Hill Flowers on Rocky Mountain

I had a vision I wanted to do something larger in life.

Large has no definition. Large will be small as soon as it is achieved and then a new peg is marked for the next big thing.

Over two years that I had been experimenting with mosaics. I had created colourful bright and vibrant mosaic art on murals and mirrors. Adhering tesserae with different types of tesserae with different adhesives to different types of surfaces. A lot that I read about online, observing the works of international mosaic artist. Trying to identify the same or similar products in the Indian market. Sourcing material that is durable and will be able to withstand creativity can be a challenge. Most often the gentleman at the counter has limited knowledge or is just not interested enough to tell, especially when you tell them your required quantities of material is limited. Eventually I resigned to using whatever that I find readily in my local markets, or else I would be waiting till kingdom come to build the castles I wanted to create.

I had been observing the works of Caroline Jariwala, Fernanda Jaton, Isidora Pas Lopez, the magnificent large scale public artworks that covered the length and breadth of architectural structures. I know I want to do that one day, someday. What I noticed is that they primarily use ceramic tiles for their creation that gives them scope for larger area coverage, perhaps durability and of course a larger variety of textures and patterns to play design with.

Last December I was visiting my brother in UK. I reached out to Caroline Jariwala for a workshop. She warmly invited me to stay overnight at her quaint English home in Birmingham. Bright and vibrant in every nook and corner, had inspirations written all over for me and any artist who wants to learn the art of combining picassiette, glass and ceramic tiles. We realised an instant bond and I fit in as her apprentice immediately. I learnt to cut poppy flowers and adhere them to a mesh for direct wall installation.

We spoke at length about the projects I had in mind. I am sure she must have been sceptical at first, but then gave me a happy listening ear…. and before my 3 week vacation came to an end we had DLF 5 sponsoring her visit to India, giving us a public space to showcase the first of its kind collaboration. We together would rock the millennium city Gurgaon’s urban landscape with the beauty of combining ceramic tiles, glass tiles and the carefully cut pieces of crockery Caroline carried from UK. This project was slated for mid-february. This was big and I had no experience of it so far. I knew Caroline would make us sail through but I needed to convince myself of my capabilities.

As soon as I got back to India, a friend commissioned me to create a 70 sq ft terrace wall in mosaic. We had been talking about this wall project for over 6 months but now there was an urgency to move into the apartment on the auspicious day of Basant Panchami, 12^th Feb ‘16. Some leg work had already gone into discussing the design. We had almost decided on a Poppy flower meadow with blue skies and butterflies. But eventually the story that they appreciated most was my vivid memory of a visit to the hill town of Kasauli. The morning fog had merely lifted and I had seen this huge expanse of hill flowers in every possible colour dancing on the rocky mountain and beautiful butterflies fluttering away into the blue skies… mesmerised I was… and I guess both Parul and Aakash were too with the visualisation.

The day that we finalised the design, I precisely had 21 days to execute the project…my first of its kind.

I love such challenges… and passion drove high to accomplish the task. I had sourcing to do for the DLF project and deliver the Hill flower on Rocky mountain wall mosaic. I had to incorporate my learnings old and new and somehow mustered the conviction that, I could do it all!

Thank god I had sourced the fibreglass mesh from Caroline. Going by her instructions, I drew the broad outline on large roll of paper taped together for exact wall dimensions. I deliberately placed brown rexine material I had lying around to give the semblance of the wall section that would be covered in slate stone for rocky mountain effect. We covered the design blue print sheet with clear plastic sheet and placed the fibre mesh on it.

Some materials I had and some had been ordered. My studio help Rosina, was set to task to cut glass tile flower petals in pinks lilacs and blues. She must have cut more than 1500 such petals in every given shade. My friend and accomplice Pooja helped assemble the flower bunches for the rocky mountain. They were fast and they were good. I felt blessed.

Working with mesh

I focussed on the butterflies; the ones placed closer at eye level were cut out in ceramic tiles for the elevated look and the texture of the tiles I had sourced. The only realisation these tiles were much thicker than what I had used at Caroline’s workshop.

Making 3D Butterflies

Mosaic 3D butterfly on the mesh

The background swirl patterns of the skies and clouds started forming shape.

My studio was buzzing with support from friends and family. Jyoti, Rakhi, Pooja to my rescue. Time was ticking. I had to get it all done before Caroline Arrived for the DLF project.

Project comes together

8^th February was judgement day and here it was the entire glass mosaic on mesh.

