Shutting off the left brain..

Recently, as I am trying to get back into drawing and painting, I am realizing more and more how important it is to shut off your right brain to not just create art, but to actually see it in the first place.









I have always had this issue... I start drawing/painting something... initially it looks like it is going well, I am making progress.. and then suddenly, something will go wrong. As I step back from my work, the eyes will look out of place or incorrect in size or looking in a completely different direction as compared to the rest of the face!




I always thought the main reason was that I would start getting tired or bored and would want to finish the project.. basically lack of patience. In a way my did say that a couple of times that I lacked patience.. and I did.







But, because of internet and the rich resources available on it, and the two classes I have taken at WAM, I am realizing that that is not the only issue. I am an engineer and my analytical brain is always ON. After I start to see some form on the paper, my left brain automatically completes it, pushing aside anything my right brain has to say and despite what I am actually seeing.

So, after learning about your brain's auto-complete feature, I have been trying to shut my left brain off consciously. Every time I feel an urge to just draw a line or fill up a shape, I ask myself, do I really see it?

And I have to say, it does help. When I step back from my work, my left brain realizes that it actually looks more like what I am trying to achieve. Here is the latest sketch I did based on a live model.

 

Check out my other works at http://arainbowfortheheart.blogspot.com/ 

One potato, two potato

 

I am not a gardener.. Infact I used to say that I have a rotten/brown thumb. But ever since moving into my current place, that seems to have changed a little bit. 

A few months ago, I found some potatoes in my pantry that had gone a little mushy and had started growing roots all over. I stuck them in a pot and that was that. I wasn't expecting anything as my last year's attempt had been quite a failure. Last year I planted about four potatoes and my yield was one one-inch diameter one and one 5 mm diameter one!

So this year when the stem started dying off because of some strange small bright green fuzzy insects eating all the leaves, I decided to dig up to see what I had… Atleast I could use the pot for something else, right?

 Well.. here are the leftover skins of the potatoes I planted, and my returs ratio was actually >1!!!!

The fairer sex?: Gender ineuality

J and I had this huge discussion last week about gender inequality in salaries. J wasn't even aware of such a thing. Eventually it came down performance. Men can assure they will be there more time purely due to biology.

That got me thinking. It is true. A woman is bound to take atleast 24 weeks off from work, paid or unpaid assuming she has two kids in her life. This reality is even more in my face now that we are thinking about kids and I am thinking about applying to jobs. I have always been annoyed that I have to have periods each month and endure the cramps, bloating and discomfort that comes with it, not to mention the emotional roller coaster. "That comes with womanhood".. what also comes with womanhood is having to bear the weight of breasts on my chest, having to wear a super uncomfortable contraption called the "bra" each and every day, stretch marks, tearing of your private parts during child birth, loss of bladder control... and on and on!!!

Come on! Was it my choice to become a woman? Why do only women have these things? Why does the only thing a man has to do in terms of propagation of the species is sex!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But wait, if I am as a woman doing most of the work in terms of keeping the species alive and making sure that men are born, shouldn't I get atleast some compensation for that? I have been doing that since I was twelve and won't stop until I reach menopause! If you are mentally or physically disabled, you get special privileges, but we as women get nothing. And I have no choice in that either.. even if say I never wanted to have children, can I get rid of the pain and suffering I go though each month? No! So I guess, men in general need to compensate women, just for carrying the load of human continuation. And if some men want to argue that they are not liable because they never plan on having a wife or children, but they were born, right? Which means some woman went through a lifelong suffering for that man to exist.

And if you are not going to pay me for being a woman, then don't you dare underpay me for taking time off to bear future humans.