Author: Riya A

Good evening everyone! I hope that you are all doing well and have had a good week thus far. I am suffering from major writers block here and thought that I would post a little bit of sneak peak into my latest painting. I also wanted to share some of the difficulties that I have had with this piece and the process by which I work through rendering challenging subjects.

My current piece, set to be complete by the end of the month, is a 4’x5′ oil painting on canvas titled Five White Horses. This piece is a recreation of the symbolic and famous cover of the Hindu holy text called the Bhagavad Gita. I have taken inspiration from a similar recreation by Bijay Biswaal as well as the original cover from the official Srila Prabhubad version of the text. This is my biggest and most detailed painting to date and it has been more than a challenge getting it to a place where I am satisfied.

The figure on the left is Krishna. Krishna is meant to be portrayed as divine with beautiful, effeminate features that are still strong and masculine. I have had a lot of trouble rendering Krishna in this painting in a way that depicts him as intended. There are a few tricks that I use when I am facing these challenges that I wanted to share with you all!

1. Take a break from the piece! Taking time away from the painting is imperative. I took a couple weeks off from this work and decided to focus my attention on other art pieces. This provides me with a fresh perspective on my composition.
2. Turn the work upside down. Though this seems bizarre and counterintuitive, a change in perspective literally forces you to attach the artwork with a new eye and vigor.
3. Refresh with reference images. This is very important for paintings with life-like subjects. I find that taking time to study lighting, staging, and anatomy away from the physical piece is very helpful. This help me to sculpt out the subjects with a greater likeness
4. Give yourself some grace! Good work that you can be proud of takes a lot of time. I struggle with every single piece that I do. However, it is through this struggle that I learn the most about myself and unlock new skills that I am able to apply to future pieces. Take your time to explore your medium and subjects. Make mistakes and welcome them!
5. Finally, stop when you have said what you need to say. It is very common to overwork an art piece. It is an art in itself knowing when to stop and having with wherewithal to call a piece done. When you feel that you have expressed your intentions in the work, let it go. There is no such thing as perfection in an art piece and continuously harping on details can take away from your broader message.

I hope that some of these points were helpful if you are also struggling with or stuck on a piece. There are so many aspects of my art process that have become second nature and I find it fun to put some of them into writing. As always, please feel free to reach out to me or comment if you have any questions, concerns, or thoughts! If you would like to see my work, please feel free to check out my website and follow me on Instagram.

Until next week,

Riya

Instagram: @riya_aggarwal.art

Website: https://theindianartist.weebly.com/

Good afternoon everybody! I hope that you are all doing well and have had a wonderful Monday thus far. I am taking a printmaking class this semester and I thought that I would share my most recent art piece. This class has challenged me more than I had anticipated. In many ways it has been a welcome way for me to channel my devotion to technical skill and intricate details. In more ways than one, however, it has pushed me to be okay with making mistakes, give in to the process of printing, and welcome whatever comes.

I tried monotype printing for the first time. I have experience in relief printing and linoleum carving, but learning the loose nature of monotype was daunting at first. Of course, I knew I wanted to stick true to my cultural repertoire and decided to draw feet in a classical Bharatanatyam pose. Monotype prints allow artists to use various materials, techniques, and layers to create interesting textural pieces. I found that though I attacked the project with a level of planning and vigor, there was always something that went wrong. Out of eight prints, I came out of it only really happy with one.

However, at the end, there was something incredibly freeing about the entire process. I was excited when I got the intended result, but when I didn’t I was willing to go with the mess ups. It is in projects like these that I learn the most about myself and the process. Who knew that through the simplest moments I would learn the greatest lessons. It is important to make work that we are not proud of! If we let go of the yearning for perfectionism, we get the chance to experiment, to explore in ways that we have never allowed ourselves to before. There is no such thing as perfectionism. Through taking a leap of faith, we may find a diamond in the rough.

Until next week,

Riya

Instagram: @riya_agg.art

Portfolio: https://theindianartist.weebly.com/ 

Good afternoon everyone! I hope that you are all doing well and that your semester came to a successful end. Knowing that I am done with my junior year of undergrad is incredibly exciting yet terrifying at the same time. Time has flown by and I am so excited for the journey to come next!

