Artrageous art!

This was my last painting which I did sometime in March....

.....which has since been gifted by a wonderful chai guzzling fellow blogger to her mum for her birthday. And since then the flow of my creative juices has sort of come to a screeching halt. Maybe it was the Oz vacation, maybe its the heat here in the low 100's, or maybe it's the 50 year crisis (is there such a thing?). 


Well, anyways, I was browsing thru one of my favorite art sites....not just to get said juices gushing again, but also to see what's new, to rant about the outrageous prices of some, to rave about the gorgeous quality and talent of others and generally to, as we say in India, "time pass" while watching IPL cricket.


That is when I came across this painting by one Shefali Nayan being sold by a collector. A 12' X 15" watercolor for $175/Rs 7,500.

My first reaction was "No way"....this is like something my 10 year old niece in Sydney can do. THIS is a collector's item? My husband was convinced the artist was a child, and I insisted it could not be since they have never featured art by children on this website. So I googled and found out Shefali is 35 years old and this is what she says about her work "My paintings depict a sense of wonder, have a tinge of humor and joy through humans and animals. These impersonalized humans speak my emotions and feel my feelings. Animals add the joy and create a story that floats on my canvases.The pleasant amalgamation of the aesthetics of these moments and the various forms, textures and colors create a fairy tale and a kaleidoscopic world in my works."


Hmmmm I thought. Can you really say that and get away with this kind of art? I was all set to resurrect this post and go off the deep end once more and raise a hue and cry about art in general. But, I thought, let me look at more by the same artist. Maybe there's more mature stuff out there...and so back to Google I went and unearthed these by the same artist....pretty much more of the same.

And the funny thing is the more I saw the more I not only liked it, but realized that the paintings were strangely very captivating and appealing. Something about them, the juxtaposition of the colors and textures were definitely more than what one could expect from a 10 yr old. And then I researched some more and found these in a gallery of paintings by disabled children.

by a 9 year old

 Alexis, 12 years, North Carolina

 Done by a group of 9 year olds

 By Kiana, 8 years old, Honolulu

 by Shawna, 14 years, South Dakota

by 12 year old Yuri from Reno

by 12 year old Cody from West Virginia

So now, I'm really confused, and want to ask my original question. Can a 35 year old artist really get away doing stuff like this all in the name of "art"? As long as there are people to buy them, is it justified? I know I keep beating this topic to death, but as an artist it bothers me a lot!!!!

Cooking....an art or a science?

This was our lunch today. A big bowl of salad and a tall glass of that mysterious beverage!

No, this is not for you all to get a feel for what we eat, but for you to take a good look at that beverage in the tall glass. That - is bubble tea! Also known as pearl tea or boba tea. An Asian drink, it is very popular in the US, especially in cities that have a high Asian population like Seattle, San Jose, DC. My husband and I got addicted to this while in Seattle and have been on the hunt for this in India - any city in India - since we got back. But no luck! So we had given up any hope of ever finding it....TILL, we chanced upon Asian grocery stores in Melbourne and Sydney that had all the necessary ingredients to make your own homemade bubble tea! And so the husband went berserk.....75% of our baggage coming home had to do with this craze.....black tapioca, white tapioca, green tea flavor, taro flavor, mango flavor, milk tea powder and so on.

For those of you who have not had this drink - here's the scoop (ha ha) on it. When you walk into a Boba Tea shop this is what happens.....the person serving will take a huge scoop of giant tapioca pearls - which have been previously cooked and soaked in sugar syrup - and plonk it into a glass. Then into a blender goes a whopping scoop of pre-made tea concentrate, another scoop of your choice of flavor (mango, taro, honeydew, cantaloupe, coconut, pineapple, green tea etc etc) in powder form, and then milk and ice and then its all blended furiously in a machine. This is then poured over the pearls, sealed with a lid and given to you with a fat straw which you jab into the sealed top and slurp away! And as you are drinking it, suddenly the fat black juicy pearls will come up the straw and punch the roof of your mouth! It will either freak you out completely or take you to tapioca heaven!

via

So where was I? Oh yes, the hubby today decided we should try out making it at home. Or should I say "HE". So in true engineer style he youtubed videos, he researched the ingredients, he calculated, calibrated and converted between metric and Imperial, he took notes, and then satisfied, he headed on to the kitchen, so far a taboo place for him. My kitchen scales were not good enough, so the precision scales came down from his workshop, all utensils lined up in order of the recipe, timers set, thermometers close at hand. I tried to sabotage this scientific approach by telling him to just wing it, but it didn't work! And when he insisted on measuring 1/8 ounce of sticky, gooey honey, I gave up and played the role of photographer!

Here then are pics of the scientific approach to cooking as opposed to my very casual, "a pinch here a pinch there" approach!

So how was it? In one word - delicious and darned close to the real thing. Unfortunately we don't have any fat straws but that would have nailed it I think. But I still believe cooking is more art than science. And this is what my husband says cooking is...."It's an exercise in precision-How much of what ingredient at what temperature for how much time". My mouth is too full of chewy tapioca bubbles to respond to that!

Something to make you all happy!

I'm cheating today. Still haven't got all my senses around me after returning from vacation...too many things to catch up on here. It was a fabulous vacation....great weather, fantastic food, bought some lovely aboriginal art and curios (pics coming up later) but I was happy to come back home...to my bed, my bathroom, my dogs! I really want to get back onto the blogging wagon, so till then, an inspirational picture along with an equally inspirational video to keep all my readers happy....

via

Saffron and Silk should be up and running full steam by next week. Till then, be happy!

And the winners are....

It's time! Time to pick the winners of the giveaway(s).

{A little update: Many of you know I am here in Australia on vacation. I had the thrill of meeting Aparna yesterday! Yes, the very same 9/30 Aparna who handed me the giveaway jewelry and is as stunning and cheerful as her jewelry! And I'll be honest....I knew what the earrings looked like, but when I saw the real things, I wanted to scrap the whole giveaway thing, say blogger had suddenly deleted my blog, go into hiding and keep the earrings for myself! Yes, they are THAT GORGEOUS!!!!}


But my conscience would not let me do that :-)...so like I promised, I went to random.org and picked the 2 winners!

SO.....DRUM ROLL PLEASE.......

WINNER # 1 IS 

SARVANI

AND WINNER # 2 IS

SHALINI

Congratulations to both of you! 

Sarvani.....your choice of earrings, the lava black rondells will be mailed to you mid May, so please be patient :-)

Shalini....you're in Dubai!!! Give me an email address so I can get in touch with you! Or you can e mail me. Elisha will love playing with these red beauties :-)

Thank you all for participating as well as your lovely comments! 

Travel blog is open for business...

Yes, am blogging over at my travel blog. I'll switch between that and S & S depending on what the topic is!

Happy Sunday to you all! Wasn't the match something? We caught the last exciting nerve wracking half an hour at the airport. Go India!