We have successfully completed another revolution around the sun. Hola 2026!!

Time seems to be moving faster and faster with every birthday I cross. I’d once heard someone say “the days feel longer and the years feel shorter as time goes by“ and I think I can relate….

As usual 2025 has been a crazy year too in more ways than one! :). One of them being that I’ve sat in 30 airplanes in 5 months - a personal record for the year and my life thus far. Don’t ask me why or how please.

Share

Highlight reel from 2025:

Life updates:

I still continue the 2 good habits that I started in 2024:

• Maintaining a dream journal

• Writing in my “What did I learn in life this week” journal

Even though I haven’t dug deep yet to notice patterns, I think with the boom of AI I can feed the contents to a LLM in a few years to extract insights from it :)

2025 theme of “What did I learn in life this week” journal :

• The invisible force carries us through (if we let it)

• Health is wealth

• Being in a state of gratitude is a win-win situation

• Change of state is VERY hard

• Continuous short travels causes a weird sense of non-belonging and confusion in the brain

• Validation is like a drug

• Intensity and conviction matter

• Silence is uncomfortable, hence most people fill it up with unnecessary words

• From dust to dust…

• Conscious non-doing takes a LOT of effort and energy

• Every exit is an entry somewhere else

• “Manual“ before automation

• Clean gut = clean and clear mind

• Life is sturdy and fragile at the same time

Cool moments from 2025:

• Going to Maha Kumbh and Benares (no words to express this)

• Doing this 13-ish mile hike that I had been attempting unsuccessfully for years - the Franconia Ridge loop

• Seeing the Northern Lights at home!

• One of my murals going a few blocks off Broadway to NY

• Getting a 2nd ear piercing-wohoo! (NEVER had I ever thought I’d get another one)

Subscribe now

What’s next in 2026:

Going to keep it stupid simple and lean here.

• Focus on ‘JUST DO IT’ and ignore perfection in all areas of life

• Break the rhythm - not sure how or what but need to break certain moulds

• Being on time - I want to actively be 5 min ahead of time everywhere since I struggle with this

• Doing a little bit more art. I barely got much done in 2025

Lastly thank you to all my forever peeps who always cheer for me and send invisible good juju my way!!! I am only here and still writing thanks to all your wishes :) !!

Leave a comment

Final ask. Here’s the feedback form - https://forms.gle/9ayZe5U44HRsytMr8. As always I'm trying to become the best version of myself (SuperPri) in life so if you have a comment please share!

Blast from the Past Years:

• 2022

• 2023

• 2024

I created this mural in Jan/Feb of 2025 aka earlier in the year and here I am writing about it now end of the year because shortly we will be in 2026 if I don’t do this now…..

BUT it’s totally worth it because the production recently went to New York just off Broadway after having multiple sold out shows here in MA!

We have another re-run coming up in April 2026 too and we will be going to NJ :D . This production of SETU is kicking a** and going places!

Leave a comment

Now let’s get into the nuances. Any piece of art begins with reading the script and understanding the director’s vision. I am old school and like to use a plain sheet of paper as the very first step. This was a tricky and sensitive story, so I had a few conversations with the director.

And from there it just magically transforms step by step at a very slow pace….

PS: I still hate making arms, legs and other other parts of a hooman (and suck at it just like when I was a kid!)

Below are some step by step and behind the scenes of the GAM #mural

Part 1 - BTS

Part 2 - BTS

Part 3 - BTS and Flameproofing (coz why would anything be easy!)

Share

Few more shots of the installation and lighting… It always fascinates me to see how different a piece of art looks under different lighting setups. And I must say the team got very creative with the installation process, especially in NY!

Thank you to all those people who captured some of these wonderful moments for posterity! And cannot thank the director enough who always places a massive amount of trust on every single creator…

To bigger murals in 2026!!!!

Subscribe now

That’s exactly how #GoddessKali came to life.

I’d never painted Kali before, but this piece felt destined. Because let’s be honest - any story about #Vivekananda or #RamakrishnaParamahamsa is INCOMPLETE without the Divine Mother herself.

