The Beacon - July 2023
Editorial Team : Harini Thiagarajan, Anishka Gogoi, Anvika Bheemarasetty
A true artist is not one who is inspired but one who inspires others. —Salvador Dalí
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A true artist is not one who is inspired but one who inspires others. —Salvador Dalí 〰️
Recent Highlights
Senior’s Program
On the 27th of June, Deepti Designs hosted a community workshop for seniors at the Reserve Community Park in Bothell. The artist volunteers helped seniors draw and color Madhubani designs on wooden tiles and bookmarks. The artists also conducted a small show of their Madhubani Painting projects and answered questions. Overall, the event was a success, and many people stopped by and participated in the hands-on activity. Seniors and other community members also stopped by to look at the artists’ projects on display. Our sincere thank you to Ms. Srujana Babu and Ms. Deepthi Sunder Rajan for coordinating and leading the event. And our gratitude to all the student volunteers, Anvitha Babu, Rithikka Souresh, Dhiya Souresh, Shritha Kotapalle, Druthi Nandigam, Sruthi Nandigam, Shrita Palla, Anvika Bheemarasetty, and Anugraha Ganesh.
Summer Sessions
This summer, Deepti Designs offers 13 exciting projects for participants to create in the afternoon classes both in-person and online. The instruction and supplies are provided along with live slots to work synchronous or asynchronous. The projects range from paintings on decorative hand-carved wooden masks to functional home accessories such as measuring cups, serving spoons, clocks, and more. There are only a few spots to go before the summer sessions end, so please visit Summer Classes if this sparks interest.
Sno-isle Library, Sultan
Deepti Designs was recently invited by the Washington State Speakers Bureau for a talk at the Sno-Isle Library in Sultan, WA. The event was led by our founder Ms. Deepti Agrawal. Ms. Agrawal and the participating artists, Nikita Thakalath, Rithikka Souresh, and Anvika Bheemarasetty, spoke about the origin and the nuances of Ancient Art of Madhubani Painting to an engaged group of audience. Each speaker presented a painting project and spoke about the history and cultural significance of the subject. After the informative talk, they tried out the hands-on activity where the participants drew Madhubani designs on wooden tiles to make keepsake wooden coasters. Overall, the event was successful, drawing positive feedbacks from the audience and the participants.
Madhubani Art presentation
Madhubani Activity
Redmond Children’s Fair
The Redmond’s Children’s Fair was held on Saturday, July 8th. The fair was hosted by Youth4Us, which provided young student entrepreneurs an opportunity to exhibit their art and leadership skills. Over seventy percent of the inventory created by our artists Amrutha Venkatarama, Architha Venkataraman, Meenakshi Iyer, and Arianna Sinha was sold out, making the Madhubani booth one of the top successful tables. They had tirelessly worked on a variety of items like hand-painted earrings, greeting cards, mirrors, coasters, bookmarks, and more. Ms. Nikita Thakalath, their adult mentor observed, “Kudos to all the amazing talent and their business ideas…the young artists got to experience product development, marketing, customer engagement skills, teamwork, sharing profits, and raising funds for the charity.” The event was so impactful, that the youngest entrepreneur Arianna Sinha had said “I had a great experience and enjoyed a lot selling the art pieces. I think I want to be a business woman when I grow up 😃”.
Volunteering Opportunities
Bothell Art Walk
Dates: July 13
Time: 5-8 pm
Venue: Bothell Visitor Center
Five artists from Deepti Designs’ would be showcasing their paintings at the coveted location of the Bothell Visitor Center in Kenmore Bothell Chamber as part of the Bothell Art Walk!
The artist reception would be held on July 13th from 5-8 pm at the Bothell Visitor Center.
Please save the date and join us to visit some ancient art forms practiced by the youth and create your own keepsake!
Washington Vedic Education Society Camp
Day 1 : July 18, 10 am-12 noon
Day 2 : July 20th, 3-5pm
Venue: Brightwater Center, Woodinville
Deepti Designs has been invited to conduct a workshop at the the camp held at the Brightwater Center by Washington Vedic Education Society in Woodinville. Our workshops would be conducted over two days. For now, we have enough volunteers signed up for the event. If you are interested, please contact Ms. Nikita Thakalath (425-894-5984) to join the volunteer waitlist.
