Monday 31 March 2014

Saturday 29 March 2014

Friday 28 March 2014

My communications sessions at EMDI, Mumbai

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” 
 
http://www.slideshare.net/mithubasu3/emdi-pr-lecture
 
Students are my wonderful teachers. Their infectious enthusiasm, unceasing curiosity, awesome sense of wonder, their state of 'updated just now' on the latest technology, their willingness to accept 'I do not know' have proved life changing understandings for me. At every session I notice that I takeaway so much and emerge renewed and refreshed. Feedback tells me they stand richer with my shared life experiences. I feel delighted that this eternal student could give something of value to the classroom of teachers.

 A 'making of an image' session in progress



Dolna recommends a great way to stART each day.

For more information about the artist Ratnakar Ojha and details of his works visit 

Thursday 27 March 2014

Inaugurating RBK International Academy's Annual Art Exhibition Celebrations 2014.

A wonderful day with art and children my two all time favourite passions.
Cutting the ribbon to enter into the children's world of art, imagination and creativity. Seen flanked by the awesome art teacher Ms.Krina Chauhan on the extreme left,  the Principal Mr. Edward Robinson, Management Representative Dr. Arundhati Hoskeri and faculty.
Mr.Robinson comes from the rich background of art, so does the diversely talented Dr.Hoskeri and the teachers too. RBK International Academy truly nurtures a child holistically, in line with the vision of the Director Mrs. Rupal Kanakia. She believes in ensuring that her school equips the child with
knowledge,skill and creativity to help them take the quantum leap when it comes to facing the challenges of the present and the future.
Grade 4 explored Notan Art as you can see here in the installed cube structure, a Japanese design concept involving the play and placement of light and dark as they are placed next to the other in art and imagery.
An array of styles, forms and finesse that show mature creativity far beyond the age of the children. New experimentation's with Wycinanki, the traditional Polish folk art and Kirigami, a form of paper art where you fold and cut paper unlike in origami where you only fold paper to create art, truly made me salute the teachers.
Letting the full house know of the interactive art plans I had for them
Students who were good in art were asked to paint one canvas expressing "I Love My School" in their own unique way. It was a fun exercise aimed to foster team spirit and collective expression. At the start the students were divided based on their own declaration, into artists and non artists.
While confirmed artists painted on the canvas, the self claimed non artists played 'Art charades' a game configured by me (On similar lines of Dumb charades). Words were whispered into the ears of a child who had to draw it on the white board for the students in the audience to guess the whispered word.
A riot of enthused kids took the game by storm. As the so called non artists drew, right guesses came pouring forth and the non artist was declared an ARTIST! By the end of the game there was no divide between the students. It was a happy hall full of artists. Children were heard saying 'I didn't know I was an artist'.
I was happy that a belief was ignited in every child that all have creativity within them.
Walking through and enjoying every exhibit.
Momentoes to remind me of this memorable day.

Dolna recommends a great way to stART each day.

For more information about the artist Ashok Bhowmik and details of his works visit 

Wednesday 26 March 2014

Tuesday 25 March 2014

Monday 24 March 2014

Saturday 22 March 2014

Friday 21 March 2014

Thursday 20 March 2014

Wednesday 19 March 2014

Tuesday 18 March 2014

Dolna recommends a great way to stART each day.

 
For more information about the artist Hitendra Singh Bhati and details of his works visit 

Monday 17 March 2014

Saturday 15 March 2014

Friday 14 March 2014

Dolna recommends a great way to stART each day.


For more information about the artist Sunita Nandan Dinda and details of her works visit 

Thursday 13 March 2014

Dolna recommends a great way to stART each day.

 
For more information about the artist Arun Kumar Samadder and details of his works visit 

Carving a professional persona for the teachers of Shrimad Rajchandra Mission

http://www.slideshare.net/mithubasu3/personality-development-presentation-for-shree

For an analogy there is art cinema and there is mainstream cinema, both co exist like fine art and commercial art. Dual paths that share the same domain. While the goal of one is focused on monetary success the other is most often an expression of an internal journey.

Each path that one chooses dictates its own persona. A persona that emanates from mindset more than the physical reality.

The audience for my workshop were disciples and teachers of Shrimad Rajchandra Mission's school 'Magictouch'. Each one of the teachers had chosen the spiritual path and had to discharge duties that demanded firmness and professionalism, more head-led than heart. They were lovingly called Didi instead of Maam. What is a professional persona for a spiritually rich sect of people. My workshop addressed this unique challenge.
My workshop addressed a unique challenge
Personality has its own accomplice, the tangible and external aspects education, environment, attire, accessories, language, the visual packaging of a person that lends credence to the desired perception. There is also the intangible and ingrained aspects like values, nature and attitude developed over the years.

We role played real day to day situations to show how a same situation can be addressed with firmness or leniency. Empathy or pity. Compassionate or emotional. Kindness or indulgence. Detachment or attachment. We kept in mind at all times the dictum's of the Mission and saw how a firm, assertive, disciplined, detached teacher could also be perceived as a compassionate and kind professional person.