This piece was created for the Human Vivekananda theatre performance presented by SETU.

Subscribe now

What started as a teeny tiny spark, turned into a full-blown midnight marathon of color, chaos, and devotion. Since I dilly dallied about whether I should really make this AND challenged the Universe the whole way through (SMH), I didn’t have too much time to document every step. But I did manage to capture a few moments that carry the spirit of the process.

Inspirations for this piece:

Few process shots only since I was quite literally burning the midnight oil.

Below are a couple of videos as well.

Process Video 1

Process Video 2

There’s still so much more I want to share. But perhaps that happens when the reading gets converted into a full blown performance :)

Share

Until next time….

Life happens between action and cut - We are on the brink of a new number yet again.

What a year - full of craziness, adventure, speed and dynamism. If I had to pick a word for this year I think it would be “Dynamic“. Each year I “attempt” to write a script aka plan for my year (stress on the word attempt). Then the Universe takes a peek at it, looks some more, then giggles a little and says, “nah not really“ and tosses it away. And in it’s place It replaces it with BIG, BOLD, UNIMAGINABLE things.

Highlight reel of 2024! (the good parts only :D)

It has been a year of learning to be resilient (even more so than usual), acceptance, facing fears head on and exerting sheer force of will. And NO; none of these were by choice!! (Eyeroll).

Subscribe now

I always want to run the other direction from pain and discomfort…..BUT life has a way of pulling you back to exactly the point where you need to be till you learn the lesson. Having the knack of pulling the “adventure“ card most of the times, there’s never a dull moment. If you’re ever looking for stories, come find me :)

Share

So before I step into 2025 I am proactively invoking #LordGanesha the remover of obstacles to remove all the obstacles from my path! (And yes, I am 4 months late creating this reel, but shhhh don’t tell anyone ;))

2 good habits that I started in 2024:

• Maintaining a dream journal

  • The goal with the dream journal is to see if there is a pattern in the subconscious/unconscious that is playing out in reality. But no, haven’t found any patterns yet :/ . Maybe if I fed all my dream notes to #AI, it might do a better job at finding the patterns, OR perhaps there isn’t enough data yet!

• Creating a “What did I learn in life this week” journal

  • This is to keep a repo of some key learnings in all areas of life throughout the year for better retention and retrieval.

Sidenote - I am fascinated with organization, retrieval and retention methods, so if you have a good system please let’s connect!! I want to be the BEST Hooman AI :) #hoomanai

Below are some of my learnings of the past 52 weeks without much explanation

Theme of my “What did I learn in life this week” journal:

• Timing is key to everything

• Most people want premium work for commodity pricing

• Attitude and positivity can be sensed a mile away

• Attention is a powerful asset

• Keeping things simple is hard and needs EXTRA effort

• The 1st step is the hardest and momentum & escape velocity is a thing!

• Don’t argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel

• Praise, adulation are different kinds of drugs and oh so addictive!!

• Sometimes the only way out is through

• Blood is thicker than water

• The world is only as big or small as your mind

• I believe I can do anything!

Some super cool moments from 2024

• I created my biggest mural ever!!! (A behemoth 14x8)

• Witnessed a total solar eclipse first time ever - what a phenomenon! (It freakin’ became night in the middle of the day and that diamond ring was to die for)

• Saw a satellite train (it was a line of moving stars that disappeared at one random point in the sky)

• Got into a negative 230 degree cryotherapy chamber

What next in 2025 !?

• Honestly, keeping everything clean and lean is really the difficult goal

• Reading more, writing more, painting more, documenting my learnings better, staying fit & healthy and improving my hooman AI!

• Since I personally also step into my new decade where time is limited now, it will trend towards a ‘No BS’ zone

• Finding opportunities to do teeny-meeny invisible acts of kindness (was inspired by this person recently who did not take the change back at the toll booth and instead asked the toll booth worker to use the change to pay for the next few people!)

Subscribe now

Finally I am very grateful to ALL those (friends, families, strangers, dogs, birds, ants…) that stuck by me and helped through all the difficult moments in 2024.

