again. A glossy red box with some beaming lights atop that gathered to form a few letters awaited me on a dusty platform. I felt the change – the box was waiting for me this time and I did not wait for it. I step into the Bus holding the door as it sweeps back to close along with a chill blow of air. The air came from inside the Bus. It was air conditioned. The gentle man greeted me in with a smile and showed me my seat. The man was gentle indeed! And then began a journey.

I saw the man with a torn blue collar sitting beside me talk to himself. The lady sitting across looking out of the window through her dark glasses that she never took off. An old man staring at the same page of the newspaper for more than 15 minutes. I hear a young lady speak to her mother over the phone for the entire bus to hear. I also hear her mother’s advisory words for the cannon throat she had. A young girl smiling at her phone with her fingers going fast across the keypad. A child refusing to sit between 2 strangers while mommy insists he does so he does not fall. Some middle aged women harassing the gentleman for the change he owed them. And then I wonder – did I SEE so much in a journey ever before?

And the least noticed of all untill my recent vist to the Singh land was their amuzing taste for the carefully chosen color for these turbans. The men were a lot more noticable and fashionable than the women and all credits go to the Pagadi*. They would tastefully match the color of their turbans with their shirts or suits. And not to exaggerate but the exact shade too – not a tint or tone here or there – but spot on.

Despite my fear of heights, I was tempted to go flying above these men, just to take a glance at all these colorful heads at a glance. I wouldn’t be surprised it would be a beautiful palette by itself.

It is one year down and those laughs have turned to applauds. Yes our Design has been selected at The Biennial Global Indoors Awards in Maastricht, The Netherlands and at The International Retail Design Awards at Egypt. And today I say once again “Bravo Guys! That did deserve to go international!”. Kudos to my friend Vinay the lead architect who interpreted our concept into the space. He says “We did a dandy job and deserved to be noted”.

My Graphic Icons at Univercell, Chennai

Every detail was taken care of to give the space an interactive and user-friendly space. Above all to give the customer a rich experience. We adopted new technology to both the graphic and architectural values. I gave dimension to a drawing and brought life to it. Minimal usage of colors and a clutter free space. Highlighting all 5 human senses within the interactive space was the highlight of our design so we categorized each section of mobiles according to their function/ usage. Each section was given an identity to itself. The space has interactive flooring and music embedded tiles.

Interactive floor at the gaming section - you can actually play!

A true multi-disciplinary experience in all!

They’ve come along a long way together. Its’s always been a time where she thought sweet was a her best companion, her soul. She is happy, she needed sweet. She is unhappy, she needed sweet. She wanted to surprise someone, she needed sweet. She wanted to surprise herself, she needed sweet. She wanted to celebrate she needed sweet. She wanted to sulk, she needed sweet.  She visited someone, she needed sweet. She were to just hang out by herself, she needed sweet. She felt hot, she needed sweet. She felt cold, she needed sweet.

Sweet wanted to give her a rotten tooth. Sweet wanted to give her some unmanagable weight. Sweet wanted give her some fat, flesh and flab. Sweet wanted to get her addicted. Sweet wanted to give her a swell. Sweet took her attention away from her family. Sweet drowned her.

She bids sweet good bye.