Bollywood Influence

As many of you know, my work is influenced a lot by Bollywood and Indian fabrics and costumes seen in the movies. It is amazing to me when these influences penetrate your brain.

I came across this video of a Bollywood song shot in 1970 (Shot before I was born). There is a striking resemblance to how I even take pictures of my work compared to this video.

You can see the main actress (who appears a little later in the video) in red dancing in the center and the other dancers in colorful costumes dancing in the background. Now look at the picture below of my Dancing Bottles. I took this picture several months back without intentionally matching it to this song. Can you see what I see?

Testing to get a Color

As many of you know my pottery does have a lot of color. But getting those bright colors at mid fire range is not always easy. I struggled for the longest time to get red and after getting that 2 years back, I started on my mission to get maroon. I don't know why I do this to myself. :)

My inspiration was again from Indian fabrics. And the color maroon (a very deep red) was stuck in my head since my wedding actually (almost 8 years back). It was the color of my wife's dress she wore on the engagement night. You can see the clipping below. At that time I didn't know I wanted it on my pots but I knew I liked the color.

So after 20 -30 tests and failing at every one of them, I finally get my maroon. Most of the time the color just faded when I fired and lost its deep look. But now I finally like what I have. Check out these pots with the maroon accent.

In a way, it was time that my testing came to a conclusion. The color feature maroon was done this week on my blog and my mom sent me this beautiful bed spread in raw silk which is again rich dark maroon with gold, yellow and orange embroidery done all over.

Inspiration

All artists need some kind of inspiration. And I don't think one can go around searching for inspiration. It is out there somewhere, but it doesn't have a sign on it saying "Inspiration". It could be something that catches your eye, a color, the way a leaf moves in the wind. One just has to be open to experience and inspiration will find its way to you.

I for one have always been fascinated by Indian culture, fabrics and especially Indian movies... Bollywood. Ever since we were kids I remember our family snuggling up in blankets watching 3+ hours of a Bollywood movie. Lots of singing and dancing, great colors and clothes. Story lines were all the same but it didn't matter. It was and it is fun. Complete entertainment. And as they say,... the movie has everything,... dance, drama, emotion, sex, betrayal, etc... etc..

I have tried to incorporate the fluidity and movement of the human body into my pottery forms and it is only till recently that I started doing decoration which reflects the Indian fabrics and embroidery. One source to help get started with this technique is Grace Sheese. http://www.gracesheese.com/

I still keep staring at her decorations and they are just wonderful.

I started experimenting and testing different glazes, techniques and tools and I am close to effect I like. attached are some pictures from a Bollywood movie and some of my sculptures. Do you see the resemblance?