Would love to know what are your 2025 goals, thoughts on #AI, good resources on product management and a way of building better systems.

Leave a comment

As always like, comment, subscribe and share my post with all living beings :)

If you’ve gotten this far and you’re still reading, either my writing is stellar OR you clearly like me :) - so if you don’t mind could you give me some feedback please - https://forms.gle/9ayZe5U44HRsytMr8. I'm trying to become the best version of myself (SuperPri) in 2025 and beyond!

And cut!

Subscribe now

It’s almost turkey day, I mean thanksgiving :) - a day to count one’s blessings. So I’d like to dedicate today’s post to all those people who have been by my side and stepped in, as and when needed (you all know who you are). Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Leave a comment

I’d like to use this moment to give another tribute to this man who has played a critical role in the biggest mural of my life so far (a 14x8)….

This past weekend was the final re-re-run (almost a dozen shows) of the house full hilarious comedy play ‘Hush Hush‘ which housed this behemoth mural. Subrata Das (Da as he is lovingly referred to by all) reached out to me months ago to create this piece and then completely stepped out of my way giving me complete creative freedom to go build…

As a leader it is easy to pick someone that has already proven themselves, but it takes someone with vision and courage to spot a fledgling and allow them to take a potential big shot, knowing fully well that it could be a failure. Da has been extremely kind and generous because of which I have been able to create this beauty beyond my imagination for sure. Thank you Da!

Our play has also been featured in one of the leading newspapers recently and I couldn’t be happier!

Every person has a role to play in the ‘Play of Life‘ ;)

Thank you to all those humans in this world that are able to recognize new talent and give them an opportunity! And to all those peeps that put obstacles in the path, thank you as well…. Because you truly make one understand that they are so much bigger and stronger than they think :)

Thank you to all those people who captured these wonderful moments for posterity!

To even bigger #murals!!!! Happy Thanksgiving ya’ll!

Subscribe now

We have the re-run of the play by popular demand, so guess who’s mural is going to make an appearance again!? :)

Subscribe now

Everything in life starts with a single cell, or as we can call it - the germ of an idea. The Hush Hush Mural was no different.

This time I decided to create some behind the scenes videos (wohooo) since I had the bandwidth and I was not working on the mural in real time. Here are some glimpses…..

I have an entire “Hush Hush Mural“ story thread on insta for all the IG lovers.

Here’s a walk down the memory lane of this massive project.

And another one -

If video is not your jam and you prefer plain text then you can check out ‘Blood Sweat and tears‘ and ‘The colorful behemoth‘ . Although, why wouldn’t you like videos!!!

Off to the show now! Hasta la vista…..

Share

Leave a comment

For all those that missed the previous edition 5 min ago, I recently made this ginormous mural for SETU theater’s ‘Hush Hush‘ production - a massive 14x8!!! People asked me how it came about, so here’s some glimpses of behind the scenes….

Subscribe now

I’ll be sharing a lot more BTS clips on my insta stories, so make sure we are connected on Instagram!

Before anyone gets concerned, there was no blood and sweat involved as the title may have suggested, it was purely for dramatic effect :D (it’s still freakin’ freezing here!!) ….maybe a tad bit of tears at the end due to complete lack of sleep, but that’s about it.

Ok now sit back and let’s start at the beginning. But first, don’t forget to subscribe, like and do all the needful, so I can please all the algorithm Gods :)

Subscribe now

Share

I was approached by the director, and he wanted me to make a conglomeration of both the cities, Allahabad and Calcutta which were part of the play. So I outlined the elements in text and did a quick digital mock to ensure we were both envisioning similar things.

The dimensions then changed drastically and he suggested we do a staircase style since we would be using many discrete foam boards as the canvas. It was awesome to have a bigger surface area to work upon, except that my room wasn’t big enough - smh! So I faced the ‘wall or floor conundrum’…

I placed the 28 foam boards on the floor to realize very quickly that it wouldn’t be feasible at all to paint like that. They would need to be mounted on the wall - except, now new challenge - Wall is not tall enough :)

Share

Anywho, I reached this point and everything was beautifully mounted on the wall and it was finally time to begin drawing. But, I didn’t have a 1:1 replica of it digitally since my mock was in portrait mode :D - So, not having enough time left on hand I decided to wing it and directly sketch on the wall without a 1:1 digital mock :)….

