Guns, then Roses.

Assuming one world, we are only moving back as a race. Why are guns so accessible? Many argue for safety. To me that’s fuzzy thinking. Its insane!

I have never understood the gun law, and if yesterdays incident in Newtown, CT does not demand change,  what will?  A school is a child’s alma matter. His second home, and if children are not safe there, where will they be? As a parent, when I drop off my child in the morning, I have a presumed reassurance, its his school, he is going to be safe there. What can go wrong, there are teachers, 700+ other students, his school is on a very busy street, what can possibly go wrong? Well, yesterdays all my fears became a reality. Murphy’s law struck Sandy Hook Elementary in the most horrific way.


It is a loss not only to the victims and their families but also to us  a society. As humans we started as one race, a race that wandered in clans, fed each other, lived in harmony with nature using its abundance and cherished the abundance of the little that we had. 

Where were we and where have we come? Its a choice we have to make today. Should we choose to continue walking the path of today, know that guns will come and then will come roses, surrounding one of our kind; a daughter, a son, a mother, a father, could be you. 

A Woman Of Substance!

I am not sure why, but this holiday season she keeps coming to my mind. She was like the wind; not the harsh wind that blew things away. But the gentle one that knew how to slide under the wings and give everyone it touched a gentle lift, just enough to get them going again.  She was and is Jayne!

Always smiling, in the six odd years that I knew her, not once did I NOT see her smile. She smiled through it all; her chemotherapies, the x-rays, the lab tests, the doctor appointments, the last days when she knew she was fading away and yet her attitude of looking at the abundance of good never left her.  
I met her for the first time at the kindergarden introductory meetings. Her enthusiasm was infectious. It was almost viral. She taught me how to volunteer, how to look at the positive and not freak out at my son when he came with a B- or a C+ grade. I remember even today, we were sitting outside the first grade classroom, and she was picking on sweet peppers like they were candy and it was just two moms yakking away when I mentioned, wish my kid could read as fast as his friends. She looked at me straight in the eye and said, “do you know your kid is the only one who raises his hand and says, he did not understand?”  I am thinking that’s bad, right..she says, why, he is only 6 he has his whole life to learn to read so fast that no one can understand what he is saying, but he has only a few years to ask questions, soon he’ll be a man and expected to know it all.  I was zapped, what she told me was so true and yes, I did back off and surprisingly, the more I calmed down, the faster my kid learnt.  Even today, she keeps me in check. 
She moved on to the heavens four months ago to stupid cancer. I hate cancer. The void continues to be there. She touched every life with her amazing love of life. She was a fighter, a believer and above all a friend. I feel blessed to have known her.  
She was a daughter, a wife, a mother, a friend and above all, she IS a woman of substance! 

Sunset evolves into a peacock. 

When I started this painting, I was wanting to make a sunset, I don’t know when and why the brushes started moving towards blues and greens. And before I knew it a peacock was taking shape. After the first coat, as I was putting it away to dry a little, I got an FB update from Jayne’s page, stating she loved peacocks and wanted to be remembered by them. At that point, I knew this painting was for her.  She loved the vibrant colors and pride of the bird. Jayne personified peacocks.

Jayne’s peacock

I feel blessed that I was able to make this for her and give it to her too.

I know you’re smiling down on us this holiday season. The heaven’s are never going to be the same. They are going to party like never before.  We all love you and miss you! 

O My God! Its all the same.

OMG! A phrase heard one too many a time our modern lives. It is interesting how many “astonishment phrases” are connected to God; Holy Cow!, Jesus Christ!, OMG!, Hey Bhagwan (OMG in Hindi), Thank God and so forth, and yet as a society we claim to be rational and logical.  
As humans we claim to be rational, logical and analytical. If that is true, then how and why do we believe in an invisible entity God? Why is it that different religions of the world worship him in different forms? And more importantly, why do we call those who choose to question his existence “an atheist.” For isn’t logical thinking at the core of human existence.  
What is your take on this? Is God there? What is religion? 
To me religion is an inspiration, its in a sense my back up support system. When all else fails, I fall back on religion.  Boring, yes, but it works for me. When things go wrong, I tell myself, its happening for a reason and all will be well again. This simple sentence helps me move forward and the process of moving forward kick starts the process of thinking logically and things start falling into place again. 

I was born and brought up in India. The land that cradled civilizations from far never heard lands, is today home to 330 Million gods. Do we know all of them? Absolutely not, We all have our favorites.  One god though stands apart.. Ganesha aka to the western world as “The Elephant God.”

How he got his elephant head is a story for another time. But while painting this particular piece of art, I realized one thing, Ganesha is to the Indian mythology what Nutcracker is to this festive season.

The figurine of nutcracker comes in every possible size, color and act. Similarly, Ganesha has been depicted in every way.

This painting was an on demand project. I have never formally learned painting, but have always loved colors, the art of mixing them and creating something. One “just another day morning,” a dear friend, brought a 17 opening frame to me and said, can you make seventeen different Ganesha’s for me and gave me this frame. And that is how Imperfectly Perfect Creations was born.    

17 panel Ganesha frame. 

Details showing the use of micro beads. 

Each image is a hand made background. Some are store bought hand made papers from Paper Source  and some painted by yours truly.  I used acrylic paint and micro beads for embellishments and Swarovski crystals.

Are all these images figments of my imagination. Not really, the creative use of materials, yes, that is mine, but the images are a result of inspirations from seeing so many different images over the years.

Center Image: Copper Tooling, with 400 Swarovski Crystals. 

Having painted so many different images of Ganesha’s and seeing the cross cultural mythological similarities, I am convinced; It’s all the same. This realization was truly a OMG moment!

Do I have proof, no and I don’t need it; because “faith begins where logic ends.”

I hope you enjoy these paintings and if you would like to see more of my paintings, feel free to me at Imperfectly Perfect on FB!

Keep in touch. Its good to hear from you. Till next time, keep believing and moving forward. 

Blog, O Blog!

Starting to design this blog is proving to be more complicated than I had envisioned. Agreed, nothing comes easy, but then when one sees everyone, and I mean literally anyone and everyone like myself wanting to have a blog, shouldn’t it be easy. 

After all we live in an era of making things happen with a swipe of a finger, so why can’t blog designing be that simple. Why isn’t there an app that just designs it for me or at least takes the brain work out of it. Well, as much as I would like to have a genie who would design this for me. I thank Google for not making it so brainless. It requires some effort and lots of thought, only because unlike a business website, a blog reflects its owner. 

“For isn’t a mother, but a reflection of her child.”  She is and so is a blog. Its a reflection of its owner.  Having a blog besides being cool and all, is also a social responsibility. Its a responsibility to make it intellectually stimulating and thought provoking and smile worthy. 

Today, the wee end of Thanksgiving 2012,  it is a happy feeling to fulfill a promise made to self, the start of a blog; Imperfectly Perfect Creations… with Shilpa. 

Imperfectly Perfect, cos that’s how my world is.  Every day starts of with a beautiful dawn, that gets engulfed sometimes by a dreary overcast sky or shines brighter to a scorching sun. Either way, the day ends beautifully to calm and breezy evening.  Imperfectly Perfect ending every day. 

Through this blog, I hope to share my art, and the story of its birth 🙂  Some where in between, I hope to hear from you, that which will make me and my art evolve to a better place. 

And with this, wish me luck so I can design and understand the world of tags and gadgets. 

Happy Blogging!