27 Wednesday Jul 2016
Posted in Art, Illustration, Singapore
Tags
art, Floral, floralpattern, girls, interiordecor, patterns, watercolour
If I have perfected anything in life, it is the art of doing nothing for extended periods of time without the slightest guilt or urge to be productive. On a serious note, I really believe that we need to stop this glorification of busy (at least in the corporate world). It’s enough to be productive within the set number of working hours in a day. This madness is not helping anyone.
05 Tuesday Jul 2016
Posted in Art, Illustration
Tags
#illustration, #singapore, art, singaporeartist, sketchbook, springsummer, tropicalpalms, watercolor
“I stepped from plank to plank
so slow and cautiously;
the stars about my head I felt,
about my feet the sea.”
— Emily Dickinson
11 Monday Jan 2016
Posted in Art, Singapore expat
Tags
The nudes keep on happening and I swear it isn’t even me. It’s the brush pen. Something about it is making me do mad things like this one here, with the crazy eyes and curly hair, the cheeky grin and her fearless, shameless, square pose – no slouching or making herself small as we women do when we feel watched.
She is unapologetic about the space she is taking up, because she believes she deserves to be admired. And I admire that.
02 Saturday Jan 2016
Posted in Illustration
Tags
#illustration, #singapore, amrapali, art, design, earrings, india, jewellery, jewelry, navratna, pearls, rubies, singaporeartist, sketchbook, watercolor
I have been a huge fan of Amrapali jewelry since 2006, when I first saw a silver lotus ring, with pink tourmaline buds growing out of a vine, at the gift shop of a hotel in Udaipur. It was love at first sight ( I have a huge thing for jewelry. Especially traditional Indian jewelry) and I have been in love with their art ever since.
While browsing their online shop ( I do this often), I found the most exquisite gold navaratna earrings with a pearl drop. Navaratna means “nine gems”. In India, these nine jewels represent the solar system. A ruby for the sun, pearl for the moon, red coral for Mars, emerald for the planet Mercury, yellow sapphire for Jupiter, a diamond for Venus, blue sapphire for Saturn, hessonite for the ascending moon and a cat’s eye for the descending moon. The ruby is at the center with the others surrounding it in a particular order. This is supposed to bring luck to the wearer. Traditionally, I suppose only royalty could afford it and maybe they needed a lot of luck, what with all the wars and stuff.
I need luck too, obvi. But also I need it because it’s so so pretty! The only trouble is, it’s frightfully expensive. So I figured having a drawing of it, tracing its curves and lines, will be kind of like having it 🙂
14 Wednesday Oct 2015
Posted in Art
Tags
#fineart, acrylics, art, love, pakistan-india, piyushmishra, poetry, syria, war
1947 saw arbitrary borders being drawn across one nation, slicing the heart of an entire people in two, forever. Just like the Syrian people, families from both sides of the border left behind everything they considered home – to stay alive, to be forever estranged from their loved ones, and to forever remain a foreigner in one’s own home. On the way, both sides killed, raped and tortured each other – like a man who tears out his own hair in anger and despair, wounding himself to alleviate the pain.
On one such dark night, a young man whose true love, Husna, has stayed behind in Pakistan, writes a letter that will never reach her. But he imagines that they are both looking into the same moonless sky and his words will find her. Broken and bitter, he asks if, now that there were two nations, does the sunrise look different in Hindustan? Do leaves in autumn no longer change colour in Pakistan? Does Pakistan also silently weep at night for all the lost loves, just like Hindustan? He lost Husna and she him, so who really won in this war?
PS: If you don’t read Urdu or Hindi, I am sorry but I don’t think I can do justice to the translation for this one. But you can listen to the song here.
16 Wednesday Sep 2015
Posted in Art, Illustration, Singapore expat
“We mature with the damage, not with the years”
21 Tuesday Jul 2015
Posted in Art, Mixedmedia
Tags
#painting, #woman, abstractart, art, dearabby, embroiderypainting, india, mixedmedia, singaporeartist, singaporeartscene, singaporeillustrator, southasia, sreetamaray, Watercolors, writing
“Rose-colored glasses are never made in bifocals, because nobody wants to read the small print in dreams.”
Mixed Media 3: Brushpen, Watercolor, Thread Embroidery
07 Tuesday Jul 2015
Posted in Art, Illustration
Tags
#goldfoil, #indianjewelry, #mixedmediaart, #mixedmediaproject, #writing, art, asian, beads, bengali, india, marriage, sketchbook, southasia, virginity, watercolor, women
Mixed media project- 1:Watercolor, beads, sharpies and gold foil on paper.
“I am keeping these aside for your wedding”, Ma said, as she looked down at all her gold jewelry. Some of these were from her own wedding and had never been worn since. I was in high school at the time, but I remember thinking of the day when I would be rewarded with these jewels for finding a queer, composite creature who is successful yet humble, rich yet down-to-earth, modern yet traditionally Bengali. A man who our entire extended family and social circle would approve and who in turn, would recognize my true value – augmented by my mother’s gold, of course.
