#aparna's art

[leaflessart]

Half the year is over but i never posted the illustrations for a calendar i made for myself

[psikonauti]

Aparna Rajan (Indonesian)

Serenity, 2020

Acrylic on Canvas

[inmyworldblr]

Nirjan Saikate (1963) // Akash Kusum (1965) // film poster comparison

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Nirjan Saikate (The Desolate Beach) - dir, Tapan Sinha

Akash Kusum (Up in the Clouds) - dir. Mrinal Sen

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[pigs-in-art]

Illustration by Aparna Nair-Kanneganti

[damzelsart]

Leo Ravence from The Phoenix King

ig: @/damzelsart

[laurastudarus]

While fiction can include fantastic world-building — or at the very least, an alternative view of real-world events — nonfiction gives us a glimpse into how the world actually works. What is our shared history? Where do we find our joy? And how do we sand down the rough edges of society so more people can thrive? Telling a true story, whether it’s rooted in personal experience or simply a passionate idea, is no easy task. Ultimately, it requires a willingness to take readers on a ride through history, be it personal, factual, or scientific. And though that can be intense, it can also be thrilling.

(via Five Women Bringing New Life to Nonfiction)

[sad-boys-book-club]

"&" Ampersand - A Literary Companion

Selected stories with the themes of Bastille's upcoming project "&" Ampersand. And, of course, a love letter to my favourite band.

PART 1

Intros & Narrators: Wallace, David Foster. Oblivion: Stories. Little, Brown and Company, 2004./ Nancherla, Aparna. Unreliable Narrator: Me, Myself, and Impostor Syndrome. Penguin Publishing Group, 2023.// Eve & Paradise Lost: Bohannon, Cat. Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2023. / Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Alma Classics, 2019.// Emily & Her Penthouse In The Sky: Dickinson, Emily. Emily Dickinson’s Poems: As She Preserved Them. Harvard University Press, 2016. /Dickinson, Emily. Emily Dickinson: Letters. Edited by Emily Fragos, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011.// Blue Sky & The Painter: Prideaux, Sue. Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream. Yale University Press, 2019. / Knausgaard, Karl Ove. So Much Longing in So Little Space: The Art of Edvard Munch. Random House, 2019.//

PART 2

Leonard & Marianne: Hesthamar, Kari. So Long, Marianne: A Love Story - Includes Rare Material by Leonard Cohen. Ecw Press, 2014./ Cohen, Leonard. Book of Longing. Penguin Books Limited, 2007.// Marie & Polonium: Curie, Eve. Madame Curie. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013./Sobel, Dava. The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2024.// Red Wine & Wilde: Wilde, Oscar, et al. De Profundis. Harry N. Abrams, 1998./ Sturgis, Matthew. Oscar: A Life. Head of Zeus, 2018.// Seasons & Narcissus: Ovid. Metamorphoses: A New Verse Translation. Penguin, 2004./ Morales, Helen. Antigone Rising: The Subversive Power of the Ancient Myths. PublicAffairs, 2020.//

PART 3

Drawbridge & The Baroness: Rothschild, Hannah. The Baroness: The Search for Nica, the Rebellious Rothschild. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013./ Katz, Judy H. White Awareness: Handbook for Anti-racism Training. University of Oklahoma Press, 1978.// The Soprano & Her Midnight Wonderings: Ardoin, John, and Gerald Fitzgerald. Callas: The Art and the Life. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974./ Abramovic, Marina. 7 Deaths of Maria Callas. Damiani, 2020.// Essie & Paul: Ransby, Barbara. Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson. Haymarket Books, 2022./ Robeson, Paul. Here I Stand. Beacon Press, 1998.//

PART 4

Mademoiselle & The Nunnery Blaze: Gautier, Theophile. Mademoiselle de Maupin. Penguin Classics, n.d./ Gardiner, Kelly. Goddess. HarperCollins, 2014.// Zheng Yi Sao & Questions For Her: Chang-Eppig, Rita. Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023./ Borges, Jorge Luis. A Universal History of Infamy. Penguin Books, 1975. // Telegraph Road 1977 & 2024: Kaufman, Bob. Golden Sardine. City Lights Books, 1976./ Wolfe, Tom. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Pan Macmillan Australia Pty, Limited, 2008.

Original artwork created by Theo Hersey & Dan Smith. Printed letterpress at The Typography Workshop, South London.

