staycationing

I'm not as bored with my life as I thought I would be when I learned earlier this year that we weren't going anywhere special this summer...(courtesy of local desi parties every weekend in May and ridiculous travel expenses)

Yoga and pilates, making vegetable purees with Italian cream cheese to help sustain myself for a week after my wisdom teeth extraction, and painting wonderfully weird and quirky objects all seems to keep me occupied...

When I'm not watching Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda or Ellen DeGeneres or Hindi TV soaps

I'm working on something particularly interesting:
It's an inexpensive wooden frame I bought at Michaels a few years ago...that I'm transforming into a mantapa, an Indian wooden palacial pedestal used to house idols of worship.

I started molding the crown of the mantapa with Paperclay..and then realized that the frame was upside down...see the little hole at the top of the BACK of the frame? A tiny dowel stick is supposed to fit into the hole to stand the frame up...

So I just made my own paperclay supports...it wasn't tough..just that one pack is like freaking 6 bucks...

A Michaels' gift card would be nice..
Just saying.

I am particularly proud of my floral vegetative pattern on the bottom of the frame:

Must credit the Singh twins, Amrit and Rabindra Singh for the inspiration:www.singhtwins.co.uk

They use Persian and Indian miniature art to document the Sikh and Indian cultural landscape in such grandeur...their paintings are enormous and enriched with details; it is simply awesome.

My favorite is 1984:

sikhnet.com

It's about the Sikh diaspora, and how even Sikh emigrants who were geographically far from the trauma, were still emotionally affected. It's about unity, I think, that no matter where you go, your roots and your identity, the earth you belong to, will never leave you

I love the spatial complexity too, the different visual perspectives.

They spend years and years perfecting every stroke, painstakingly maintaing the integrity of the tiny detailed patterns that adorn all the main structures..

Life is good, guys, life is good.