I am currently in the process of applying to medical schools, about to depart for vacation with family, and trying not to let the anxiety of applications get to me. It has been very tough navigating the onslaught of COVID-19, moving out of home to a new environment for the first time, and juggling a part-time job, research, full course loads, and life all at once. Things did not go as planned. There have been so many hiccups and nothing turned out exactly as I had planned for. However, I truly think that I will end up where I am meant to (in the least cliché way possible).

There have been a few big lessons that I have learned this year. I have learned to stop looking outward and doing what people expect of me, and rather to treat myself with compassion and love. I have notoriously been very good at pushing myself to the nth degree. However, over this past year a lot of that has started to catch up and really affect me mentally and physically. I am trying to learn to listen to my body and mind, assess what I need to do to myself, and allow myself to prioritize what makes me happy. I am not good at following this advice, but I have learned the hard way how important balance really is.

Pursuing a career in medicine, I realized that it is important for me to establish ways of taking care of myself in order for me to fully take care of others. Nobody truly prepared me for the challenges I have faced, and the ones to come. What I have learned though is that I am fully capable. All it takes is patience, compassion, resilience, dedication, and flexibility.

Patience to wait out the bad times and know that good things are coming my way. Patience with myself as I struggle and push through challenges.

Compassion to others and myself. Compassion for those that I serve, my friends, my family, and my own limits.

Resilience to keep going, especially when things get tough.

Dedication to my passions, endeavors, and work. Dedication to my goals, to myself, and to my dream of becoming a kind, good, and successful physician.

Flexibility of mind, allowing myself to adjust my plans and sail with the changing ocean tides.

As I write my final blog post of the year, I hope to embody each of these values and more. I keep the image of my young self in my mind and award her the grace, love, and kindness that she deserves. Be kind to yourselves. Life is too short not to live it to the fullest. Have a beautiful and restful summer everyone!

Until next semester,

Riya

Instagram: @riya_agg.art

Portfolio: https://theindianartist.weebly.com/ 

Pareidolia
noun
par·​ei·​do·​lia ˌper-ˌī-ˈdō-lē-ə -ˈdōl-yə
: the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern

James Jean is an incredible Taiwanese-American artist/illustrator who has worked with Disney, Marvel Comic, and Prada. He is one of my absolute favorite artists and I cannot believe that I have not done a post on him yet!

There is something magical in James Jean’s art. In his large-scale paintings, James Jean depicts detailed cosmological worlds filled with allegorical, abstract, and contemporary imagery. He incorporates elements of traditional Chinese and Japanese scroll paintings, Japanese woodblock prints, Renaissance ideas, and beautiful imagery into his work. When I first saw Jean’s work, I was enamored. The very first art book that I bought was Pareidolia and I often find myself from time to time curled up on my couch just flipping through the pages, taking in the mastery. One of my favorite pieces is Tiger III. It is a gorgeous illustration that has a slightly psychedelic and 3d aspect to it. The details in the piece do an incredible job of drawing in the viewer.

I have learned so much from just viewing and being a fan of James Jean. He is unapologetic, authentic, larger than life, and creative. I have done a few piece thus far inspired by different artists such as Kehinde Wiley and Bijay Biswaal, I would love to do one inspired by James Jean someday. Stay tuned to see if I do!

With the semester coming to an end, this will be my second to last post. I will be doing my third year-end sign-off next week and will return back in September with a brand new completed painting! As always, if any questions or thoughts arise, please comment or reach out to me!

Until next week,

Riya

Instagram: @riya_agg.art

Portfolio: https://theindianartist.weebly.com/ 

I take a few steps back to really take in what I have created in front of me. I scrutinize each and every brushstroke while searching for the likeness that I am striving for. There’s something missing, something not quite right in the eyes of my subject. I pick up my smallest filbert and place a speck of white on the canvas. There. I think I got it.

