where the literal & metaphorical voices intersect
This season's song is available for free download. Go get your copy of Malargale here.
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Spring has officially sprung in Wisconsin though it came a little late this year. And, it's time for the song of this season.
I started noticing and valuing spring after coming to Wisconsin. It's the period where we make the most of sunlight and good weather. Everything during spring is bearable and beautiful in Wisconsin. The sunlight is optimum, the heat is bearable and the nature is beautiful. As far as life in spring is concerned, the first thing that comes to mind is the flowers. Tulips and cherry blossoms are the most celebrated flowers in this season that I have managed to include in the music video.
Since flowers are the highlight of spring, I have chosen the song, Malargale from the Tamil movie, Love Birds composed by A R Rahman. Everything about the song paints an imagery of flowers in my mind.
This time I have collaborated with a Germany-based pianist, Princeten Charles.
Hope you like the song and the video.
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In my previous blog post, I emphasized the need for art education for adults. In this blog post, I would like to illustrate my reasoning for that.
I prefer to call the math behind art as mathemartics. For the purpose of this blog post, I am going to assume Art = Experience + Imagination. The equation simply means that to maximize the value of the left-hand side of the equation (Art), we would need to maximize the values on the right-hand side of the equation (Experience and Imagination). Even though we would need individual skill sets to make good art, experience and imagination brings out an artist's unique style and perspective.
When we were kids, our parents, teachers, and peers motivated us to pursue art. However, as we grew up, art somehow lost priority. Do you know someone who used to be so smart and intelligent during high school days but, not anymore? If your answer is yes and you are wondering why, it is likely that our hunger and courage to make meaningful art decreased as we grew up. Here, art includes anything that is creative, passionate, and personal and not just painting. My argument is making art becomes more relevant in our lives as we grow up to a matured adult. Let me illustrate using the equation mentioned earlier.
As we become adults, it is likely that we have experienced different things in life and have handled different situations. All these contributes to the variable, 'Experience' in the equation. Also, it is likely that we have solved different kinds of problems as adults, and since visualization plays a huge role in effective problem-solving, this contributes to the variable, 'Imagination' in the equation.
Therefore, odds are adults have an advantage in having maximum amount of experience and imagination, and it means that the value of art produced, as a result, should be maximum. This shows that if only adults gave as much importance to art education as they did when they were kids, there would be more brilliant artists creating a mark in the universe. The video validates my thoughts on this topic.
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I have seen many parents waiting for kids outside classrooms while the kids take their art classes and have always wondered whether these parents take art classes for themselves. If you think about it, the reason we send our children to art classes holds applicable for many of us as well.
Children must undergo art education as it encourages persistence and also, helps in expressing complex emotions. Through persistence, we learn patience and concentration. Expressing feelings is vital, especially for kids since children have limited vocabulary.
However, all these are applicable to adults as well. I have seen parents who are impatient and gets easily distracted. I have also, seen adults who struggle to express and communicate their thoughts. A few experts have suggested solutions that encourage adults to move out of their comfort zones.
Therefore, the next time when we reason to send our kids to learning something, it would be good to consider whether we need to learn it as well.
Adler and Doren in their book, How to read a book talks about language's limitations in conveying knowledge. This restriction in the medium of communication in human beings could be one of the reasons people fight, break up and go through divorces even though we tend to put the blame on the people involved. Maybe it is not the people but the medium - language that has the problem. Art forms substitute for the limitation the language provides.
We know for a fact that children's drawings are necessary since children cannot articulate and express many of their emotions as their vocabulary is not entirely developed. However, even when we become adults despite the fact that our vocabulary is more developed than when we were children, the language still has its limitations, as mentioned above. This makes a case for why adults need to continue their arts education. After all, adults are just overgrown children with bills to pay.
“Children’s art shouldn’t be just thought endearing, it’s a map of how we should sometime to remember to be.”
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I grew up in a TamBrahm household in Kerala. Whenever there was a family gathering, food was the most discussed and sought-after topic. Almost all the conversations started and ended in food. The love for food was a reason that brought people together.
However, after I started living alone, the importance given to food in daily life reduced considerably. Cooking became more of a survival chore than a reason to connect people together. Instead, music took over. Almost all the conversations I had with people revolved around music. I built friends, acquaintances and relationships through music and I continue to do that as well. If I were to draw a line connecting all the beautiful moments in my life, the point of convergence would be music. Similarly, if I draw a line connecting all the blog posts on my blog, it would converge to music.
If you are asked to draw a line connecting all the great moments in your life, where would that converge?
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