The installation was to be done on the terrace of a 10^th floor apartment. So we hired professional installers.  I could feel the butterflies in my tummy as the installers literally performed a c – section on my mosaic mesh and packed it carefully.

Mesh being packed by installers

Each section lifted with utmost care…

A mosaic section being lifted

And pieced back on the floor for installation. …that’s Ali and Sattu discussing the plan in detail.

Ali & Sattu in a planning discussion

As advised by Ali, we used the best adhesives. Kerakoll, that’s the adhesive we used for mounting the mosaic mesh. Parul and her daughters came to add bunches of mosaic flowers, while the installation took place.

Best material used & flowers being made

We worked late into the evening and this is what I had by the end of day….me looking like quite a cartoon :p

Me almost looking like a cartoon

Super epoxy grout in 3 shades, neutral, invisible and grey. The invisible grouting to fill in the gaps of the glass tiles.

Epoxy grout being used

We stuck broken pieces of slate on the slate wall to give a rocky textured look and also the glass flowers on the rocky mountain as it was etched in my mind.

The before and after of the wall. We were happy with the final outcome of the Hill flowers on Rocky mountain project. All done and dusted by 10^th February, ready to receive Caroline on 11^th February.

We went to visit Parul and had lovely tea in her beautiful terrace overlooking the DLF Golf course.

Caroline Jariwala and Kanika Singh

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The pieces so inspired just assembled themselves in patterns that told a story. I think I had started at a point that was doused with confusion, discomfort and pain and so I created a mural called “Clouded Thoughts” a reflection of me at that time. My expressions.

I discovered a passion in these sharp, contrasting, yet complementing and mesmerising pieces. Here, eyes wide open and bright just like a Bobooshka, a Russian doll that I owned as a child. Happiness blossomed in the mind and reflected joy in the brightest colours… “Blossoming Dreams” it was.

The Eyes in Mosaic

Putting the two pieces together it all made sense. If you look closely you will see my heart was also in it

With child like trust and faith I saw the world in a brighter light and there came “The World in her Eye”

Making of it meant capturing the hues in the iris, offsetting it against the white of the eye.

Layouting the Eyes

Rainbow of Happiness

Expressions of She is a Dreamer

That is the story of “She is a Dreamer”.

My first exhibit at The Luxury Festival, 2014 New Delhi.

Showcased at Uchaan Arts Gallery, Gurgaon.

My first story that sold from a boutique store “The world in Her Eyes”

Many many dreams to realise.

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“Don’t know how I kept going. You just do. You have to, so you do.” 
― Elizabeth Wein

Who likes to be in the throes of constant change and challenges … I certainly don’t!!

Have always loved a complacent, happy go lucky life… but then life has a knack of getting back at you with a little rap and a solid smack, that gets you into action… and while at it you start enjoying what you do…

Well! ever since mosaics happened to me, I have been enjoying the play of colours, textures, movement, and the flow of the design… It is truly a colour therapy that I was indulging in. However, at some point of time things got mundane and just when I was wondering what to do next… there was a knock … another opportunity….

It was a request to create a painting in mosaic, that of Sai Baba with his divine expression….

The request comes from a friend, for whom I had made a mosaic commission number plate. Her bed ridden mother-in-law wanted another piece made for their home entrance, for Sai’s blessings always be showered upon all those who grace their home with their presence.

I had no clue about how to achieve this resemblance.

I discussed the project with my friend, Rita and her husband Amit. We got the mental picture of the image we wanted to create and I began my work with a printout from the Internet. A niggling doubt lingered in my head about cutting the fine expressions of the Sai Baba and include the lettering with pieces of glass, all on a 20 in x 20 inches plywood base.

Sai Baba Eyes

Having achieved the depth of divinity in the eyes, I proceeded.

Sai Kripa

Getting to the big picture, I tried to cut the lettering with glass tiles but soon gave it up and assembled it with pearly beads.

Setting the beard and the fullness of the lips had its own challenge. … many a pieces cut, reworked and wasted over days of toil.

Sai Kripa – Fine Tuning

The next hurdle was the grout, once grouted in dark brown the divinity vanished. All I could infer was an unexpected image with very dark eyes and a horrible beard staring at me.

Sai Baba’s Blessings

I took pictures of the piece, kept looking at what could be done to make it even better, still uneasy with my solutions I decided to sleep over it. Next morning, back at the studio all the grout was scraped off carefully from between the crevices and re-grouted in a lighter tone of terracotta. The new grout colour merged the tonality of the image and phew! It certainly looked better. Mission accomplished!!