Long story short, I fell sick, other things happened and it took almost a month to finish the mural, LOTS of hours and late nights especially towards the end. I cannot say enough nice things about my director who was extremely hands off and non-fussy. Two days before the deadline I finally showed him my progress and he loved it!!! :).

Next was installation which was another story - SMH. What I hadn’t mentioned to anyone (since I was already pulling long nighters) was that the foam boards had warped when it was painted upon. I had a rough idea on how I would be fixing it, but I had to prioritize finishing the work first.

I finished work in the nick of time and some amazing peeps on the team helped install it. I did not get a chance to outline it at home, so I worked on it at the theater before the shows started :). The rest is history - the play was HILARIOUS and every actor was amazing! I joke with everyone and tell them that I am in every single shot :D - which technically I am!

Yay yayy yayyyy to an amazing project and set of people! Sometimes we get so LUCKY meeting great people who believe in us and support us!. Thank you Da! Thank you SETU team!

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

And that’s a wrap!!! Wohooooo

Can’t wait to execute my next even BIGGER mural!!

I know I have been out of the loop for a bit, but I’d been - let’s just say “a little busy“. But now I am back with a bang! :)

I DID A THING!!! A 14x8 this time, my personal biggest till date. So here’s the backstory….

But first don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already done so - the show has just begun!

Subscribe now

Subrata Das the founder of SETU (Stage Ensemble Theater Unit) asked me if I would work on a #mural backdrop for his comedy play 'Hush Hush', which is based on a famous Bollywood movie, 'Chupke Chupke'. I found it difficult to say no and I’m glad I didn’t. I hadn't said yes either, but I was so drawn to the idea that it automatically began ruminating in my head.

What started as a potentially tiny project ended up becoming a beautiful full blown 14x8 feet of colored wall space.

Initial conversation with the director:

- He asked me to watch the movie to get a reference. All he said was to make a conglomeration of the 2 cities and that the Ganges needed to flow from left to right i.e. Allahabad to Calcutta

- When we were discussing the canvas material, I suggested we use discrete foam boards; which he took a step further and added the idea of staggering the original canvas to make it look like a staircase with some spacing in between each board for artistic effect

- There was complete transparency and I knew the deadline and also the buffer I had in case of problems (which there were!)

An initial rough digital mock of the concept was created and I ran it by him to ensure we were both on the same page. And that was it! He left me to be, and did not get in the way at all - sign of a true leader!

Here’s some moments from the process.

Share

My personal takeaways:

- It is easy to have endurance to push through rough times when you are passionate about the thing at hand and want it to be a success (there were a LOTTT of late nights, maybe some tears and a couple of sleepless nights this past month)

- Hard work is a basic prerequisite for success, but NOT the only one and doesn’t guarantee it. Success depends on timing and a lot of other factors

The end product was phenomenal, beyond my wildest imagination and people loved it! Needless to say the play was hilarious, the mural added a new dimension to it and made the amazing actors look even more amazing. (Rumor on the streets are that there might be a re-run, but hush hush - don’t tell anyone ;))

Finally the mural acted as a perfect selfie station - and I didn’t fail to remind everyone that I will be in every single shot :D

I would like to thank Subrata Da from the bottom of my heart for recognizing the talent in me and fully trusting in me to fulfil his creative vision for a backdrop to his fantastic play.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

A lot of people enquired about how a mural of such magnitude came together. So the process video is in the making and will come out soon….

Until then like, share, comment, subscribe, blah, blah, blah….

As the story of my life goes, there is never a dull moment and shortage of adventure! The adventure Gods always keep my life very very exciting and it feels nothing short of a movie plot - except I am playing the lead role in the unpleasant moments too (eyeroll)!

