priyasebastian

[priyasebastian]

There are things that cannot ever occur with any precision. They are too big and too magnificent to be contained in mere facts. They are merely trying to occur; they are checking whether the ground of reality can carry them. And they quickly withdraw, fearing to lose their integrity in the frailty of realization.

~ Bruno Schulz’s Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass 

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at Musee de Cluny

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I got what I came to Paris for.

34 years ago, during a cold, bleak November, as a new art student, I had looked at The Shell by Odilon Redon at the Musee d’Orsay for the first time. I had no idea then what pastel was and I did not know that there existed a profession called Illustration. All I remember was looking at the painting of the shell with longing and telling myself that I too wanted to produce work with this level of beauty.

Today, three decades later, I stood before at this very same painting again during a brilliant, sparkling summer day in Paris and gave thanks for all sublime moments and extreme challenges that had brought me to where I am right now in my life and in my work. I realized that it is at this point that I had come to a full circle on my path. I have much gratitude for the flame of inspiration that this painting has kept alive within me all these years.

In retrospect, art does have the ability to change us, but its effects are so subliminal and over such a long period of time that it is imperceptible.

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The virtue of travelling is that it purges life before filling it up. ~ Nicolas Bouvier

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“Let go of the ways you thought life would unfold: the holding of plans or dreams or expectations – Let it all go. Save your strength to swim with the tide. The choice to fight what is here before you now will only result in struggle, fear, and desperate attempts to flee from the very energy you long for. Let go. Let it all go and flow with the grace that washes through your days whether you received it gently or with all your quills raised to defend against invaders. Take this on faith; the mind may never find the explanations that it seeks, but you will move forward nonetheless. Let go, and the wave’s crest will carry you to unknown shores, beyond your wildest dreams or destinations. Let it all go and find the place of rest and peace, and certain transformation.”

— Danna Faulds, Let it Go

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This beautiful home could be the setting in a French art film that I have walked into, with actors wearing clothes in beautiful colour combinations and speaking English in charming French accents while discussing the complexities of human relationships. But then of course this is reality and I am part of it for what in retrospect will be the blink of an eye.

J's home.

Maire d'Ivry, France

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Flowers floating on the lake

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I will plant my hands in the garden I will grow I know I know I know

~ Another Birth. Forugh Farrokhzad

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Seb

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Some sketches and drawings from my holiday at Padukere in Udupi

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I forced myself to stay, to examine these (African) masks, all these objects that people had created with a sacred, magical purpose, to serve as intermediaries between them and the unknown, hostile forces surrounding them, attempting in that way to overcome their fears by giving them colour and form. And then I understood what painting really meant. It’s not an aesthetic process; it’s a form of magic that interposes itself between us and the hostile universe, a means of seizing power by imposing a form on our terrors as well as on our desires. The day I understood that, I had found my path.

~ Pablo Picasso from Notoriously Cruel: Should We Cancel Picasso

The Guardian

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Looks good this way. Many thanks to Creative Director Sukriti, for sending these PDFs my way.

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So that's it then. The last of my four illustrations for Saba's monthly column in The Hindu Magazine.

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Regal, badass.