NAIKA & THE TREE TRUNK- 2 Painting

In this age of information technology, we begin to see through the words of others. We become Dhritrashters. We need Sanjays’ to see for us. We end up admiring Duryodhans. Living in the environment of a cosmopolitan city, our eyes, our minds’ and our hearts’ responses become blurred, insensitive, selfish & selective. We stop seeing small things & happenings in our lives. I realized it, few years ago, when I fell ill. It was summer & Delhi was polluted & hot. I shifted to the house of Gogi’s sister in Paonta Sahib for recouping. Himalayan mountains start from there, Yamuna enters the plains there & Guru Gobind Singh used to live there. In Paonta Sahib I began to see again...... even small living being living their lives on their own terms..... ants carrying a dead earth worm on the mango tree trunk, a ‘kambalkira’ holding a mango with his hundred legs. While recouping, every morning, when the darkness of the night was about to leave and the light of the day was about to arrive, I woke up, went out of the house and sat near the mango grove corner of the garden which surrounded the house. The mango trees were laden with green unripe mangoes, each bursting with energy. I began to recognize & observe each mango tree, every mango and their ripening process. There was a mango tree with twisting tree trunk which looked like a human torso. Without my being aware, this tree trunk entered in the expression of my creativity, both in ‘drawing’ & in ‘painting’. The tree trunk began to acquire & change its personality according to the needs of my creativity. This mango tree was a world in itself - a co-existent world. I began to recognize every bird and his voice who visited this mango tree to look for a ripe mango, for rest, to avoid summer heat, to voice his presence to attract a partner, for romance, in search of a safe place to make a nest, lay eggs and rear the children..... all these nuances began to enter my thoughts & my creativity. One day I saw a small young bird’s first flight from his nest to the top of the mango tree along with the promptings of his parents. Next day, he was flying in the sky, all alone. Outside the entrance gate of the house flows a canal and parallel to it runs the road. In the morning, first to walk on this road were children, in groups and singly, going to school. Some were in a hurry to reach the school, some were dreaming and walking and some naughty ones carried a stone in their hands to hit the fruit laden trees to taste the unripe mangoes. Beyond the road was an orchard of lichi trees. Two parrots used to come there every morning ..... pluck ripe lichies, peel the skin of the fruit with their beaks, eat the fruit and threw the seeds on the ground despite the protests of the old bald gardner. At about the same time, I used to wake up, a squirrel used to come down from the tree on one side of the gate followed by her children. All of them, except one, crossed the gate in a line, jumped on the fruit tree on the other end of the gate and vanish in it. The naughty one, amongst them, came down and jump on the ground, looked around curiously and then used to run to join the family. Seeds of eaten fruits used to start falling on the ground at irregular intervals from the tree in which the family of squirrels vanished. A dove used to descend on the gate and after arranging her feathers flew away. Sometime, I used to see a snail start crossing the courtyard leaving behind a sticky trail. It took him ages to cross the courtyard. First rays of the sun fell on two butterflies, painted by an artist, hovering over two mangoes, one after the other.The monsoon was expected any day, because sometimes, you saw a small cloud in the morning sky separated from its mother monsoon cloud. Away from Delhi when I expressed in my creative visual imagery, all the eye’s & heart’s intakes entered my creativity..... ‘Naika & the Tree Trunk’. The tree trunk became as human as the Naika.... it grew feet & evolved gestures. VED NAYAR

Painting:Fabric on Soft (Yarn, Cotton, Fabric)

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:0.4 W x 0.4 H x 1 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.