Northshore Senior Center
Date: July 20
Time: 10 am - 12 pm
Venue: Northshore Senior Center
One upcoming event is a free art event for seniors to paint on coasters in Madhubani art style. This event is an amazing way to spread the art form and give back to our elderly community. There are currently enough volunteers, but feel free to reach out to Ms. Nikita Thakalath (425-894-5984) if you would like to sign up for similar future opportunities.
Google Event
Date: July 28
Time: 12-3 pm
Venue: Google, Kirkland Campus
We are invited by Google to run a free art workshop for the families of the employees. On Friday, July 28th, a workshop would be conducted in their Kirkland campus from 12-3 pm.
The program would be lead by two senior artist and a few artist volunteers. Contact Ms. Nikita Thakalath (425-894-5984) if interested.
Kids Bothell Bazaar
Date: August 12
Time: 12-3 pm
Venue: North Creek High School
The Kids Bothell Bazaar is an opportunity for budding artists to sell their pieces and practice leadership skills. To participate, there is a $15 registration fee that will be re-gifted to the kids as a gift card. Additionally, parents will need to be added to the Whatsapp group and send a description and picture of items sold for a spotlight entrepreneur post online. This amazing opportunity is on August 12th from 12-3 pm at North Creek High School in Bothell. If interested, please contact Ms. Nikita Thakalath (425-894-5984).
Live Mural Painting for Art Walk by The City of Redmond
Dates: Aug 15-17
Time: Sign-up slots given to volunteers
Venue: Downtown Redmond
Deepti Designs has been selected by the City of Redmond to participate in the Redmond Art Walk, a three-day event where artists from all over Washington State will install their art pieces for display. Aug 15-17th are the dates for the opportunity. There will be a sign-up sheet in slots for volunteers to sign up, and students are encouraged to participate in this opportunity. If interested, please contact Ms. Nikita Thakalath (425-894-5984).
Featured Artists
This month we are featuring two young artists who have recently finished their pieces, Arunim Goyal and Anugraha Ganesh.
Ashtalakshmi by Arunim Goyal
Arunim: “My name is Arunim Goyal, and I am going to 10th grade at Bothell High School. I recently finished my Ashta Lakshmi project, which is the project of the 8 forms of Lakshmi. This shows all 8 forms of Lakshmi sitting on their lotus flowers on the water. The 8 forms are Adi Lakshmi, Dhana Lakshmi, Dhanya Lakshmi, Gaja Lakshmi, Santana Lakshmi, Dhairya Lakshmi, Vidya Lakshmi, and Vijaya Lakshmi. They each have their significance and praying to them gives you wealth, health, and prosperity.”
Mandala by Anugraha Ganesh
Anugraha: “My name is Anugraha Ganesh and I am in 2nd grade at Fernwood Elementry. The Mandala project is a geometrical figure very significant in Hindu and Buddhist culture. I named my painting Chakra of Life as it is circular and contains nature in different forms. Life forms like peacocks, fish, birds, plants, and more. The colors I chose were blue green and yellow representing water, plants, and flowers. I have used the Madhubani designs - kachni, bharni, cross-hatching, strawberry dots, jhitki, koshes, and water line.”
Congratulations to both artists for taking another step forward in their Madhubani Art journey.
Game Time
Congratulations to Druthi Nandigam for solving our crossword puzzle the fastest from our previous edition!
Maze Art by Michael Wallenfels
In this edition, we have a very interesting game art. Mr. Michael Wallenfels (@amazetoofar) is a maze artist who has been creating interesting puzzle mazes with unique solutions. We are honored to feature one of his mazes in our newsletter in the gaming section. Feel free to screenshot it to solve it digitally or download and print the pdf and share the solution with us. The first person who solves it would be featured in the next edition, along with the picture of their solution.
Try our maze this month, take a screenshot, and email it to newsletter.thebeacon.dd@gmail.com for a chance to get featured in next month's newsletter.
