The Streets of Mumbai

I'm always overwhelmed again and again at how beautiful Mumbai is, what a wonderful walking city with its victorian gothic stone arched buildings, victorian cottage carved wooden balconies and details, wide shady sidewalks shaded by enormous trees and arcaded shady sidewalks lined with booksellers and sellers of all sorts of things. I've had several amazing interviews with artists in these last three days and if my Fulbright research ended her it would probably enough, but I have many months to go. On one totally serindipitious encounter I found out that the "Picasso of Sri Lanka" was having a show nearby and he was in the gallery. Part of my project is to research contemporary art in Sri Lanka so this was a great head start. I made a short interview with him in the gallery and then we arranged to meet in Colombo when I'm there in a few weeks. Today is my last day here then I head to Kerala, another part of India I love and have visited before, to interview the sculptor Rimzon, visit the college he is principle of, and to visit a new artist residency in Kochin.

Kolams in Mylapore

Mylapore is my favorite neighborhood in Chennai with the magnificent Kapaleeswara temple and all of the little shops around the temple selling all sorts of interesting things, I mainly pick up my favorite insence there. Today there was a festival and a kolam context. I parked myself in the middle of the action and made quite a lot of videos. The beautiful white diagrams contrasted nicely with the colorful sari's of the woman making them.
Tomorrow I move on to Mumbai for 4 days and 4 interviews. Two of the artists live pretty far out of the center of town so I'll gain some experience in using local trains.
My ride home today from downtown Chennai out to Cholamandal gave me the best view of things, standing on the first step of the open bus door,but being squeezed in tightly enough that I never feared being ejected from the bus if it stopped short. There is something about India that makes being squeezed like a sardine very comforting, not like any other place I've been.

Pictures at an Exhibition

My show with Shailesh Bo opened last night, really nice attendance, the community at Cholamandal, many local artists, fellow Fulbrighters in Chennai, the head of USEIF in Chennai and the public affairs director at the US Consulate. I'm enjoying early morning walks in the village on both sides of the road in, its about 72 degrees in the morning.