I’m not sure where to begin, so let me just start with the biggest and craziest project that I had embarked on this year, #OadlProject365. For all those who are new here #OadlProject365 was my attempt to draw/sketch/paint/do art for at least 5 minutes everyday for 365 days, build a good habit/muscle, get over perfectionism and get comfortable sharing my work on a public platform. I posted about it here on day 1.

But first, here’s some of my favorite pieces from 2023:

Leave a comment

Now the most important question that you may ask - did I succeed in this goal? That's an excellent Q :) and really depends on the metrics that you pick for measuring success.

Before we get into the weeds, let me tell you a quick story -

(Not so) many years ago when I was in college, I became the 1st Chief Editor of my college magazine committee. Rather, I built this magazine team (with 1 core teacher and a couple of friends supporting me) and brought to life our college magazine and paved the way for future batches to create it a lot more easily. Needless to say it was hours and hours and hours of work and convincing and recruiting people to work on it and it was a COMPLETE LABOR OF LOVE. There were no grades for it and off course you don’t get paid for extra-curricular activities :). But I LOVED every moment of it.

Fast forward a couple of years later; when I was in graduate school and looking for a scholarship, in a serendipitous moment, a professor from the MBA school interviewed me ONLY because I had ‘Chief Editor of College Magazine‘ on my resume and he was intrigued by it. Needless to say I was hired as his TA (teaching assistant), which later led to subsequent scholarships the rest of grad school.

My labor of love that I had built in college paid off a few years later in grad school in the form of scholarships; which was most of my tuition payment (tens of thousands of dollars $$$$$) for my Master’s. Not too shabby for a college editor payment ;)

#OadlProject365 is that potential serendipitous labor of love which I created this year to increase the surface area on which lady luck can strike :)

Now back to the present -

Today is day 153/365 ~ 42% . So technically based on a purely quantitative metric - I completed only 42% which could mean a BIG fail. But success and failure doesn't happen in vacuum. Life isn't black and white and there's all shades of greys (and tonnes of colors in my case ;)).

Subscribe now

So let's flip the narrative and look at the metrics slightly differently -

Here were my original goals for this project (which were tweaked over the year to fit my life):

• Drawing every single day even if it is only for 5 minutes - Fail by the normal terms, but I created art and shared it 153 days of the year! Without this lofty goal, I wouldn't have gone through so many days

• Building a good habit/muscle - Pass! I learned Procreate a brand new tool and got into digital art (traditional art is still my fav :))

• Getting over perfectionism - Borderline :), still WIP

• Getting comfortable sharing my work on a public platform - Pass

• Having fun WITHOUT a burnout - More pass than fail :)

• Being able to see a trail of my work on day 365 to visualize my journey - HUGE WIN. This will always remain and nobody can take it away from me!

I personally think #OadlProject365 was a labor of love and a successful experiment given that I learned a lot along the way, even though the quantitative results did not line up 100% :)

Subscribe now

Highlights of 2023

• Successfully wrapping up #OadlProject365, Wohooooo!!!

• Did my theatre debut with 2 plays; en route Hollay-wood :D

• Travelled to the other side of the world

• Got my digital store up. You can get your planners and calendars here!

• I can still do a Spartan race and climb a rock wall :)

• I read these 2 amazing books; The Surrender Experiment and Living with a Seal (ping me if you want to discuss them)

Share

Goals/Plans for 2024

I had a bunch of lofty goals for 2023, but all of them barring 1 failed because hashtag life curve balls :/ . So I'm NOT going to make any specific goals for 2024.

The simple plan is to:

• Get back to traditional artwork (which I love more than digital)

• Write more (which I actually got back to in 2023 and enjoyed it)

• Read more (which is a habit I have partially lost after growing up) 

• Get the reps in and continue building! (Am a creator and builder at heart through and through!)

• Continue tweaking and improving my systems

Subscribe now

Finally I wanted to extend a HUGE thanks to anyone that has helped me in any shape or form this year; which a lot of friends and strangers have done! :) Am lucky to have so much of invisible support in my life!

