Reflection I and Reflection II....an abstract by Indian artist Manisha Vedpathak

I am collaborating with my long time friend Madhavi Apte. We are to present two paintings and poems for the exhibition. Madhavi has written one poem inspired from my painting and I have a painting inspired from her poem. Here are the pics  of the paintings and the poems:

प्रतिबिंब केवळ .....

प्रतिबिंब केवळ दिसते तुझ्यात

तेही नाही अभंग

प्रतिमा निव्वळ आहे माझी

कळेल कसे अंतरंग

पाहता मी मला तुझ्यात

माझेच दिसे रूप रंग

छबी नाही तुला कोणती

केवळ तुझे तरंग

रंगरूपाच्या उभारल्या भिंती

कळेल कसे अंतरंग

मन अन् दर्शन तुझे वेगळे

तू तरी कुठे अभंग

गंमत केली तुझी खुळ्या मी

मी नाही रे निःसंग

उमगते तुझे अंतरंग म्हणूनच

उठतात ना रे तरंग

___ Madhavi Apte

"Reflection I"

24"x36", Indian ink on canvas

"Reflection II"

24"x24", Indian Ink on canvas

Poem inspired from the above painting:

एकात्म

आतूर होई निसर्ग हिरवा

निळाईत त्या जाई मिसळून

एक जगवतो जीव आणिक

दूसरा तर स्वतःच जीवन

जीव जीवाला मिळतो आणि

उरले नाही आपपर काही

निसर्ग हिरवा लेऊन मिरवतो

समर्पणाची कृष्णनिळाई

प्रत्येकाचे नूर वेगळे

दाखवती ते ठळकपणाने

अस्तित्त्व स्वतःचे जपण्यासाठी

प्रतिबिंब दावी स्व - रूपाने

जीव अन् शीव होई एकात्म

निसर्गाचे हे तर तत्व

जड भौतिक ते राही निराळे

टिकवून त्यांचे अलग अस्तित्त्व

--- Madhavi Apte

"Breaking through the silence".....an acrylic painting by Manisha Vedpathak

"Breaking through the silence"

Acrylic on canvas, 24"x36"

Finally completed the painting. Painting is of musicians from Ghana ,

 in their traditional attire  .

Music has always played a huge part of Ghanaian society.In fact music 

and dance is an integral part of everyday tribal  life and is seen as a way 

of preserving tribal identity.

Ghana has varied style of traditional music due to large variety  of ethnic groups

 across the country. Typically this music is played at  traditional ceremonies 

such as installation of Chiefs, annual traditional  festivals, funerals, and in 

performances at various ceremonies.

The popular musical instruments include a variety of leather,wood, gourd, 

beads and string instruments. In my painting have included Djembe(drum),

 xylophone, talking drum and flute.

Djembe ( as you can see in left bottom) is a goblet drum and is played with 

drummer's bare hands. The drum's purpose and the meaning of it's name are

 to 'gather everyone in peace' .

"Talking drum"  is a white circle with a stick on it,  in the top portion of the 

painting. This is an hourglass shaped oldest instrument used by West Africans. 

The pitch of this instrument is regulated to mimic the tone of human speech,

 hence called "Talking drum".

Xylophone is a modern instrument which is just like a regular xylophone.

 These are  wooden bars on instrument and mallets are used to produce music.

The one unifying aspect of all different types of music is a strong dancing beat.

 Any African music is guaranteed to fulfill the purpose of dance beats. Hence my

 one more painting in this series will be of African dancers.