[picturethisshow]

#LA & #Livestream SUMMER & #PRIDE are about to be ANIMATED LIVE!! ☀️🏳️‍🌈 We're back at @thevirgilbar FRIDAY 6/21 with cool drinks (and AC) and HOT COMEDY!!

Comedy by: Aparna Nancherla (The Great North) Solomon Georgio (After Midnight, Conan) Jared Goldstein (Comedy Central) Quan'Darius Padilla (Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club) Alice Brenner (Dry Mouth Comedy) Irene Tu (VICELAND)

Animation by: Mike Hollingsworth (BoJack Horseman) Jorge Gutierrez (Emmy & Annie Winner!) Alayna Cabral (Disney) Mike Mayfield (Comedy Central) Alex Salyer (Big Mouth) Jenny Fine (The New Yorker)

Hosted by: Brandie Posey (Lady to Lady)

FRIDAY 6/21 7:30 doors 8pmPT show/livestream

LIVE SHOW TICKETS: $10 pre-sale, $15 day-of  https://www.thevirgil.com/#/events/101162 21+ / Lineup subject to change without notice LIVESTREAM ONLY: $10  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/621-livestream-only-picture-this-live-animated-comedy-tickets-914835566807?aff=oddtdtcreator *Not all performers guaranteed to be on the livestream

Flier Art by Alayna Cabral

[aparnaphysiotherapy]

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Plus, many more therapies customized to suit your individual needs!

At Aparna's Physiotherapy Clinic, we take pride in offering:

✨ Highly skilled and experienced physiotherapists ✨ State-of-the-art equipment and technology ✨ Personalized treatment plans ✨ A warm and welcoming environment

Don't let pain hold you back. Aparna's Physiotherapy Clinic is your trusted partner on your path to recovery and well-being. Experience the difference today!

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Elena Isn't Sitting Around Telling Sad Stories of the Deaths of Kings. She's Burning Shit Down

There's a trend in adult fantasy lately of mixing magic and technology and religion in some SUPER interesting ways. I loved it in Fonda Lee's Green Bone Saga, NE Davenport's The Blood Trials, and now in Aparna Verma's The Phoenix King. Quite honestly, I was sold by the Indian-inspired world with morally grey protagonists and firebending, so finding out that there was tech mixing with magic here too was a nice bonus. This book also does one of my favorite things ever, and includes some really stunning character art in the inner cover...of a PAPERBACK. Publishers: More of that, please. I'm going to do my best to avoid spoilers below, because honestly I think more people should read and love this book and it's rich, complex world, phenomenal characters, deliberate pacing, and lovely writing. Let's talk The Phoenix King.

The world of Verma's debut novel explodes onto the pages fully formed, delightfully complex, and on the verge if shattering. Between the Raveni and Jantari enmity, the Ahrohassain twining into those cracks and applying pressure and murder in equal measures, and some twisted history with gods and fire magic, protagonist and heir to Ravence's throne Elena has her work cut out for her.

Elena is the heir to a kingdom and religion that expect her, like their Phoenix, to control fire. The only problem is that our clever, stubborn, ruthless girl cannot, and her father is no help.

Leo, the current king, is grappling with geopolitical machinations, single-parenthood, grief, possibly some low-key madness, and the shattering conflict of wanting his daughter to be a strong queen and maybe not wanting to give up his power. And despite his desperate bids to leave Elena a stable kingdom, bringing in Samson, the landless king with an army, for a political marriage to Elena, just sets everything on the final downward spiral.

And that's before we remember that we have one more wild card in play: Yassen Knight. (Literally it took me this whole book to train myself out of going, "Yassen? As in Gregorovich???" So thanks for nothing there, Anthony Horowitz...) Yassen has all the world-weariness of a soldier who doesn't understand how he is still alive in a world that keeps dragging him back to hell no matter how many times he hears "just one last mission..."

Elena and Yassen's connection is immediate, but their relationship is best described as a slow burn. The parts of each of them that are wounded recognize each other, but it takes their brains a while to catch up.

Generally speaking, the worldbuikdig and character work are the key reasons to read this book. Both are beautifully done independently, and Verma takes it to the next level by having each inform and influence the other. I haven't seen worldbuilding this quietly understated but beautifully intricate in a while, and that background for some genuinely complex characters is just a stunning combination.

