mindful reflections - the power and mystery of light

Dec 17, 2015

Tired, but not out. Cold, but not bitter. I reached the Sonia Gechtoff gallery in Manhattan's Upper East Side for the opening night show titled as The Power and Mystery of Light by Julia Dubovyk.

Light forms everything we see. Its the primary source of every image. Its very common for painting tutorials to treat light as an addition to the picture, an atmosphere-maker. Painting by itself is an art of darkening, lightening, and coloring certain parts of the paper to create an illusion of looking at something real. I was naturally attracted to this exhibition as it appealed to my rationally inclined mind albeit I found more than rationality there.

When I reached the opening night event, there was Julia Dubovyk, in bright red dress beaming a smile for the photographer Salvatore Fabbri while meeting the art aficionados in Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Julia has elegantly portrayed a variety of moods in her paintings of the chandeliers. Her study in shadow and light is impressive. She is clearly knowledgeable about setting up the palette. One of her paintings had a sweet polychromatic shift in Chandelier #3 (oil on wood panel). A quick peek at her Abstract work at the online gallery reminds me of Jackson Pollock aka Jack the dripper.

I sneaked closer to Julia to get a better sense of the subject.

"Why chandeliers?" I ask curiously.
She explained, "...chandeliers, as a source of light, can be turned on or off."

This is akin mindfulness, which I practice. Bingo!

This is a fascinating symbolism for mindfulness. In painting, the audience can easily get the impression that the object has a universal form, and then with proper lighting change the mood of the picture. In life, one's mind is like the chandelier. Through mindfulness, one can evolve and regulate one's mind (the symbolic chandelier) to reflect and refract the emotions worth focusing on.

Buddha says -

Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts.

Just remind yourself that you, as the artist of your life, can emanate and harbor positive vibes from your minds (chandelier) through practice of mindfulness. May be Andy Puddicombe may like it for his headspace app :-).

I shared my mindfulness experiences and the drastic changes it had on my life with a few guests and it stirred up an interesting discussion.

Among my favorites from the other works were Chandelier #17. It reflects a certain innocence.

I look forward to Julia expressing chandeliers in some other medium as well.

baby, its cold outside !

New York City didn't have a White Christmas this year (although a nasty storm is predicted for tomorrow).

This is an interesting version of the traditional one...

If you are curious about this original version from Neptune's daughter, here you go !

Earlier version, which had roles reversed is in the video below ! This one is also a part of the above video somewhere after 2:30.

ssshhhhh....

NY Times had an opinion over the weekend titled 'The Quiet Ones' As a frequent Acela Express traveler in the Northeastern corridor, I take the Quiet car whenever unaccompanied. I can relate to the author's point of view. Yet, I am not sure why she bangs her keyboard to the degree that it is disturbing to others.

Nonetheless, it was about time someone wrote about this article and the etiquette for the Quiet car. I have seen and confronted insolent behavior by 'repeat offenders'. No, I am not talking about the newbies, who just need guidance. I am talking about those repeat offenders, who when you request still continue to talk loudly and/or have loud cell phone ring tones and/or responding to calls and/or making those calls. Such violators make a wrong choice or end up being in the Quiet car because that may be the only car where they may get two adjacent and available seats.

In the usual cars, there are no such restrictions. Usually, people don't talk loud and/or talk on cell phone for extended conversations. My last trip in a non-quiet car in an Acela had an anecdotal evidence of a violator. This guy took the liberty to make the Acela compartment his office and began a marathon status call with his subordinates with a sharply condescending tone. If the call was such that he was just an infrequent participant then it is fine. However, he would go on with his tirade for almost 25 minutes until someone interrupted him. His incessant tirade was irritating. Since then, I made up my mind to board and travel in the Quiet car whenever unaccompanied to avoid any such unsavory instances.

meeting new artists - kanan

I came across this artist, Kanan Shah, while she was working on her thesis for her grad program at the Pratt Institute. Her thesis revolved around street kids and Bollywood and that made it a bit interesting for me from a social anthropological perspective.

On digging more about her, I found about her other works. One of them was around re-branding a pet boutique in Hoboken in New Jersey. The boutique was Beowoof.

Further, she worked for this off off Broadway theater show named A Walk across America for Mother Earth, which was featured in NY Times here.