The lines of differentiation are thin but if absorbed with understanding and integrity, personality can be crafted, developed and customized as one wishes to. A small percentage of character aspects are ingrained and may take time to change. If we believe in the attributes we wish to personify, it is in our hands to transform into what we want to be.
  Head&Heartdonotoppose,butCOMPLEMENTeachother!
HeadlendsabilitytoWiselyDiscriminate,
HeartbreathesLife!
TheirSynergyleadstoInner

Wednesday 12 March 2014

Tuesday 11 March 2014

Saturday 8 March 2014

Great news for artists.

Art collectors buying more online

A new report suggests that more and more art collectors are spending vast sums of money on 'sight unseen' online purchases, says Colin Gleadell.

Richard Mosse’s 'Vintage Violence', 2011, which was bought online for the Hiscox corporate collection
Richard Mosse’s 'Vintage Violence', 2011, which was bought online for the Hiscox corporate collection 
Contemporary art collectors are increasingly skipping the first-hand physical experience of viewing art in galleries, and buying “sight unseen” through internet images, according to a report to be published by Hiscox, the art insurance specialists, this week. Everyone is aware that the internet plays an important part in the art market – as a research vehicle, promotional tool and bidding mechanism at auction – but the report will come as a surprise to those who believe that sight unseen online buying is restricted to low-value, limited-edition prints and photographs, where seeing the actual object before buying is less important than with higher value, unique works of art.
More than 200 international collectors and 56 contemporary art galleries were canvassed by Art Tactic, a company that specialises in contemporary and emerging art market research. Although most galleries surveyed discouraged clients from buying online without personal engagement with the gallery, they confirmed that unique paintings and drawings, as opposed to limited-edition prints and photographs, accounted for 53 per cent of their online sales. In terms of price ranges, the survey found that 26 per cent of collectors had spent £50,000 or more buying a unique work of art either through a jpeg emailed image, an online auction, or a gallery website.

The report also said that online art buying was not being driven solely by the young. In fact, 55 per cent of respondents in the 65-plus age group said they had bought art directly online, and 18 per cent that they would happily spend more than £50,000 online on a single art work. A good example would be Hiscox’s honorary president, Robert Hiscox.
“I love bidding online at auction,” he says. “It’s so convenient. I also buy sight unseen from digital images sent by galleries, but I usually know the galleries and the work of the artists, so there is an element of trust and confidence built in.” His view fits with 86 per cent of buyers, who said that the reputation of the seller was the most important factor in determining where they bought online.
Robert Read, head of fine art at Hiscox, says that many of the lower-valued works bought for the Hiscox corporate collection (example illustrated) have been bought, sight unseen, from galleries online. The research, however, was commissioned after a number of start-up online platforms approached him about the insurance risks of trading online. “Unlike your small local gallery, the online platform has maximum, global visibility, so it needs to be properly vetted, especially for older art where defective title and forgery can be issues,” says Read.
Looking at the future, the report predicts increasing online activity. Galleries that prefer the traditional, personal sales methods are in a Catch-22 situation because, the report says, 72 per cent of online sales are made to new collectors, a breed which all galleries are constantly looking out for. Fifty-nine per cent of galleries therefore have an e-commerce facility on their websites, and subscribe to the ever increasing array of online platforms that aim to attract a global audience of potential buyers to their websites.
In scenes that are reminiscent of the dotcom boom, barely a month has gone by in the past two years without some new online art sales platform or merger being announced. The level of venture capital invested in the start-ups is staggering, ranging from $4 million for the online auction platform Paddle 8, to $12.2 million for Artspace, which offers mainly limited-edition prints online, and $22.7 million for the recently launched Berlin-based online auction business Auctionata.

The competition for attention in cyber space has been likened to the Wild West, and not all will survive. Much will depend on which site develops the strongest brand and attracts revenue from advertising, gallery subscriptions or commissions from sales. However, the Hiscox report found that 86 per cent of online buyers still prefer to go through a gallery website than through the much larger, amorphous online platforms with their paid advisers.
Reactions to the report will not be known until it has been published and circulated. But certain qualifications are bound to be made in terms of the report, which predicts the irresistible rise of the online buyer and seller.
One could argue that the report is not objective or reflective of the art market as a whole because it is limited to contemporary art. Indeed, a survey of the sight unseen online selling of Old Master, 19th-century and 20th-century modern art would probably paint a very different picture.

Saturday 1 March 2014

Thought of Art as an antidote when Sadguru spoke on the depletion of human conciousness


Heard a gem while Sadguru was in conversation with Tarun Tahiliani on Headlines Today. Talking on the depletion of human consciousness in today's times he said " The biggest industry on the planet today is arms and armaments the second largest is pharmaceuticals the third is alcohol. One is sure death,  another pretends to get you back another gets you halfway there. Nothing seems to be life oriented. The top business on this planet should have been what addresses human well-being in its core - but that's not happened.  Today the most important thing to be done is to raise human consciousness. " 

I personally believe that art addresses human well-being in its core and can raise human consciousness.  All who have the power to encourage art in any form must do so if we want to see a better world. From the formative years and through the life journey, parents, teachers, our education system, employers must value art and lend it encouragement and patronage. Pablo Picasso says that we are all born with 'art' within us but renowned artist Anish Kapoor said on NDTV that an 'Artist is made' by patronage.