I have always been made to feel like a walking contradiction, an antithesis of a being where dichotomous passions mix and find a unique juxtaposition. I had to pick, I could not pursue a career in medicine while also being a producer of art. When I tell people that I am a Molecular Biology major with a double minor in Art & Design and Sociology, I usually get looks of curious wonder mixed with confusion and doubt.

“Well that’s a different combination, your parents are forcing you to be a doctor then, huh?” asked an elderly gentleman with whom I found myself engaging in conversation at the Union. I reply with a smile and a light laugh, “I am very passionate about both. There is more in common than you might think!”

This was not the first time that I had encountered a similar line of questioning. We have been told that art is connected to our right brain and science our left, separated, immutable, immiscible. The practitioners of science and art are forever segregated with no opportunity of crossing over.

Science and medicine allow us to understand the fundamental inner workings of human beings. However, art allows us to navigate deeper emotions such as pain, love, and hope. Art is the avenue through which I communicate my culture, dreams, and inner machinations that oftentimes cannot be put into words, a symbolic language meant to illuminate the human condition.

I awoke from my appendectomy with a sharp pain and an overwhelming feeling of cold. I was panicky, covered in sweat, and… itchy? What was that, paper underwear? I remember displacing the stress and pain that I was feeling in the form of frustration over incoherent undergarments. It was odd that the calm I had felt before surgery, the calm that allowed me to pat my mother’s hand and reassure her that the surgeon would take care of me at the tender age of nine, had been replaced by what I can now only describe as a temper tantrum. I remember that I was feverish and irritated, inconsolable even though the laparoscopic surgery was successful in removing the ruptured vestigial organ. I remember feeling alone, cold, and in pain.

At that moment the surgeon handed me a pencil and a small drawing pad. A small smile danced on my lips. As I occupied my hands, my mind cleared. Of course, a pair of my own underwear sweetened the deal.

The surgeon’s actions spoke volumes more than any words of comfort could have. She must have remembered that I had said that I loved drawing before the surgery. It was at this moment that I understood the power that art can have.

Years of keen observation, studying the human form, and perfecting it into the craft of hyperrealist art has allowed me to deeply understand the art form that is medicine itself. Medicine is a practice, one that is meant to be extremely personal, patient-centered, culturally informed, and flexible. Just as every painting, every sonata, every tango has an intended audience, so too does every patient. The unique craft of each physician is honed over years of study. Each move in and out of the operating room is perfectly crafted to the subject, aimed at producing a masterpiece in caretaking, confident yet malleable, reaching yet refined.

“Good morning, my name is Riya and I will be your nursing assistant today!” As I introduced myself to Robert at the beginning of my day shift, I knew right away that I had found a fellow art-lover. Prints of beautiful paintings covered the walls of the hospital room and light sketches showing the signs of an aging, unsteady hand were strewn across the overbed table. Over the course of the next twelve hours, I came to learn about my patient’s favorite mediums, the collection that he acquired over the years, and his overall love for art. I shared with him my own portfolio, teaching him about the aspects of my Hindu culture that I integrate into my paintings. I showed him the progress that I had made on a hyperrealistic colored pencil piece depicting the festival of Holi. Was it possible that the years of cultivating creativity, years of teaching myself to approach each model from every perspective, had allowed me to offer something even more in patient care, the next level of conscientiousness where I empathized with his pain and worries, was receptive of his unique background and culture, and lacked any judgement whatsoever.

This is what I wish I could have told that man at the Union. This is the reason behind my seemingly dichotomous endeavors. I am privileged that art has given me the empathy, patience, detail-orientation, perspective-taking, and cultural competency to be able to approach science and medicine with fresh eyes.

I would like to think that there is courage in putting one’s imagination on display. There is dedication in the time and years of repetition that it takes to foster creativity and curiosity just as there is in the time it takes to cultivate a career in medicine. Like flexibility, these are things that need to be practiced and reinforced so that they remain malleable, understanding that no one treatment, no one approach to the composition, suits every subject. There is uneasiness in speaking your mind and exposing yourself to vulnerability and criticism, but there is even more humility in learning to accept fingers that are pointed directly your way. Art has taught me more about myself that I could have ever imagined and instilled in me the values I use to benefit those I serve.