All in all, an artist, making a mark in NYC and trying to climb the silver thread. Wishing her all the best in her journey in this city of opportunities.

paan singh tomar

paan singh tomar

When I first heard about it from my work colleague, who is from a nearby area to Chambal, I wasn't as thrilled. Later, as I got to know about the storyline, it reminded me of my days as an sportsperson (yes, I was a State Champion shooter!).

I made a resolve. I will watch this movie first day first show. It so happened that I ended up being present at the In

ternational Premiere of the film at South Asian International Film Festival (SAIFF 2010) in NYC in Chelsea area.

The movie was very well made (10 being peerless):

• Subject Matter research was 9/10.
• Acting was 9/10.
• Direction was 7/10.
• Overall movie was 9/10.

Given that this movie has translated this story of an international champion to a rebel into a message criticizing conditions of sportspersons in India, I decided to ask a question to Irrfan (yes, he changed his name from Irfan Khan to just Irrfan):

'Irrfan, if you had to suggest three improvements to Sports Ministry of India....what would they be?'

To this, he didn't answer in three points. However, he ended up stating that he wasn't a specialist in this field and that government should have nothing to do with sports talent discovery and nurturing.

In my opinion, if the film makers decided to criticize the government (in a subtle way) then they must be ready to suggest improvements in case they are put in the shoes of the GOI; and yet, they were ill-prepared to handle this simple question. A critic has no right to comment in case they don't know how to improve the situation. Arm-chair commenting is one thing and constructive criticism is another; mostly for a progressive society, the latter is preferred.

This movie is yet to be released in India. Irrfan does not believe that this movie will have any effect on the Government of India or the way they approach nurturing sports talent. I think this movie would have an effect; at least, as an eye-opener. Also, it will serve as a source of inspiration for corporate marketing departments to patronize sports persons in lieu of marketing. Currently, the marketers are hungry for eye-balls for their products in a country, whose citizens have an increasing discretionary purchasing power and a constantly shrinking attention span.

Today, the government's facilities are much better as compared to Tomar's days (1950s). National Economic Liberation Policy (NELP) of 1991 opened up for foreign investments in India; and, in sports as well. We have already seen the boom in cricket with the foreign money and players flowing in ... in form of IPL (20-20) and other forms of the sport. Several other sports are finding corporate sponsors as well.

In conclusion, for approaching a matter as a critic, I think the Indian movie makers must approach it with a bit more progressive attitude than this. Differences apart, the movie is a must-see for a discerning movie-goer in India.

adour

adour represents a fusion of the traditional elegance and modern sophistication.

Having dined at some of the finest NYC restaurants, we decided to check out adour; the experience was luxurious. I had been to the King Cole bar on a number of occasions but never tried the dining experience.

A taste of modern sophistication comes when you sit at their bar waiting for your reservation time to come; it emanates from the interactive wine bar. This helps patrons choose a wine by allowing them to browse Adour's complete wine list by wine type, country and varietal. Computer menus are projected from the ceiling onto the bar, and patrons make their choices by pressing on the bar's surface. Yes, the restaurant is fashionably wine-centric. The 4-seat wine bar is constructed from gold and bronze and covered in luxurious goat skin.

The amuse bouche of tomato gazpacho with basil foam was quite a palate pleasing. The chilled English pea velouté was creamy yet light.

The vegetarian course initially sounded very cliche. However, it ended up being an unbelievable taste. The slow cooking of various vegetables allowed concentrating of flavors.

The exotic contemporary vacherin topped it all; the air was perfumed with passionfruit and mango as the servers brought it to our table. Digging into the layers of passionfruit, mango and lime gelee, we loved every spoon we dug in. This was truly a “masterpiece” as Bruni mentioned in his article. The petit fours were served with the desserts. The macaron flavors were dark chocolate and coconut with a fruit filling.

All in all, they are a purveyor of palatal and visual delight.

empty seats at the Grammy's !

Grammy's had the plenty of empty seats this year and visibly so...

Usually, they fill in the empty seats with fillers. However, it appears this year that either the organizers couldn't manage the same or there was a significant change in plans for plenty of guests.

The visual void was particularly visible when Phoenix received their award ! Check out the footage here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sbNP18yFeg