Homage to the Leaves - India

Scavenged from local shutters, leaves and feathers, my Altar piece to Sanskriti Kendra.

One of the beauties of a residency such as this, is the onsite "junk pile". I scavenged several old shutters and miscellaneous things, as well as leaves and pods from the grounds - then drew the fallen leaves directly onto the wood.

 Every morning I awake to the swish of the workers clearing the Banyan leaves littered on the grounds - I gather their elegant leafy forms and affectionately add my own decorative marks to their surface, echoing the age old practice of henna painting.

It seems curious to me that I am working mostly in black ink here in India, often on white paper, when the world around me is a cacophony of color. But this is my way of creating order in the seeming chaos of India.