-
Kumartuli – the first visit
Read MoreOn the morning of my second day in India, I had the great fortune to make my first trip to Kumartuli, which is a neighborhood of image-makers that is located slightly north of the center of Kolkata. Leading the way…
-
Shantiniketan
Read MoreIn between my first and second visits to the image-makers of Kumartuli, I spent some time in Shantiniketan. It’s a small, quiet (compared to Kolkata!) town about three hours by train from Kolkata, and it has become something of a…
-
Kumartuli – the second and third visits
Read MoreWith great excitement, I returned to Kolkata at the end of the first week of September, specifically to observe Dilipda and his assistants in the next stages of work on their Durga Puja sculptures at the Shovabazar Rajbari. In the above photo,…
-
Vishwakarma, the Divine Architect
Read MoreIt’s September 17th as well as my fourth visit to the Shovabazar — now Durga Puja is less than two weeks away! Dilipda’s sculpture has fully dried, been painted with a white undercoat, and now the application of color on the figures,…
-
Beauty and Chaos
Read More“Beauty and Chaos” – one way to describe that which is Durga Puja! We heard this phrase first from photographer Dev Nayak, when Stan and I met him while undergoing some serious “pandal-hopping” with Partha Dey in South Kolkata. Dev’s actually comment was,…
-
Durga Puja
Read MoreThis first day of Durga Puja is also known as Maha Shasthi, and during this day a series of rituals are performed to symbolically awaken Durga. For more information on the rituals of Durga Puja and their timings, check out http://www.bangalinet.com/pujacalendar.htm or http://www.durga-pujas.com/shashti.shtml. For…
-
Just a few more pandals…..
Read MoreThis post is a gallery of Durga Puja pandal image highlights from our explorations of Kolkata pandals throughout the following three days of the holiday. We admired some pandals for the beauty and creativity of their designs, and others for the mindbogglingly…
-
Immersions – Tradition and the Environment
Read MoreTraditionally, Durga Puja ends with the immersion of the pandal images into a stream or river. Once again, good has triumphed over evil, and Ma Durga and her children return to Mount Kailash and Durga’s consort, Lord Shiva. Thousands and thousands of…
-
A Dentist to Lions
Read MoreDilipda is preparing no less than five images for Jagadhatri Puja, which is celebrated throughout West Bengal and parts of Odissa about one week after Kali Puja (late October to early November) and exactly one month after Durga Puja. Jagadhatri…
-
Krishnagar clay
Read MoreFrom practically the first moment since I stepped off the plane in Kolkata in late August, people have been telling me to visit the town of Krishnagar. Last week I had the opportunity to visit there with a group of…
-
The Goddess of Knowledge
Read MoreSaraswati is the goddess of knowledge, music and art, and is the daughter of Lord Shiva and Ma Durga. In West Bengal, Saraswati is revered by schools and universities, because of the belief that she endows the worshipper with speech, wisdom and learning. Saraswati…
-
Residency at Maihol House
Read MoreHow wonderful! In January I was invited to be part of an international group of ceramic artists who would be working together at Maihol House, an artists’ residency center in Maihar, Madhya Pradesh. Countries represented are India, Australia, Latvia, France,…
-
Molela and Nathdwara
Read MoreSay hello to one of my new favorite places —- Molela! In early February, my husband Stan and I were invited by artist and professor Gagan Dadich to stay and to work in his beautiful studio in the tiny village…
-
Mishty Magic
Read MorePlease forgive me the transgression of diverting us from all things clay sculptural, and indulge me in a bit o’discourse regarding one of my favorite parts of Bengali culture – Mishty. Mishty is the Bengali word for sweet and is also…
-
A Project With Ektara
Read MoreMy work on the Elements project really whetted my appetite for more exploration in creating temporary, collaborative sculpture in which the viewer’s participation becomes an integral part of the work. I began developing ideas for new projects while observing preparations at Kumartuli for…
2014-2015 Fulbright-Nehru Project
During my time in Kolkata, India as a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar, I observed and documented the unfired clay sculptural traditions of the artists of Kumartuli, who create works such as the figurative idols used in the Durga Puja celebrations. Concurrently, and inspired by my research, I developed two temporary, collaborative sculpture projects in which viewer participation was integral to the completion of the projects. My Fulbright grant blog celebrates this fantastic opportunity to live, work and learn in India.
