Monday, June 17, 2013

Stroke of Brush

I might have ranted on and on how inspiring most of my friends are. Well inspiration does come in all sizes but again ... kuch paane ke liye kuch khona padta hai. Personally, every wink of sleep I sacrificed for every stroke brush is totally worth it. For me "Art" has been the most abused in the name of inspiration. Probably for the level of pyramid as per Maslow's theory that seems coherent.

13th of June 2013, our usual tradition for 3 years was up-kept. VS - my kiddo, my mentor and my awe :) Personally we haven't spent too much time together. Well it goes on to say a lot if I call him all of the above. One - He is a super complicated personality :) 2 hours at Starbucks brought so much enthusiasm. ( we had moved away from usual Gloria Jean to Starbucks to suit his Americanized ways of life :P ) I had become busy with recent happenings in my life and my life has become pretty much unidimensional. Talking to him, it was just about me and not about happenings in my life. Suddenly life become so much more clear. I always thought what intrigued me most about him was his complicated wiring in his head. But then I realized his life fundas were very simple. More respect man.

We spoke about his inspirations and his mentor. It was about how he gets a call "Kiddo, what are you doing?" Reply comes - "NM, was just at home. Spending time at the studio"
"I am taking this lecture at the university. I was hoping if you could come"
He lands up at the class and she calls him to the podium and introduces him as "This is Vinay Sharma, one of my advanced painters"
VS need not tell me further what reactions that would have stirred in him. But I let him narrate "Class I would be back" to pull himself together. Well I can just relate when he said you have it in you but you need a good mentor. As you are not finding someone here I would pass on comments on similar mistakes I made. "Why are you crying" :D "You know why"

Buying Art Supplies: I always tried to connect with him to understand him more, support him more but that never happened. Every year when he used to come down to visit me, I wanted to gift him something. All my gifts have always been meaningful. But I could never knew him well enough to gift something which he would cherish. I found that thing! It was always right before me. What would a painter love? His Art supplies. Well I never understood because 1st year - he himself didnt paint full time yet, 2nd year I hadnt. We went Art Supplies shopping. I felt the connection for the first time. My materialistic mode of happiness was discovered.

Aunty mentions that she would want to gift him TShirts. V would have just kept it in his suitcase till next time he would have had to travel again. Gift me art supplies :) Nothing else makes me happy and I would use it.

So much work but still paint :) He has got this perfect balance at work and have enough time to paint. He has  given up on large no of social circle just to create enough time for his art. Many think he is arrogant but you need to be dedicated. You need to give time. You need to develop. It is a growth need for all artists.

Painting brings the same calmness that standing beside pond or a seashore used to give me. But its diff in the way Paul Cezanne puts it - " Right now a moment is fleeting by! Capture its reality in paint! To do that we must put all ease out of our minds. We must become that moment, make ourselves a sensitive recording plate. Give the image of what we actually see, forgetting everything that has been seen before our time"