I have more to say about this book, but most of it involves fangirling over massive spoilers, so I will leave you for now with a five-star rating and a strong recommendation to read this incredible book. One can only hope that the next two books of the trilogy come out SOON!

[leaflessart]

Really got into mixed media and sketchbooks this year

[psikonauti]

Aparna Rajan (Indonesian)

Serenity, 2020

Acrylic on Canvas

[burlveneer-music]

Carlos Niño & Friends - (I'm just) Chillin', on Fire - 17 blissed-out tracks

Produced, Mixed, Edited, and Arranged by Carlos Niño. Bells, Chimes, Cymbals, Drums, Field Recordings, Flutes, Gongs, Kalimbas, Keyboards, Leaves, Plants, Rattles, Shakers, Sound Design, Synths, Voice, and Whistles throughout by Carlos Niño. Mastered by David Allen. Cover Photo by Annelise. On The Cover and Insert: Tile VI (Fall in or Fly Away), Ceramic, by Aparna Sarkar. Art Direction and Original Elements by Nep Sidhu. Graphic Design and Layout by Craig Hansen.

[byneddiedingo]

The Apu Trilogy

Subir Banerjee in Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)

Cast: Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Chunibala Devi, Uma Das Gupta, Subir Banerjee, Runki Banerjee, Reba Devi, Aparna Devi, Tulsi Chakraborty. Screenplay: Satyajit Ray, based on a novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. Cinematography: Subrata Mitra. Production design: Bansi Chandragupta. Film editing: Dulal Dutta. Music: Ravi Shankar.

When I first saw Pather Panchali I was in my early 20s and unprepared for anything so foreign to my experience either in life or in movies. And as is usual at that age, my response was to mock. So half a century passed, and when I saw it again both the world and I had changed. I now regard it as a transformative experience -- even for one whom the years have transformed. What it shows us is both alien and familiar, and I wonder how I could have missed its resonance with my own childhood: the significance of family, the problems consequent on adherence to a social code, the universal effect of wonder and fear of the unknown, the necessity of art, and so on. Central to it all is Ray's vision of the subject matter and the essential participation of Ravi Shankar's music and Subrata Mitra's cinematography. And of course the extraordinary performances: Kanu Bannerjee as the feckless, deluded father, clinging to a role no longer relevant in his world; Karuna Bannerjee as the long-suffering mother; Uma Das Gupta as Durga, the fated, slightly rebellious daughter; the fascinating Chunibala Devi as the aged "Auntie"; and 8-year-old Subir Banerjee as the wide-eyed Apu. It's still not an immediately accessible film, even for sophisticated Western viewers, but it will always be an essential one, not only as a landmark in the history of movie-making but also as an eye-opening human document of the sort that these fractious times need more than ever.

Smaran Ghosal in Aparajito (Satyajit Ray, 1956)

Cast: Pinaki Sengupta, Smaran Ghosal, Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Ramani Sengupta, Charuprakash Ghosh, Subodh Ganguli. Screenplay: Satayajit Ray, Kanaili Basu, based on a novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. Cinematography: Subrata Mitra. Production design: Bansi Chandragupta. Film editing: Dulal Dutta. Music: Ravi Shankar

As the middle film of a trilogy, Aparajito could have been merely transitional -- think for example of the middle film in The Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Two Towers (Peter Jackson, 2002), which lacks both the tension of a story forming and the release of one ending. But Ray's film stands by itself, as one of the great films about adolescence, that coming-together of a personality. The "Apu trilogy," like its source, the novels by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, is a Bildungsroman, a novel of ... well, the German Bildung can be translated as "education" or "development" or even "personal growth." In Aparajito, the boy Apu (Pinaki Sengupta) sprouts into the adolescent Apu (Smaran Ghosal), as his family moves from their Bengal village to the city of Benares (Varanasi), where Apu's father  continues to work as a priest, while his mother supplements their income as a maid and cook in their apartment house. When his father dies, Apu and his mother move to the village Mansapota, where she works for her uncle and Apu begins to train to follow his father's profession of priest. But the ever-restless Apu persuades his mother to let him attend the village school, where he excels, eventually winning a scholarship to study in Calcutta. In Pather Panchali (1955), the distant train was a symbol for Apu and his sister, Durga, of a world outside; now Apu takes a train into that world, not without the painful but necessary break with his mother. Karuna Bannerjee's portrayal of the mother's heartbreak as she releases her son into the world is unforgettable. Whereas Pather Panchali clung to a limited setting, the decaying home and village of Apu's childhood, the richness of Aparajito lies in its use of various settings: the steep stairs that Apu's father descends and ascends to practice his priestly duties on the Benares riverfront, the isolated village of Mansapota, and the crowded streets of Kolkata, all of them magnificently captured by Subrata Mitra's cinematogaphy.