Having got some semblance of what I wanted to create, the piece was framed and presented to the owner. A nagging feeling persisted as ‘Sai Kripa’ lettering looked messy and did not show as bright after going through multiple layers of grouting….I was happy NOT with my result.

They say that thoughts become your reality, and so this had to happen. When the dear old lady was presented with my toil of over a month full of relentless contemplations and reworking to make this expression my best so far, her comment was – “ I just wanted ‘Sai Kripa’ to be written as a mosaic plaque.” The alphabets were hardly legible and the words were lost in translation.

Sai Kripa – Sai Baba’s Blessings. Sai Baba Mosaic

Saving grace! She appreciated the imagery. So I took the art work back, cut more glass tiles, did a glass on glass pasting, the effect of which was 3 dimensional. The response this time was joyfully grateful.

I appreciated every moment of his divine intervention in accepting my folly of not having spoken to the elder lady myself to understand precisely what she wanted. Lesson learnt- ‘To accept my mistakes and to rework and deliver more than what is expected.’

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I have learnt it the hard way.

It is a known fact as we grow older we form our opinions and set notions, making it difficult to accept new and cause remarkable changes to our learning pattern’s.

Today, I am reminded of the time I took on Mosaics as a therapeutic art that would relieve me of my stress at work. I was happy that my then 10-year-old son took some keen interest in what I was doing and soon we decided to explore putting up our creations at a local Diwali fete.

To cut away from the dull, boring and drab corporate life that did not excite me, I always chose bright vibrant combinations of red, yellow and greens in my mosaic creations. I had a notion that Mosaics are all about their vibrancy and colours.

My son chose to pick on the browns black and gold.

When he did so, immediate motherly instinct snubbed him for the choice of the unbecoming dark palette. To which his retort was ‘it’s my choice’ :). I am glad I gave into that space for it was the set of
coasters he created, that were the first to fly of our shelf. Well appreciated by the buyer for its masculine tone that stood out amidst the cacophony of colours.

I experienced my child had his own creative expression. A realization that, I will NOT always be right… Alas! There is no right or wrong it’s just a perspective.

Amidst all the confusion with my corporate career, I gave it all up and chose to become the Mosaic Artist. I researched, trained and self-taught myself all the nuances associated with mosaics. Must say, sharing my misgivings on social media, got me appreciation as I refined my expression. My work was respected for its uniqueness.

I got associated with a design school called the Truth School for Creative Excellence, where the owner/ administrator/ teacher/ designer, Deepti Pant asked me to create a mosaic experience for their students.

Overwhelmed at the thought of managing a classroom full of children of all age groups, offering them cut glass materials to explore and getting them to create art, I myself was a novice at… I summoned this event will help me overcome my barriers and it did, in ways more than one. I was told not to share anything beyond the technique and the children came up with their individual colour schemes, textures and patterns.

There was learning and beauty in every piece that was created by the 22 odd children.

• It was ok to compliment with non-complimentary colours.
• It was ok if exact and equal gaps were not given between each piece of material used.
• It was okay to mosaic anything from glass to metal pieces, beads, any odd ends that made their piece unique.

The student artworks indeed had depth, dimension and stories of why 2 pieces put together made perfect sense. It all made sense, my chosen path would now be a fulfilling journey.

Soon enough I got another opportunity to conduct a workshop for Ashish Foundation, a school for differently abled children. I must thank Geeta Mondal the lady behind the establishment, for her trust in me.

The objective was to give the students exposure to an art, that could enable them with vocational training. It was a beautiful interaction, training Kathie Massey and her team of wonderful teachers, such that they could support me in-class sessions. We together helped the students create beautiful pebbled pots to use as planters for greens. The activity went beyond creativity for the students.

• we encouraged counting, sorting, sequencing.
• The activity helped build their attention span, concentration, spatial sense, fine motor skills, eye- hand coordination and so much more.

What I gained was a remarkable feeling of calm composure and so much respect for humanity watching the diligent teachers from humble backgrounds, supporting these children with utmost ease and so much love. The passion that drove them to educate the differently abled to be independent and create a vocation for themselves. It felt good.

Inspired today, I conduct workshops for all those creatively inclined. I have also developed a product line called Mini Mason Mosaickits. These are Do-it-yourself kits that are great starter packs to understand the process of mosaic art .

I have realized, I may be mile stones away from being a master artist but I have identified a talent that I can share … and it is in its giving, that I have received the best lessons to self-mastery!

Becoming of better person, a better artist, a better professional

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