Let me know in the comments below what are your goals for 2024, what are some great books you’ve read or podcasts you have listened to…

As always like, comment, subscribe and share my crazy project with your friends, neighbors, dogs, cats, AIs, other creative beings because…..why not!

And that’s a wrap!!!

Wish you all a Merry Christmas and a lovely holiday season!!!

Christmas has been one of my favorite time and festival since I was a kid. I love December, Santa Claus and wish there were more Santas, more elves and fewer grinches in this world :)

Share

Subscribe now

Btw if you missed out on the previous post OR you buy calendars/planners AND you want to support your local artist you can get them here. Based on some feedback I received last year I have a few different versions and also got some in color :)

Here are the planners:

2024 Hard Cover Floral Spiral Planner

2024 Soft Cover Floral Spiral Planner

And here are the calendars:

2024 Colored Mandala Calendar

Single Page Floral 2024 Calendar

Took me forever, but I am finally done creating calendars and planners for 2024, wohooo. If you buy calendars/planners and you want to support your local artist you can get them here. Based on some feedback I received last year I have a few different versions and also got some in color :)

Here are the planners:

2024 Hard Cover Floral Spiral Planner

2024 Soft Cover Floral Spiral Planner

And here are the calendars:

2024 Colored Mandala Calendar

Single Page Floral 2024 Calendar

Share

Now that we have the commerce out of the way - We are at day 151 of #OadlProject365 - What a fascinating journey #OadlProject365 has been! So far I have 151 pieces of written work along with art for perpetuity! Wouldn’t have happened without this ridiculous goal :D. If you are still new here, don’t forget to subscribe below and leave a comment.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

In other news I just finished another re-run of my theatre production less than a week ago which was awesome and had kept me away, which is why I am still working on my Christmas cards and letters - (hiding face)

Yea I write a bunch of custom handwritten letters every year to few friends, family and people that made a difference in my life that year. And it is AWESOME! There hasn’t been a single person that does not respond back saying how it brought a smile to their face on receiving it. Anywho I am still on it coz’ I am only a decade late….. :D

Today’s piece is called “Floral Basket“ and it’s also part of this calendar!

Subscribe now

Share

We are in the final lap of 2023. It seems like the past 11 months flew at top speed. Whoever said, “The days are long, but the years are short” totally nailed it.

Let’s do some quick napkin math to see where this project stands currently - 150/365 = 41.09% is the completion rate of this project at this moment AND I’ve made it to Q4. Won’t comment on the success metrics yet, will leave that for the finale post of this year :) .

But feel free to comment on how you think this project has panned out in your opinion.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

My piece for today is called as ‘Alien Abduction’ because I think that’s how it looks like.

Btw if you have not yet checked out the Christmas stationery at my store, now would be a fine time. There are Christmas cards, stickers, gift tags and gift bags.

Christmas Gift Tags - https://www.zazzle.com/cute_christmas_gift_tag-256102960171483867

Christmas Gift Bags - https://www.zazzle.com/cute_christmas_gift_bag-256427845912948108

Christmas Stickers - https://www.zazzle.com/cute_christmas_tree_sticker-256097482556023203

Christmas Cards - https://www.zazzle.com/collections/christmas_cards-119201718209213605

Subscribe now

Share

Here’s my piece for today which has the thanksgiving color theme and feel to it.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

Now that we are done with thanksgiving we enter Black Friday - biggest sale season of the year! And off course the Christmas phase. And I did not want to be left behind :) ! So I created some custom Christmas swag this year.

You can buy the Christmas swag here! And the platform is giving additional 50% off for Black Friday too! So if you move fast you can get some sweet deals too on these custom created Christmassy accessories :)

There’s Christmas tags, cards, stickers and bags!