Soumitra Chatterjee in The World of Apu (Satyajit Ray, 1959)

Cast: Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Swapan Mukherjee, Alok Chakravarty, Dhiresh Majumdar, Dhiren Ghosh. Screenplay: Satyajit Ray, based on a novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. Cinematography: Subrata Mitra. Production design: Bansi Chandragupta. Film editing: Dulal Dutta. Music: Ravi Shankar.

The exquisite conclusion to Ray's trilogy takes Apu (Soumitra Chatterjee) into manhood. He leaves school, unable to afford to continue into university, and begins to support himself by tutoring while trying to write a novel. When his friend Pulu (Swapan Mukherjee) persuades him to go along to the wedding of his cousin, Aparna (Sharmila Tagore), Apu finds himself marrying her: The intended bridegroom turns out to be insane, and when her father and the other villagers insist that the astrological signs indicate that Aparna must marry someone, Apu, the only available male, is persuaded, even though he regards the whole situation as nonsensical superstition, to take on the role of bridegroom. (It's a tribute to both the director and the actors that this plot turn makes complete sense in the context of the film.) After a wonderfully awkward scene in which Apu and Aparna meet for the first time, and another in which Aparna, who has been raised in comparative luxury, comes to terms with the reality of Apu's one-room apartment, the two fall deeply in love. But having returned to her family home for a visit, Aparna dies in childbirth. Apu refuses to see his son, Kajal (Alok Chakravarty), blaming him for Aparna's death and leaving him in the care of the boy's grandfather. He spends the next five years wandering, working for a while in a coal mine, until Pulu finds him and persuades him to see the child. As with Pather Panchali and Aparajito, The World of Apu (aka Apur Sansar) stands alone, its story complete in itself. But it also works beautifully as part of a trilogy. Apu's story often echoes that of his own father, whose desire to become a writer sometimes set him at odds with his family. When, in Pather Panchali, Apu's father returns from a long absence to find his daughter dead and his ancestral home in ruins, he burns the manuscripts of the plays he had tried to write. Apu, during his wanderings after Aparna's death, flings the manuscript of the novel he had been writing to the winds. And just as the railroad train figures as a symbol of the wider world in Pather Panchali, and as the means to escape into it in Aparajito, it plays a role in The World of Apu. Instead of being a remote entity, it's present in Apu's own back yard: His Calcutta apartment looks out onto the railyards of the city. Adjusting to life with Apu, Aparna at one point has to cover her ears at the whistle of a train. Apu's last sight of her is as she boards a train to visit her family. And when he reunites with his son, he tries to play with the boy and a model train engine. The glory of this film is that it has a "happy ending" that is, unlike most of them, completely earned and doesn't fall into false sentiment. I don't use the world "masterpiece" lightly, but The World of Apu, both alone and with its companion films, seems to me to merit it.  

[depressedhangrybitch]

A few more?

