College Artworks

Yesterday when I attended classes I visited the college art gallery during the break. A mixed media exhibition is going on over there which has some bold looking artworks that perhaps would fit only a gallery and would never grace anyone's home. I wonder what the artist had in mind while creating these works of art. I personally didn't understand the art and there was no explanation signage to help me understand. All I can say is there are a variety of objects used to create something attractive.

College Artworks

Recently I started an art appreciation class and one of the assignments in school is to go round the campus and document the art works that I can see. Well I went around the campus with my camera and captured the images of what I saw. Some are good, others are well... I will let you decide...

Galveston Tree Sculptures

I know it has been like forever since I last blogged... but well life happens and nothing matters at that point in time. I am three weeks from finishing up school and it has been kicking my a*# so here I am back blogging for therapy and trying to catch up on the pictures I hadn't posted of my previous trip to Galveston.

Couple of years ago when Hurricane Ike hit Galveston, it created quite a devastation in the island. Many of the older trees were destroyed, either broken or uprooted. The city of Galveston bounced back and decided to convert these broken stumps of wood into artworks. They commissioned artists to work on converting them into sculptures. Here are some of the creations...

Summer is here :)

It is that time of the year again... 100 degree days and sunshine upto 9.00 pm. It is a good time to go out and enjoy but at the same time the heat is so prohibitive it keeps us indoors most of the day. Anyway this is my finals week and then I will be working lots of hours during the next month... for now it is sitting in front of the computer and studying and during my break I create graphics like the one below.

Frisco City Hall Art Displays

One unique feature of Frisco, TX is the city's patronage of visual arts. The Texas Sculpture Garden is a unique example of how businesses in the city have contributed to create an open air museum of art and sculpture. I had been to the Frisco city hall recently and was impressed by the many sculptures on display in the grounds of the city hall. Here are some pictures of the sculptures I saw out there.

Tooth Fairy..... somewhat entertaining...

For lack of nothing else to do on Friday evening we decided to go to a movie at the dollar theater in Plano. The intent was to watch a Jackie Chan movie, but there was none playing at a night show. So we decided to watch The Tooth Fairy instead. This is a fairly entertaining kids movie... apart from a few minutes of fantastic ice skating and a some comedy frames there is nothing much worth watching in this movie.

The story traces the life of an aging ice hockey star who is named the tooth fairy because he knocks out teeth of his opponents. His girlfriend has two kids, the daughter just loses one of her teeth and the mother tells the story of tooth fairy. The protagonist tries to tell her the truth in a rude manner to the chagrin of the mother. The son doesn't like this guy because he is rude, and sarcastic.

The story moves on to fairyland when the player gets called to do some community service and then after some seriously boring drama and some funny scenes the movie ends with a soulful transformation of the protagonist. I definitely wouldn't pay the regular theater ticket to watch this movie....

Egypt Aggressively Repossessioning Stolen Art Works

All ancient civilizations across the world have been subject to ruthless plundering by unscrupulous elements in the world. The greatest plunderers have been Europeans and Arabs. As I write this post the largest trove of emeralds lies in the treasury of Turkey, property of India, plundered by Nadir Shah during the 18th century. A visit to any of the world famous museums in London, Paris, Berlin, or any other European nation would reveal hundreds of artworks plundered by these nations when they were busy colonizing the rest of the world.

Anyway today I was listening to National Public Radio while driving home from work and this news caught my attention. There was a report that a 3000-year old stolen Sarcophagus - highly decorated wooden coffin - was seized by the US customs in Miami and Egypt government staked a claim. Following some back and forth communications the US has agreed to return the Stolen Sarcophagus to Egypt.

During the program one Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities was interviewed. The Egyptian authorities don't know anything about the Sarcophagus except the name of the person buried in it. They feel that it was stolen from Egypt in 1970 but there are no facts known. But still they pursued and pressed for its return. That is the true spirit of patriotism and national pride. According to Hawass over 30,000 artworks have been repossessed during the past few years. The Egyptian government continues to press for return of many other major artworks including those housed in Louvre, and other globally renowned museums.

I am quite impressed by the way Egyptian government is pursuing its heritage and pressing for its return. Even though the present Egyptian population and its government are Islamic they are interested in their non-Islamic past and want to preserve it as part of their national heritage.

I wish Indian government would set up a similar council to chase after the plunderers and repossess all the art, and wealth that was plundered from our country during the 1200 years of Islamic and Christian colonization of our country. It is time that the westerners who plundered India said sorry and returned the things they stole from us. They can't return the people whom they killed but at least they can return our art works!!!

Pictures in this post was sourced from NPR who sourced it from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Statuettes at Kimbell

Last Sunday we visited the Kimbell art museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Here are pictures of some interesting artworks in their permanent collection. There are many paintings in the collection, but I am interested in sculptures so I captured only those that appealed to me. I am not so enamored by European sculptures because in my opinion they are too boring. Sculptural art from South America, Africa and Asian countries are much more vibrant and interesting. There is some kind of intrigue, mystery, and rugged aesthetics.

Sculpture from South America

Sculpture from Africa