The Beacon - April 2023
Editorial Team : Harini Thiagarajan, Anishka Gogoi, Anvika Bheemarasetty
"Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected" - William Plomer
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"Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected" - William Plomer 〰️
A/NT Workshop
Deepti Designs recently hosted an art workshop at the A/NT gallery. The workshop featured a wooden bookmark painting! The sketches for reference were provided but paetivipants could also personalize the bookmark with their own color choices and designs. This is what one of the volunteers Rithika said about the workshop, “The workshop was a fantastic opportunity to teach others Madhubani art and display our paintings. I enjoyed helping the little kids make bookmarks and explore unique designs and colors.” Overall, the event was a success and quite a few people from varied age group participated and created unique bookmarks.
Abhay’s Art Initiative
One of the Deepti Designs’ students, Abhay participated in an art and craft fair at his school, Kennydale Elementary in Renton. He highlighted the Madhubani skills he learned in class to create beautiful mini-Madhubani paintings to sell. He also used Warli art, an art form that originated in Maharashtra. They used 3 basic shapes in their artwork, a circle, a triangle, and a square. Those 3 shapes represent distinct aspects of nature. Abhay got many people interested in Madhubani art with his wonderful pieces.
Tribhanga Workshop
Kathith hosted yet another Shilpa Shastra Workshop with artist Mr. Drdha Vrata Gorrick! The workshop was held on March 25th, 26th, and April 1st and this time around, Mr. Gorrick guided the drawing of Lord Rama in a Tribhanga pose. Tribhanga literally means the body with three bends and is taught using a linear grid and specific proportions from the Shilpa Shastras known as Talamana. Over 50 students from around the globe attended the workshop and was a huge hit.The logo has been impeccably designed by our partnering studio, Virginia based AditiYeva Studio. It is a pretty descriptive and meaningful symbol of what the label stands for. To know more and support Kathith, visit them.
Art on the Ramp
Fifteen artists from Deepti Designs' participated in a one of a kind opportunity to walk their art on stage for the Women Ikon event. The event was held at Interlake High School and its purpose was to celebrate the achievements and contributions women have made in the community and to raise money to support cancer patients. The students walked in three groups to music choreographed by the core team of Ms. Vidhya Durai, Ms. Shilpa Sherigar, Ms. Deepti Agrawal, Ms. Nikita Thakalath, and Ms. Deepthi Sunder Rajan. Coordination proved to be a challenge in the beginning, but the team pulled it off to perfection in the end. As quoted by Ms. Deepthi Sunder Rajan, “The art walk was the most cheered events of the evening, and the students kept the audience enthralled with their presentation of art in a unique way”. The students were honored with certificates for their participation and gained an experience to be remembered!
Phad Workshop
Held on March 11th and 12th, the Phad Workshop was the first official workshop under the newly launched Kathith organization. Phad is a Rajastani folk art originating in the city of Bhilwara and is a type of scroll painting. The scrolls typically depicted stories of Pabuji and Devanarayanan, who are folk-deities worshiped in Rajasthan. The art has been passed down over 700 years through the Joshi family and is being kept alive by artists like Mr. Sourabh, who learned directly from artist Mr. Kalyan Joshi and also taught the workshop. The workshop received very positive feedback and was very successful!
Reflections State Qualifier: Oviya
Oviya Raja, one of Deepti Designs artists recently became a state qualifier for the Reflections 2022 – 2023. The theme was “Show Your Voice” and she uniquely represented that by showing what she is passionate about in her Madhubani painting, “Narthaki (Dancer)”. This is how Oviya describes her painting “To me, showing your voice means showing your diversity. I practice a South Indian classical dance called Bharatanatyam, and I also do an art form from Bihar in North India called Madhubani. So, I thought, what better way to show my diversity than to combine the two? In my painting, the dancer is in a pose used to depict Lord Krishna, who is a Hindu deity. Also, there is a gopuram in the background, a structure usually found at the entrances of South Indian temples. This ties in two more pieces of my culture and shows my diversity and voice.” Congrats to Oviya for making the state qualifiers with her wonderful Madhubani piece!
IACS Canvases: Milan Auction
The IACS paintings started back in January were finally completed this March! What began in a focus group zoom meeting ended up as beautiful pieces that were sold at the annual Milan auction on March 26th. Each painting represented a different concept of introspection and social positivity; including vulnerability, resilience, self reflection, community rising, and stepping up together. The paintings were lead by Deepti Desgins artists Vrinda, Nethra, Anushka, Anishka, Kavya, Ananya, Aadya, Harini, and Mahima.
Game Time
The winner of the last month's Crossword puzzle is Nikita Sobby. She was the fastest in sending a screenshot of the correctly solved puzzle.
Try our the crossword this month, take a screenshot and email it to newsletter.thebeacon.dd@gmail.com for a chance to get featured into our next month's newsletter. Link to website: bit.ly/april_crossword