Christmas Gift Tags - https://www.zazzle.com/cute_christmas_gift_tag-256102960171483867

Christmas Gift Bags - https://www.zazzle.com/cute_christmas_gift_bag-256427845912948108

Christmas Stickers - https://www.zazzle.com/cute_christmas_tree_sticker-256097482556023203

Christmas Cards - https://www.zazzle.com/collections/christmas_cards-119201718209213605

Share

2024 calendars and planners are coming soon I promise :)

That’s it for today! Buy some Christmas swag and support your favorite creator this season aka me :)

Anywho here’s my virtual rangoli for this season of Diwali (almost thanksgiving now).

I don’t believe I need to explain Diwali anymore since it’s a global event now! I saw posts on LinkedIn by everyone talking about it! Yep, you read that right - LINKEDIN, not my personal little Instagram corner.

Share

Rangoli is an art form that originates in the Indian subcontinent, in which patterns are created on the floor or a tabletop using materials such as powdered lime stone, red ochre, dry rice flour, colored sand, quartz powder, flower petals, and colored rocks.

I really wanted to do a real-life rangoli, but couldn’t - so I did the next best option (drumroll….) and used the chalk brush on procreate to make it look like a rangoli :D

If you’re still reading please don’t forget to share and have your friends, fam and pets register to my newsletter. And let me know what you think about my virtual rangoli :)

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

Btw I celebrated diwali this year by doing the Spartan race. This was my 8th race and I’ve been doing it since 2015. I’ve missed 2 years in the span of 8. It wasn’t my personal best time and I didn’t train very hard. Hopefully I can bounce back up next year with better training and plan for the trifecta soon.

And here’s some of my training -

My tiny clients definitely had a very big, broad imagination and pushed my artistic limits by suggesting I make soccer cleats, a piano, tic tac toe, a pumpkin - things I definitely wouldn’t consider doing with henna :D. I learned so many things from my big hearted tiny clients, including how to conduct a liquor business :D

Here’s only some of the snippets. But before that, please don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already - we’re getting to the most exciting time of the year and you definitely don’t want to miss out on how I close the year ;)

Subscribe now

Next time you have a partay and need #hennatattoos you know where to find me!! :D

Leave a comment

Share

Time for some math and reality check first!

Day 146/365 successfully completed and logged = 40%

Where I grew up 40% used to be the passing percentage :) So I think we can safely say that I have passed the #OadlProject365 challenge as of today! Only time will tell if I ace this project or not and if there’ll be any potential ROI for this labor of love ;)

Subscribe now

Here’s some of my pieces from the past 4 months:

Share

Leave a comment

Btw If you’ve missed the previous editions here’s a high level recap from Jan 2023 and here’s the recap from Feb 2023 and here’s a recap from March 2023 and here’s a recap from April 2023 and here’s the mid year summary from June 2023.

For all those who are new here #OadlProject365 was my attempt to draw/sketch/paint/do art for at least 5 minutes everyday for 365 days. I posted about it on day 1.

(Oadl is an acronym for ‘Only A Decade Late’ which is my pseudonym in the www and the general story of my life - Ha!) - And yes, I do realize I am 30 days late for my Q3 updates, but hashtag life.

On paying close attention, you’ll see that my original #OadlProject365 goal has evolved over time as I learned to draw digitally and also morphed to fit my life better.

IMO it’s better to aim for the stars and fall short, rather than having a smaller goal and accomplishing an even smaller portion of it - hence #OadlProject365.

Q3 2023 Updates and Accomplishments:

• I did my debut theatre production and am on my way to Hollay-wood ;)

• We are at day 146 out of 365 which is 40%, not that great - but I was reviewing my work since the beginning and I feel I’ve seen a growth in the quality of my art work which makes me happy

• Although I lost 26.5% of my audience since I started, I also gained some of it back :) - So that’s a win

• Read these 2 amazing books; The Surrender Experiment and Living with a Seal! (Ping me if you want to discuss them)

Tentative Gameplan for rest of the year:

• Christmas card (before Christmas deadline :))

• 2024 calendar (hope you buy one! :))

• Children’s book illustration - although tbh, I am not very confident on this. If I pull it off it will be a HUGE win

• A mirror work art experiment

• End of year updates

I hope you follow along with me for the rest of the year! This year flew by!

