Return to the Mothership

Hello from Trivandrum! I am in my last weeks in Kerala, India, now drawing my face-to-face involvement to a close for this chapter in the evolution of Beauty of Water. While I expect to return for some awesome upcoming programs, it's time to recharge my batteries in the USA, and support ongoing developments here from afar.

The amazing Latha Kurien Rajeev is continuing with several programs in Kerala including Waterwalk, an art journey inspired by talks between Latha and JohnyML which will take place along the Bharathapuzha River, the Watermark exhibition, a rainstick making and sharing project, and the visit of an eminent ecoartist we admire. What a thrill!

Next weekend Beauty of Water is conducting a small group, three-day painting camp at the Triprayar River with leadership by painter Baiju Laxman, shown here. And before I depart here in mid-July I will lead a 2-day program that includes site specific art making at the National Institute of Speech and Hearing. Please watch for photos and stories.

While I get settled in the USA and these programs continue, beloved Harachi Birgit Stein, shown below with a recent sculpture, is weaving together several Beauty of Water related activities in Austria.
Can you help? We are eager to generate support for her as she meets on-the-ground challenges of bringing new ideas into manifest form. Contact us if you can assist Harachi in any way. You can also donate online and let me know it's for Austria programs. Thank you!

This blog entry was minimally edited on June 27, 2009.

Beauty of Water Website

California as Inspiration

I had the pleasure of a brief visit to the San Francisco Bay Area earlier this month, where I met with inspiring people like Askia White, pictured here. Askia is working on a home-use energy collector combining systems of rain catchment, gravitational force of flowing water, solar, and wind technologies in one artistic sculpture you can put in your yard. Wow! Wow! Wow!

Askia is part of Andrée Singer Thompson's EcoArt Matters class offered through Laney College in Oakland. Some of the extraordinary people in and associated with this course that I met include Alida, Askia, Barbara, Christina, Emily, Isabel, Kathryn, Laura, Molly, Pam, Pat, Susan, Tina (plus the human-sized bee she birthed), Tracy, and others.

Their "ART ROOTS HERE: A recession remedy art exhibit" which runs through June 14th at Big Daddy's Complete Rejuvenating Community Garden in Emeryville (an amazing space curated by Vickie Jo Sowell) is well worth a visit. Here is a 16-image slideshow that admittedly provides more views of the radiant people than the art. You'll just have to go see the show yourself to partake! I'll post again about these artists because they are making RAINSTICKS... soon!

Welcome, Krishna Mayur

Beauty of Water welcomes our new publicist and planner, Krishna Mayur from Hyderabad. A professional business consultant with specialty in public relations and communication, he also promotes community events such as blood donations and recycling programs.

Krishna Mayur is passionate about the environment, especially water. He has already come up with immediately actionable ideas for focusing appreciation on water through artistic expression. We are thrilled to have his collaboration in Beauty of Water!

Pongala Festival

Today is Pongala, an annual, sacred festival held in Trivandrum to honor the Goddess. At 5:30am I arose and walked 5k to the home of dear friends Susan and Dr. Raj, who live near Attukal Temple, locus of the event. Most of the 2 million or more women attending, mainly Keralite Hindus, were already in preparation.

Here are two short videos with ambient sound taken on my walk home at 10:00am. The first shows women getting water used in cooking, and the second, taken across from where I live, shows lighting of fires, which happens at an auspicious time. Women line the streets beyond what the eye can see; men stay indoors or serve the devotees in some capacity while they make delicious, sweet, porridge-like payasam.

Update

• I am deep in the throes of grant proposal writing, please wish us luck!
• A very exciting art installation called Lucid has been conceived by Latha Kurien Rajeev and me, with influences and input from many. More on this one day soon!
• There are also signs of growth for Watermark, a show of solo works and performance on the theme of appreciation for water.
• In January I started my journey toward a research-based PhD from the School of Arts and Humanities at Oxford Brookes University, under Shelley Sacks of the Social Sculpture Research Unit.
• It's unseasonably hot in Trivandrum and throughout Kerala! Water is on everybody's minds...

Peace to all.