The Second Sex, Simone De Beavouir

Vindication Of The Rights Of Women, Mary Wollstonecraft

The Female Eunuch, Germaine Greer

Feminine Mystique, Betty Freidan

Frankenstein, Mary Shelly

Mysteries Of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe

The Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice

The Yellow Wallpaper And Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman

14 Days, Margaret Atwood

Handmaiden's Tale, Margaret Atwood

The Testament, Margaret Atwood

Rebecca, Daphne De Maurier

Freshman's Creek Daphne De Maurier

The Vegetarian, Han Kang

Scum Manifesto, Valerie Solanas

Lives Not Lived, Monica Bhatti

Independence, Chitra Devakurni

A Palace Of Illusions, Chitra Devakurni

Queen Of Spices, Chitra Devakurni

The Robber's Bride, Margaret Atwood

White Malice, Susan Williams

Complete Poems, Emily Bronte

Complete Poems, Elizabeth Barett Browning

Tender Is The Flesh, Sarah Moses

Paradise, Toni Morrison

Beloved, Toni Morrison

Persuasion, Jane Austen

All My Rage, Sabaa Tahir

Agnes Grey, Anne Bronte

Kim Jiyoung Born 1982, Cho Nam Joo

The Water Cure, Sophie Mackintosh

I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman

The Bell Jar, Sylvia Path

The Unabridged Journals Of Sylvia Path, Sylvia Path

Azaadi, Arundhati Roy

The Real Lolita, Sarah Weinman

The Poppy Trilogy, R.F. Kuang

Babel: An Arcane History, R.F. Kuang

If We Were Villains, M.L. Rio

The Secret History, Donna Tartt

The Sati Series, Koral Das Gupta

Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Barett Browning

Lajja, Tasleema Nasrin

Short Stories, Ismant Chugtai

Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell

The Phoenix King, Aparna Verma

Little Women: With Good Wives, Louisa May Alcott

The Song Of Achilles, Madeline Miller

The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert

The Hindus, Wendy Doniger

Cursed Bunny, Bora Chung

Capitalism: An Unknown Ideal, Ayn Rand

The Underground Girls Of Kabul, Jenny Nordberg

Women, Fire And Dangerous Things, Robin Lakoff

The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

White Is For Witching, Helen Oyeyemi

Villain Series, V.E. Schwab

The Feminine Macabre, Don't know the writer

Iron Curtain, Anne Applebaum

The Unwomanly Face Of War, Svetlana Alexievich

The Dark Queens, Shelley Puhak

Ice, Anna Kavan

The Royal Art Of Poison, Eleanor Herman

The Temple Is NOT My Father, Rasana Atreya

Beasts, Joyce Carol Oats

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, Yukio Mishima

The Last Flight, Julie Clark

Swan Theives, Elizabeth Kostova

The Italian, Ann Radcliffe

Revenge, Yoko Ogawa

Bad Behaviour, Mary Gaitskill

The Color Purple, Alice Walker

Forbidden Colors, Yukio Mishima

Thirst For Love, Yukio Mishima

Sister Outsider, Audrey Lorde

Iron Widow Series, Xiran Jay Zhao

That's it?

I will add on more if I remember....

Pls keep in mind some of these books are purely recommended on their writing style rather than their plot.

Best books you've read written by women? I hate reading stuff written by men lately...

Fiction(ish)

The Memory Police, Yoko Ogawa

A Ghost in the Throat, Doireann Ní Ghríofa

Paris, When It's Naked, Etel Adnan

Dept. of Speculation, Jenny Offill

My Sister, The Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite

Possession, A.S. Byatt

Cat's Eye, Margaret Atwood

The Tenderness of Wolves, Stef Penney

The Doll's Alphabet, Camilla Grudova

Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado

The People in the Room, Norah Lange

Água Viva, Clarice Lispector

Collected Stories, Clarice Lispector

The Empty Book, Josefina Vicens

Four Bare Legs in a Bed, Helen Simpson

The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield

A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki

A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, Eimear McBride

The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

Autobiography of Red, Anne Carson

White Teeth, Zadie Smith

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

The Waves and Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf

Non-Fiction:

Second-hand Time: The Last of the Soviets, Svetlana Alexievich

A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit

Bluets, Maggie Nelson

Living, Thinking, Looking, Siri Hustvedt

Feel Free: Essays, Zadie Smith

The Need for Roots, Simone Weil

Family Lexicon, Natalia Ginzburg

An Inventory of Losses, Judith Schalansky

Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi

Little Weirds, Jenny Slate

Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer

Women Who Run with Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Journal of a Solitude, May Sarton

Poetry:

The War Works Hard, Dunya Mikhail

Barefoot Souls and A Red Cherry on a White-Tiled Floor, Maram al-Masri

Tell Me and Wild Nights, Kim Addonizio

What the Living Do, Marie Howe

What We Carry, Dorianne Laux

Extracting the Stone of Madness, Alejandra Pizarnik

Poppies in Translation, Sujata Bhatt

The Neverfield: A Poem, Nathalie Handal

Women of the Fertile Crescent: An Anthology of Modern Poetry by Arab Women

View with a Grain of Sand, Wislawa Szymborska

The Black Unicorn, Audre Lorde

[damzelsart]

[Fan Art: Elena Ravence & Yassen Knight from The Phoenix King by Aparna Verma]

This was the first piece I finished in January and back then, the one thing I didn’t really like about it back then was the skin. So, I decided to touch up this piece, especially the skin, the other day!

ig & twt: damzelsart