The Beacon - March 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 〰️
Seattle Asian Art Museum
This year for Holi, we designed a workshop for Seattle Asian Museum's Fun Family weekend program. The event was a great success with over 100 families participating. Artists and UW students Oumshri and Hamsa along with teaching artist Ms. Nikita Thakalath volunteered at the event. The project was coloring either a printed design of a lady with a plate of colors or a fish, using watercolors, brushes, droppers and sharpies and most of the participants chose to color both the design sheets. As quoted by Ms. Thakalath, “ [The] kids had a gala time using the droppers to color their sheets with different watercolors. It truly felt like kids were playing Holi with colors.”
Opportunity - Artists on Ramp!
WomenIkon has invited the artists at Deepti Designs School of Art to walk the ramp with art. This is an unprecedented opportunity and is open to all the artists of Deepti Designs School of Art. There would be a 2 hour long art-show which would be followed by our artists walking the ramp holding their artworks.
Date - April 2, 2023
Time - 4-7pm
Location - Interlake High School
Practice sessions - 2, Date and Time : TBD
Please reach out to Ms. Nikita Thakalath (nsobby@yahoo.com) if interested.
Nayakar Workshop
On February 18th, 19th, and 25th, Deepti Designs hosted yet another successful workshop in collaboration with AditiYeva Studio. The workshop highlighted Nayakar art, an art form originating in Tamil Nadu centuries ago. Nayakar art features bold figures, sharp lines, and a very unique color scheme which the participants had an exciting time learning about and practicing.
The workshop was taught by Chennai based Shilpa Shastra artist Ms. Shanmughapriya and was attended by over 40 participants from around the globe. It was the very first workshop ever taught in this art-form.
Launch of Kathith
Deepti Designs announced the launch of Kathith, a new label created for workshops and curriculum based classes in a variety of Indian heritage visual art forms to be taught by acclaimed and generational artists. Kathith means well-recited, reflecting Deepti Design’s mission to wake the world up to beauty, meaning and cultural significance of the art styles which are traditional.
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.
Heart Association Fundraiser
Aditi Satrasala, one of Deepti Designs’ artists, set up a fundraiser in Missouri with the help of her mom, Ms. Ashwini Talanki, to help raise funds for the American Kids Heart Association. They created Holi themed boxes filled with Gujiya, a delicious sweet and fried dumplings, and Pinwheels, which are puffed potato pastries. Aditi used her Madhubani skills to decorate the boxes with colorful Madhubani borders. They sold each box for $10 and made a substantial amount to donate to the cause.
North Creek High School Fundraiser
Nina Khilnani, a student of North Creek High donated a Madhubani art-work create by her mom (reproduction of an artwork found online), for the North Creek Booster fundraiser.
Her mom, Ms. Charu Khilnani's is a student at Deepti Designs School of Art and is a very skillful and driven practitioner of the art-style. Thank you, Nina and Ms. Khilnani for using heritage art as an instrument to stimulate change in community and outside.
A/NT Gallery Exhibition
A/NT Gallery, a prestigious non-profit artist collaborative gallery based in the campus of Seattle Center, which also houses the iconic Space Needle, invited the artists at Deepti Designs INC to host an art show in their public gallery space for the month of March. It was a great opportunity for the young artists to showcase their talent and take the ethnic art from the margins to the mainstream. Around 35 artists exhibited over 50 professional grade artworks. The artist reception was held on March 4th which was attended by over 150 art enthusiasts. Our high school artist, Nethra Mahesh was the MC for the evening and conducted the opening reception flawlessly.
It was a wonderful opportunity for the young artists as they had the real life gallery experience for the first time. The artists spoke about the hidden narrative and the cultural significance behind their art works. In the words of a participating artist, Anvika, "When I walked into the gallery, I felt like I was in a magical world of color. Everywhere you looked there were colorful Madhubani Paintings, by 30+ students from Deepti Designs. Each painting represented a part of India, and its diversity. I was able to present and speak about my painting, the Kohbar, in a way that people would understand the true symbolism and meaning behind the painting." Bothell based Vidhya's School of Music also presented some soulful Indian music performances at the event. The parents were equally appreciative of the opportunity and one of the parents mentioned "It was an absolute amazing experience to watch all the art pieces in person and to have the artists and musicians present for the opening ceremony. It was very well planned and executed event."
The show is on till March 25th in A/NT Gallery.
Game Time
The winner of the last month's Crossword puzzle is Snigdha Josyula. 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.
