Bollywood Bowl



The Hollywood Bowl had a huge Bollywood night with A R Rahman headlining with a wide variety of his music. I was mainly there for the opening act, Musafir, whom I am very very crazy about. They are a group of traditional Rajasthani musicians who seem to perform at various festivals in Europe, but not so much in the United States. I have a couple of their albums and have wanted to see them for some years, so even a very quick performance was worth it for me. Their songs are really meant to build over time, but at this point I'll take what I can get. So that was a huge thrill! I wasn't really that into the other music, but there was a ton of talent on stage and a great crowd so it was great! The first sketch is of some members of Musafir and the second is of some of the singers who performed with the very talented A R Rahman. I would have painted more, but I could not even see which colors I was using by the time I did the last one. Had to guess by where in the palette they were located. Here are some sketches from the last Rajasthani folk music performance I went to.

Getty Summer Sessions 2006



Went to some great outdoor performances at the Getty Center. Saw Blue 13 Dance Company (first two paintings), DubLab Soundsystem, Dhamaal Soundsystem, Paul Livingstone and the Arohi Ensemble (third picture) and Karsh Kale with his band. I didn't manage to paint everyone, but I did for the performances where I had enough elbow room. Can't tell you how much fun it was! Hopefully I've managed to convey some of that!

Pearl Jam at the Forum


YEAAAAH!! Just got back from my very first Pearl Jam concert. It was over at the Forum in Inglewood. I grew up listening to these guys and singing their songs. When I saw my old band mates from high school last summer after ten years and we wanted to play around a bit, I just said play some Pearl Jam...then I said..okay, not that song..I don't have the tar build up in my lungs to go that low and raspy..but we played around with Red Mosquito and a few others which was a lot of fun. This is the one current band for whom I always get the new albums and have never been disappointed.

Anyway, I did some sketches of Sonic Youth, who opened for them and were also very good. I didn't do any of Pearl Jam at first because I was too excited jumping up and down and singing...but then during the last two songs I had to do some real quick. The last image with nine sketches are the ones of Pearl Jam. Oh what a treat! The first sketch gives an idea of how far I was from the stage...so the sketches were kinda tough..hence no face detail, but if it was this much fun that far back, I can only imagine how great it was from the sixth row (Sandeep, you are a lucky man!)!!!!!!

Dockweiler State Beach


Nestled between a sewage treatment plant, a gigantic power plant with oil tankers in the distance, this beach was the ideal spot for a bunch of us to get together and hang out.

I managed to squeeze in this quick watercolor of the beach. Sorry I left out some of the more scenic stuff...but there are oil tankers if you squint real close.
I decided not to get in the water.

Kodhai's Dream and Kala Yatra



Went to an Indian dance performance at Barnsdall Park and did a bunch of very quick watercolor sketches. The Rangoli Dance Company performed Kodhai's Dream, based on the sacred writings/sayings (Thiruppavai and Nachiar Thirumozhi) of the saint poet Aandal, called Kodhai (from the program). The first three pages are from this performance.

The other three pages are from the second half of the performance which was called Kala Yatra, by Murali Mohan Kalvakalva and his group.


These paintings are really quick. I haven't really tried to make them precise or labored...not that I could in the time, but I think it is useful practice. Got a chance to test out some new watercolor paint, brushes and sketchbook too!

Sara Tavares and Emeline Michele


Went to a daytime performance by Sara Tavares and Emeline Michele at Grand Performances (California Plaza). I was in the mood to do some watercolors without laying down any pencil work. So, these were painted directly. I tried to quickly think the images through since you can't really paint over parts, then went to work.

The first image is of an apartment building behind the main stage, then Sara and her bassist. Next is the announcer with Sara's drummer and guitarist. After that I painted Emeline, her bassist, then the dancing audience and some greenery at the the venue.

Sidesteppers and Kinky



Went to a show at Grand Performances with Sidesteppers and Kinky. Did a quick sketch of Sidesteppers and one of some funny kids playing in the fountain. There was a whole army of them, until one slipped, smacked his head and started crying at the top of his lungs. Poor little guy. That was it though. All parents in the vicinity went from, "Oh, how cute, you like the water..." to "The fountain is bad. No fountain!" and yanked all the tiny tots out. Why is there a half drawn drummer hiding behind the fountain you ask? Well, that's as much as I got done before the last song finished..so I just drew the kids on the rest of that page.

Both bands were great!

Sigh

So..I have returned at last. It's been an insanely busy few weeks. Usually I don't write a whole lot. I prefer to just post sketches of what I have been up to, but I lost my sketchbook in all the chaos and until/if it's back all I've got is this photo that my friend Abhi took while I was sketching at the Artwallah Festival.

Basically, I was busy organizing the festival after party, which took place at a really cool venue called Soul Folks in downtown Los Angeles. In addition to this, I knocked out a set of backgrounds for a short piece that my friends from the Post Natyam Collective are working on, and squeezed in time for my personal animated short as well as that whole full time job thing.

It all culminated in this weekend at the JACCC which is where Artwallah took place this year. Met all kinds of amazing people , including other volunteers, artists and many random people. Between all the work, I managed to check out outdoor acts like Micro Pixie, Vidya Quartet, Himalayan Project, My Pet Dragon, Falu. I was too hyper to sit still enough for the films and workshops. I met Ela Shah and her husband a few days before. Her beautiful mobiles were in our visual art gallery. I watched the first half of the evening show which was amazing, then I had to run off and finish setting up for the after party.

We were lucky enough to have a huge lineup of performers who came and partied with us. In no particular order, DJ Ameet Mehta and his wife Lena, Lovely, Anand Subramanian, DJ Dithmar Rualo, Ananda Sen, DJ Nitin Mukul, Himalayan Project, Shalini Rehil, Tanza Dancers and Jason Joseph. I was very busy running all over the party working, so if I missed anyone, let me know! Anyway, these amazing performers kept it all going till 5am. My heartfelt thanks to all of you!

Soul Folks Fuzzy and Crepes




Here are pen sketches I did in a little 4"x6" sketchbook. It's good for drawing at clubs or just around. I didn't bother laying down any pencil lines, so they are kind of crude, directly drawn in pen. It's fun to just scribble sometimes and create shapes out of that. All of them are from a late night party at a place called Soul Folks in downtown LA. I've been helping organize an after party which will take place there on June 24th, 2006. This is for a really fun South Asian art festival called Artwallah which will take place at the Japanese American Center on the same day. Be sure and check out the festival, then swing on over to the after party and say hello! Buy your tickets here!

The last sketch is from a place in Santa Monica that makes crepes. Good stuff.

Six Characters in Search of an Author

Checked out a performance of Six Characters in Search of an Author over at UCLA. My talented friend Meena was one of the actors. It was a lot of fun watching this really fun group play the scene in so many different ways, expanding and revealing more about each character as they went on. The shifts in emotions as the story progressed were really well done too. It's interesting to see that in a play where everything is created and performed in one go as opposed to a film. Here are some sketches.