Dear friends,
It's nearly Halloween, the leaves outside are turning brown
The season of festivities approaches so don't feel down
A monthly story is coming up and to unsubscribe
Click on the link at the bottom, but better to join my tribe
Herein you'll find a bunch of treats and info and links galore
So read one, dear fellow, read on, and click those links for more...
My own offering for the Carpet Pages III: Pixels show was made during the first UK lockdown and is called 'The 104 Days of Lockdown' - 104 knots for 104 days. Here is a close-up of a few of the knots, from top to bottom: Turk's Head knot (so-called as it was reminiscent of a turban); Prosperity knots (single and double coloured); a flat Turk's Head knot. The rest are humble Button knots - which are my favourite knots to make. I'll demonstrate how to tie one when I talk about my work in the 3rd and final online event.
Don't miss the online Meet the Artists Private View events via Zoom! They are free, all welcome!
TO BOOK YOUR FREE TICKETS:
Event 3: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/carpet-pages-iii-pixels-meet-the-artists-private-view-online-event-3-tickets-126963654709
This show was generously sponsored by https://www.communitymask.co.uk
Register here for free tickets to Event 1
CARPET PAGES III: PIXELS
....the show itself is here online at https://www.carpetpages.com
Carpet Pages III: Pixels is 2020's online, Covid-era, 3rd instalment of the exhibition series (the first two were physical shows). I designed a 3D gallery which has the footprint of a carpet page...in a corner of the desert of my mind lay a simple white house, its walls lined with beautiful and inspiring art, inviting repeat walks around the unique design of the building, itself laid out like an architectural carpet page.
Brushing it under the carpet because it's raining/too far away/abroad will simply not do - it'll be online and accessible from the warm comfort of your own home and computer. Do brush up and show up...
Visit the show... and continue painting with specially designed handmade Kolinsky sable and swan feather brushes. My little brushes are happily winding their way around the world! They now have homes on 3 continents across several different time zones...
Purchase here...just like my students from all corners of the globe whom I have the pleasure to teach in my online, small and friendly, interactive Zoom miniature painting classes. I started teaching online in Spring and have the strange honour of being the first person ever to teach miniature painting online - not actually because of the pandemic but because I'd been planning it since last summer, for my maternity leave! These continue in November...Book a November course here... which is also a good, in-between-multiple-festivities time to launch free monthly Zoom hour-long meetings where we'll discuss all things miniature painting-related and topics arising out of the miniature painting forum. We'll chat about the book My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk and another topic over a cup of tea. If you haven't already, and the idea of miniature paintings, books and tea appeals to you, we'd love you to join us for our first monthly meeting on 17.11.20, 6-7pm GMT (link to be uploaded to the forum). BYOB. FYI. NFS. IMHO. TBH. GSOH. IRL one day.
You can also sign up to the free forum to find resources, track your progress and ask questions and generally chat about art...Join the free forum... and about life, since art = life and life = art and the two are inseparable from each other. My PhD research continues after maternity leave and I'm raring to go. I love being part of a university; it feels like a sort of spiritual home (the alternative is, of course, the Borgesian paradise of an endless library) and the Slade, being part of UCL, continually inspires me as I'm encountering the forefront of research not just in the arts, but across the board in neuroscience, psychology, education and languages. My current research intersects across all these areas and I'm continually humbled by the real experts in their field that I have the pleasure to work with. I will be able to announce more as the project gathers steam; suffice it to say that I have always been a person with fingers in many pies and I see my art as a 'bringing together' of the many different disciplines that interest me. I am open-minded, to say the least. I am a hunter-gatherer.* I deep dive into specialist areas such as miniature painting yet see connections between many different art forms and ideas. I see learning as a spiral staircase and not as an line. Things recur and we circle back at a higher level.
*I am actually a cavewoman. Since lockdown began, I have brushed my hair twice, once for my birthday, once to demonstrate to my preschooler that 'it must be done daily' (now taken care of by my wonderful husband). Interestingly, in an art/life parallel, I've been making the 104 knots, and my hair has been making 104 knots of its own as it just wants to copy me. Maybe one day I'll design a hairbrush that is so beautiful that I want to use it daily. I will brush up and show up, however, for my own show - and I do look forward to seeing you online in whatever form it takes!
Frighteningly yours,
Vaishali Prazmari