The show has opened, pressure is off, getting ready in my mind for Jaipur

   Today had a long interview with a journalist from the Times of India - a weekend supplement that seems on a higher level than the rest of the paper. It was supposed to be 15 minutes and we talked for nearly two hours. I also went to the Craft Museum. Daughter Janet and I'd been there in 1977 when it was new and saw stunning tribal wooden sculpture. That's still there and much more including fabulous fabrics.. The exhibits are wonderful and if I'd had more time would have bought some things from the craftspeople who spread out their wares there. They have such a hard sell that it turns me off. First you're supposed to bargain, and then, some of them actually won't so who's to know what to do. I bought a palm leaf drawing.

    Don't think that being in India is paradise for it surely isn't. It's a mix as is all else in life. The traffic is a nightmare and the subway can be very, very crowded. Thank goodness for the women's car. Here at Sanskriti we get a free taxi on Wednesday. My neighbor artist, who is making art from cow patties (the aroma has been wafting its fragrance my way ever since I arrived Feb 15 - and there's been rain to make it more so even though he covers it with tarps). Anyway, today he was to move the patties to the Craft museum where he is installing his structures to be made from them and he had two of the "ladies" who will be helping him join in free the taxi ride to the museum. I sat next to them. They chatted together in Hindi and, alas smelled from handling the patties/putting them in bags for travel to the museum. It was also very hot in the taxi, and there was a traffic jam. Ugh, ugh, I got out earlier at a subway stop and decided it was faster and more fragrant to leave that scene. When I got out of the subway closest to the museum, I got into a three wheel taxi. The driver had a hard time finding the museum but finally did. The women were already there and thought I knew what they were supposed to do. Of course I didn't but brought them to the Director. He just told them to sit down outside. I then pulled out a card written for me by a director of another museum that said I should be given free admission so I was spared the 150 rupee entrance fee (44 rupees to the dollar).

    I enjoyed the interview at the American Center today as the man was intelligent, responsive, and perceptive. We focused on a sampling of the monoprints, Face Paintings and Portrait Boxes for the article,

    New artists have arrived at Sanskriti and I likely won't have time to get to know them as I leave on March 15 for Jaipur. The ones I've gotten to know and enjoy have left. The vegetarian food has become monotonous, but the curd was good tonight and the dal. was delicious. Not always so as it's often spicier than I can handle. In my lust for more protein, I've taken to buying eggs and cooking them in my electric tea pot, and mostly eating lunch out now that my show is up at the American Center. I've been going there for interviews and to meet people who want to see the show and that leaves me near Connaught Place where there are restaurants, shops galore, and a constant and huge crush of people..

   I'm still making new art and it seems to me to be very good, being very different from anything I've done before that's filling me with the sense of surprise. Right now, I'm working on four and soon to be five 24x18 inch sheets of Bristol Board (nice and thick). I've layered both sides, one side with vivid blues, copper color an with some red and the second side just with gel medium to keep the pieces flat. The paint, Acrylic, is water based and could warp the paper if I didn't treat both sides. Whereas with the "Face Paintings" I've obviously filled the page with a large face, that is mostly so as a few of the ten have more than one face. With the new work, I've been keeping an oval in the center, but there is, at least as of yet, no face. The color and sense of the work speaks to me of being more cosmic and in the realms of outer space. I'm now thinking this is coming from the fact that in recent months in my early morning brief meditations, I've been projecting my mind into that realm and amazingly, when I do, my eyes (though closed) become filled with light.

   Getting late now. To get up early enough to do the "Five Tibetan Rites" and my yoga regimen, and then get to breakfast on time, I'll be heading off to sleep now. Trying to attach pics of some of the "Face Paintings." Don't know if I can succeed as the process is still something of a mystery to me. Hooray, I think I did it!

Day 2 in glorious Sanskriti (artist residency)

    Ah, it's the very scent to India. I think it may be even a narcotic that brings me back. The air is gentle. Here at Sanscriti with it's beautiful grounds, huge trees with leaves gently swaying in the cool wind (it's lovely weather in the day, chilling up at night) I'm already lulled into happiness and contentment.

    I slept with many covers last night. My little pillow cushioned me to sleep. I first woke at 6AM thinking about breakfast as my body is unused to the vegetarian regimen, but then I fell back to another comfortable slumber until 11:30AM! What a wonderful way to become acclimated after barely sleeping on the 8 hr plus flight from London. Someone though told me that I still look exhausted. Oh well.

    Later this afternoon, I strolled through the pottery museum on my own, where each room highlights a specific area of India's traditional wares. I'll re-visit many times next month on my return. I've already seem works to inspire my work. Then Niriti brought me through the truly magnificent fabric museum. It's filled with the finest examples from throughout the country. Some are very old with truly amazing composition and detail. Astonishing saris are surely priceless examples. There's a section of Kanta embroidered works. I remember the Kanta embroidery exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum last year, and the beautiful red shawl I bought in Dhaka in 1995. The examples here are of the finest.

    Truly Sanskriti is a treasure house and I'm already so glad that I'll be returning after Dhaka. Large ceramic pieces dot the grounds, and everywhere there is another visual delight, a gate, wooden doors, the bridge to my room over a now dry waterway, and on. Everyone is of course friendly with the residents representing many disciplines. Last evening I spoke with Chris, originally from Boston and of Irish descent, he converted to Sikhism in the 1980's. He's a poet. I came upon a series of his poems in one of the museum rooms, likely a place for meditation. I read just one. It was so beautifully expressive and rich with references that drew on the chaotic world of now, yet his lure was to the mountains and by continuing to refer to that, the poem held the promise of peace and eternal wisdom. I wished to savor it longer and decided to read the others as another delight on my return in February-March.  

    Barbara Rothenberg corrected my yesterday post mistakes: "We went together to the Shekavati region (the other is a Japanese flute)  and I was studying Ragamala painting (as in ragas)." I can only say that my deep fatigue had rattled my brain and I'm grateful for her reply. She has one artwork in the entry way and another in the dining room. Barbara asked, "Tell me more about Kolkata (where is it?) and Dhaka.  What will you be doing ???????" So maybe there willl be more curiosity among my blog readers. I'll tell about Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) in West Bengal, and of course my work in Dhaka as events unfold - where I'll be making welded masks, printmaking, and giving a mask/story workshop, Embassy receptions, showing my film, and the like.

    Meanwhile, it's just an hour before dinner and I'll finally get to those Five Tibetan Rites (exercises) and my yoga regimen. Thankfully, there's a yoga mat here for me. Hooray!

                        Love to all,

                         Suzanne

                        www.suzannemasks.com