As I prepared for my trip to India, I tried to visualize the next few months. I thought it would do me some good to work in a lighter medium, perhaps paint again. In fact, I tried very hard to project this possibility, but subconsciously, I think my mind was set in stone.

I feel insignificant and yet, driven. I think of the time when someone might ask me you how long it takes me to build, and I get to say ‘many many winters.’

Cover image created via Dall E - Open Ai

A wise hammer never once said “grab me, hit me to that nail, everyday, and for max engagement at 6pm, when most people are walking by the barn,” because of course, hammering a nail is one such activity we must all bear witness to as a society.

It has taken me a long time to get here and looking from a distance, observing this work, greyish against the white wall, still wet but firm, I feel a rush of emotions..

There are times when I know how I reached a certain place in my artistic journey because it’s all very transparent, an exciting inspiration resulted in a very sure attempt. At other times, it’s not that clear and it takes me perhaps over a year to see a pattern emerge.

The past few months I decided to build my works in sets. This trained me to work with certain pre-decided characteristics which is a bit challenging to channel consistently in ceramic but, that was the whole point.

I will remember this time for many reasons; for its intensity, for hot tears soaking a N95 mask, for the compromises that come with care-giving, for a certain amount of acceptance and whole lot of giving up trying to fix things, and maybe lastly, for the little bit of work I created.

Words allow me to express where images fall short and while I am able to share photos and videos of my work-in-process there are thoughts in my head, incipient conceptions and technical occurrences that can not be taped.