Despite all the gold, I worried about the off chance that I might fail to be fetching enough to achieve this. And why wouldn’t I worry? Some of my older girl cousins who were doing “too well” academically, caused our families to panic about how this might pose a challenge in “getting them married”. One of my cousins grew too tall and big, and every family dinner was open call to discuss how difficult it might be to find a suitably large man for her.
Marriage was inevitable and aspirational at the same time.  My cousins and I, we all knew and were even vaguely excited by what would start a few years later — a test of our true worth. A hunt for the perfect groom. An army of uncles and aunts would go forth, armed with a horoscope, a postcard-sized glamor shot and the one other thing more precious than all the family jewels – our virginity.
P.S. I want to hear your stories, experiences or thoughts about growing up female in Asia – a crowd sourcing of ideas, if you will. You can leave it in the comments section or email me if you want to keep it private. Without your stories, I don’t think I will be able to finish what I have started!
16 Tuesday Jun 2015
Posted in Art, Illustration
Tags
#singapore, abstract, art, artblog, gesso, jonnyox, mixedmedia, singaporeillustrator, sketchbook, watercolor, women
Have you noticed how women are always apologizing for being a mess? We are continually providing explanations to near strangers about the condition of our hearts and bodies. New moms about their bad hair and chipped nails; busy women for their sloppy Saturday outfits; a recent divorcee for her puffy face and lack of self love; a forty-something mother of a special child for her untidy home and dirty dishes; an unemployed woman trying so hard to make up for her lack of “work”. Always with a half smile, dismissing our own condition with the usual and causal, “Oh I am such a mess today”
You are tired or emotionally drained or insecure or depressed but it doesn’t mean you have unraveled into some kind of gooey, pulpy, gloop of nothingness. It’s easy to forget that reality doesn’t look like a page out of Better Homes and Gardens. That no matter what society says, other women are not holding you to some ideal image while you do your best with the cards fate has dealt you.
“You are not a mess. You are an abstract work of art, splattered with the intensity of all things beautiful.” Remember that.
23 Thursday Apr 2015
Posted in Body Image, Illustration
Tags
#illustration, #nude, #singapore, #warsanshire #bodyacceptance #bodylove #watercolor, art, Floral, singaporeartist, surreal
Life is way too short to spend another day at war with yourself. Make peace with your body. It’s not manmade, there are no flaws, there are no mistakes.
Warsan Shire
22 Wednesday Apr 2015
Posted in Illustration, poetry
Tags
#sex, #singapore, art, femaleorgasm, mouths, Orgasm, poetry, redlipstick, singaporeartist, warsanshire
Make love
like you have no
secrets
like you’ve
never been
left
never been
hurt
like the world
don’t owe you a
single
wretched
thing.
– Warsan Shire
02 Monday Mar 2015
Posted in #illustration
Tags
#illustration, #music, art, australia, bodyimage, girls, gouache, interiors, printedtops, selfacceptance, travel, watercolor, writing
Back from my travel to Australia, which is a ridiculously beautiful country. Literally, the photos need no filters.
Friends and family pampered us no end with lunches and dinners and pretty presents all over the place. We were like Hollywood celebrities, leaving the airport at various cities in our big ass sunglasses and being scooped up by friends in their huge cars – no taxi queues.
The food in Australia was outstanding no matter where we were. So was the coffee. And the wine. And the beer.
We slept for 18 hours last night and this morning was all about swaying my hips to Nina Simone, while I made my coffee and looked through the hundreds of photos I took.
PS: There’s a new BUY MY WORKS button to the right side bar of the blog where you can, you guessed it, buy my works. Also, some changes to the Sketchbook Store page, so go check that out if you have time 🙂
21 Wednesday Jan 2015
Tags
#illustration, anitakrizzan, art, fashionillustration, fashionphotography, micronpen, poetry, roses, singaporeartist, watercolor
Inspired by Tarun Khiwal’s fashion photography. Micron pen and watercolor on paper.
12 Monday Jan 2015
Posted in Art, Illustration
Tags
#calcutta, #food, #singapore, art, expatblog, friendship, growingup, humor, india, sharpieart, sharpiepens, singaporeartist, writing
It still feels like 1999 was yesterday. I finished high school and everyone was really concerned that the Y2K virus was going to end the world.
When I was in Calcutta for the holidays, my friends and I visited a bar we used to go to. Then someone said, remember? smoking was allowed here.
Of course I acted like I had no recollection of that time, seeing as it made me feel ancient. My other friends fell a bit silent too, as if trying hard to remember.
Then someone finally said it, we are THAT old?? It was a question, but no one answered it. We then ate our body weight in food and left.
24 Monday Nov 2014
Posted in Body Image, Illustration, Sketchbook
Tags
#illustration, art, bananabread, bread, diet, floraldress, funny, humor, lowcarbdiet, sarcasm, writing
Excuse me, were you saying something about your low carb, low fat, low fun diet for the three extra pounds on your thighs? Sorry, I was too busy cradling my precious loaf of banana bread like a new born baby.