Share

Subscribe now

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

And if you couldn’t tell by now, I do love my colors!

That’s all for today. Q3 updates should be in by end of this month. And I do need to begin working on 2024 calendars ASAP. Have a great Sunday and stay warm!

Today is the 9th day, tomorrow is the 10th day i.e. Dassera where Good triumphs over Evil and Mahishasur the demon is killed by Goddess Durga.

Tis’ the time of food, art, music, color, dance, celebrations AND sharing my newsletter with your fellow beings :) ….

Share

Subscribe now

And guess whose work got published in New England’s magazine :) Super excited to be featured in here.

I tell everyone food always finds me whether in real life or reel life….

My art work was published besides some yummy food articles :D

Leave a comment

The decorations were top notch!!!

Happy Dassera in advance and Q3 update coming soon I promise :)

Subscribe now

I know I am due for a Q3 update, hopefully very very soon :)

Subscribe now

Highlight of the past 2 months: I joined a theatre production company and did my debut play (as an adult).

You ask what role I had - No, I was not a tree! - I played the very common “common man“. And if I may say so myself I was the BEST common man you could ever find! :)

Once a man, always a man….. Not much has changed since childhood as you can see below when I played a peasant in ‘The Happy Man‘ (had to draw a mustache both the times :P).

I still remember my lines from 1999 :)

Taking a 180 now, in other news we are at that period in time where the feminine is worshipped aka Navratri, 9 nights of devi. It is an annual festival observed in honor of the goddess Durga, an aspect of Adi Parashakti, the supreme goddess.

Each of the 9 days represents an aspect of the #devi . I did my rendition of Madame Shailaputri which literally means ‘daughter of the mountain‘ i.e. day 1 of this representation. For reference today is day 4.

My Hopi and holi cow came in handy dandy :D. You’ll have to go back to my earlier posts to know what I’m talking about ;)

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

‘Re-purpose’ or ‘Use creatively‘ What exactly does this mean!?

For me it was trying to find out a new way to use a boring household item artistically. I picked our good ol’ friend the ‘aluminium foil’ for this challenge. So where does aluminium foil belong? If you said ‘kitchen’, booooo. Get creative!

Take your guesses. What would you use aluminium wrap for other than:

1. Wrapping Food / other items

2. Covering dishes in the oven

3. Using it in the kitchen

Think outside the box or the kitchen in this case (Insert loud giggle).

Ok, ok I used it to create an abstract elephant / Ganesha glass painting piece. It was painstakingly slow to create this, but the end result will hopefully have you rushing to your kitchen to get some wrap and get down to business!

I began with a 11 x 14 piece of glass, which I accidentally broke trying to clean. So be cautious and make sure you don’t cut yourself trying to do artwork. Luckily I had an extra piece of glass because I always buy extra art supplies (I would buy the entire Michaels store if I was in there long enough)…..

Always begin with a sketch. I sketched out my design on my sketch pad using a pencil and erased quite a bit. Remember those days of pencils and erasers…. Yea, I still do that!

Position the glass on top of your sketch and trace it out with a glass liner.

To make the sketch pop I painted areas of the open glass with some acrylic paint.

Initially I was going to make my own frame for this. But after the mishap of breaking glass I figured I’d buy the frame and then make it into my own with some trim. So there were some trips to Home Depot, some painting and some modge-podging involved.

I got lucky with the frame and was able to find one that matched the size of glass. Perfecto mundo! But you want to do this step in the reverse order of what I did – i.e. buy the frame first. Duh me!

Enter ‘Aluminium Foil’ the star of this blog post! Tadaaaa. Scrunch up the aluminium foil first and then un-scrunch it. Then place it behind the glass to give a crackle texture. Depending on the amount of scrunch you’ll get different kinds of textures.

And voila! The mighty elephant hangs loud and proud up on the wall to welcome all things beautiful into life…..

I think it turned out AWESOME! What do you think?

Your turn. What new things have you welcomed in your arts and crafts life this season? Let me know in the comments below.

Until next time,

Subscribe now

Leave a comment

Share