The Stronger Pull

Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love  Rumi

The new Hidesign diary holds illustrations that speak of passion, spirit and sensuousness. of an emotional high, and I use the forces of nature to bring it to life. In each illustration (there are going to be 10) is the moon in a different part of its cycle for each month and all energy is drawn from this one, glowing source. I love the energy in this series and I think this diary is going to be quite beautiful when it all finally comes together! I hope you get to keep one with you when the new year begins!

Happiness!

The mother of the same little girl for whose nursery I created the illustrations some weeks ago, wanted to say ''thank you'' to all the lovely people who sent presents and love their way. We created a bookmark that showed an overjoyed annika flying amidst presents and stars with a huge smile on her little face! The back was a starry thank you with the trademark tree of stars and some space for her to write in a little message! 

I even created an envelope with a little stamp that I illustrated :) 

 when placed inside a book, annikas happiness pops up :)

and im happy to be creating bookmarks and stamps and envelopes and managing to bring joy to someone at the same time! Its a good life :) 

The Flow of Life

Cover illustration for a book filled with fun party ideas for Scholastic-

Will be out in stores soon!

I cant believe there was a time when I used to worry about whether I would have enough work to keep me busy for the next month, these days Im frantically trying to hone my time management skills so I can continue doing the kind of work I love to do and work on some incredibly interesting projects. It makes my heart sing- all these lovely things that pop up out of nowhere! 

Weve moved to bangalore for a few months temporarily, and my newest obsession is with sitting in coffee shops and day dreaming with a sketchbook in hand and generally enjoying the fabulous weather that the city is blessed with! Im completely torn between the city and weather and everything else it has to offer and my gorgeous house in chennai, so decided to just sit back and enjoy things as they happen. The only way to make the most of life I suppose :)

Birthday Cloud

For Sid's birthday this year, we went to my dads farm. Its one of my favourite places in the world. Apparently, its sid's too :) One of the things I gave him this year was this card! I like the way it turned out so I thought id post about it :D also, these lovely pictures are taken by my little sister.

 

The monsoons- soon we were sitting in a cloud.

The chickens, the cow, our two crazy dogs and the rest of the family wishing you a happy birthday! 

 Happy with his card! I think I should start making custom cards like this one. Had such fun with it !Interested? :)

Butterfly Park

 one winged pretty

flowers merged with wings

wings turned to dust

flitted over the eyes

and cast its spell

 colours and patterns came together

We went to the butterfly park in Bannerghatta. The first thing that caught my fancy about the place was that at the entrance was a little sign that said that all letters posted here bore a butterfly stamp! how lovely! 

And when the doors opened to the little park it was nothing short of joyful, jump around till you pass out amazement that I felt. Heavenly little place with little waterbodies and lots and lots of flowers and a million butterflies all flying around spreading the joy and wonder! I had to be bodily dragged away from that place.

Folk Valley

Today I did something thats been on my list for a while! I finally got to sit with some folk artists and work with their lovely vegetable dyes. A friend and I went to the valley school in Bangalore - a gorgeous space, very much like auroville, and in their artists village, amidst music and much energy, we painted and watched and listened to the artists as they related stories and sang songs about their art :) lovely!

 Banyan trees have special powers. They heal souls and exude peace. 

 the initial form that Rabia's art took

painting a pattachitra bird

my folk art dreams finally coming true :)

The colours arent spot on, I clicked this picture half in the dark! But heres my first foray into folk art! 

The tale of how the magical urn of life that poured endless amounts of nectar filled the soul, so everything - the trees, birds, sea, fish and lotus, the entire universe exists within you.

Dreamer of Little Words

everlasting ingenious blue,

magic ideas fish sky tune

Smile he destiny quest-

power love and float

Dark the home an experimental

Reclaiming smile for who

-amrita nambiar

I read somewhere, that To make a Dadaist poem
'' Take a newspaper, Take a pair of scissors.Cut out words and put them in a bag.
Shake it gently.
Then take out the scraps one after the other in the order in which they left the bag.
The poem will be like you.
And here you are, a writer - infinitely original.
endowed with a sensibility that is charming
though beyond the understanding of the vulgar.''

Above Your Head

Hello!! Im going through a crazy time in life, sometimes big decisions seem so massively huge and i spend half my life worrying over things but I know that later, i am going to look back and think : silly me, what a thing to worry about. So thats what Im doing these days. not very productive. But lately ive been doing a lot of identity design ! And loving it. I love the process of creating a face for a client and then taking it forward. Its just so interesting ! Also, my little story is over ! Here are the five. Theyre soon going to be printed and framed and be adorning the walls of Annikas nursery :) 

And let me tell you of the little story that goes alongwith these illustrations.
Once upon a time there lived a little girl, (lets call her Annika after her new owner to be) She found this door in her home and it was one big circular door.She wondered what was behind it, and one day decided to find out. But this door was locked! And annika suddenly remembered the key necklace she always wore ! She tried it in the lock and it turned. Her eyes grew big with excitement and she opened the door to see this incredible scene in front of her eyes, toadstools with peeping squirrels, magical pink horses that floated along strange grassy lands which were in steps and had ladders to go up to the next grassy land and trees with all kinds of fruit growing at the same time.. and even a tree of stars! She walked along the little bridge that popped up and entered the little world. And did she have the time of her life there! She came across this little party and joined the fairy folk and little creatures there and had some delicious pink cake that melted in her mouth and all this under a tree of lights and stars. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
And then a big bird swooped in and annika climbed on her back and they flew amongst the stars till they reached her home. It wasnt long before she fell asleep, a happy smile on her face.

i love ze magical lands !
Also, i forgot to mention, and now im back and actually editing the post to say this - that between the five illustrations, annikas date of birth, time of birth, weight when she was born and her name are hidden somewhere :)