Ambika Thiagarajan
5/25/2021
5/25/2021
Road & Train Trips
Nothing like traveling and gaining experiences from it. The part that excites me the most is what I see and feel on the way to a particular place. The excitement, the anticipation- I love all of it.
Mixed Media on Canvas, 36 x 48 in. (SOLD)
This piece is an interpretation of the magnificent sight of the ocean visible from the local train I used to take up to LA. I would always make sure I had my ear phones and a good book before I boarded. The first thing I did before I got myself comfortably seated would always be to check to see where the cafeteria was. The journey lasts around two and a half hours and there's no way I could go without a little something to keep me from getting grumpy. Especially when you're seated with not much to do, fewer distractions, it's hard not to get hungry....you know how it is.
I try to sit in a different orientation every time as much as possible. I always felt like doing that will give me a creative pinch to think differently. I was not really into painting at that time during my trips to LA, it was more for the Performing Arts world, but I still needed to make sure I absorbed my surroundings like a sponge. Human interaction and behavior was my greatest interest and that hasn't changed till this very day.
I remember this one girl who had a little sketchbook inventing these amazing illustrations of the interiors of the train. I tried to act like I wasn't watching her sketch, but I just couldn't help myself. She was so into it, so involved with her act of creativity, that it was amusing to watch how concentrated someone can be. To throw yourself into your imagination and express yourself is everything I love doing and it was a pleasure to watch an Artist do it even outside of her studio. I was instantly inspired to bring my sketchbook with me for my next trip and promised myself I would. Did I actually? No. I forgot every time.
The thoughts that run through your head while you go on a train just feel...peculiar. I feel like it's a time given to you to analyze what's really going on in your life and how you want to tamper with it to make things better for you. It's a kind of silence thrown my way, silence from the routine, silence from human connections, silence from the ''next'' thing to do. A silence that I needed more than I ever thought I did. So amazingly beneficial.
I try to sit in a different orientation every time as much as possible. I always felt like doing that will give me a creative pinch to think differently. I was not really into painting at that time during my trips to LA, it was more for the Performing Arts world, but I still needed to make sure I absorbed my surroundings like a sponge. Human interaction and behavior was my greatest interest and that hasn't changed till this very day.
I remember this one girl who had a little sketchbook inventing these amazing illustrations of the interiors of the train. I tried to act like I wasn't watching her sketch, but I just couldn't help myself. She was so into it, so involved with her act of creativity, that it was amusing to watch how concentrated someone can be. To throw yourself into your imagination and express yourself is everything I love doing and it was a pleasure to watch an Artist do it even outside of her studio. I was instantly inspired to bring my sketchbook with me for my next trip and promised myself I would. Did I actually? No. I forgot every time.
The thoughts that run through your head while you go on a train just feel...peculiar. I feel like it's a time given to you to analyze what's really going on in your life and how you want to tamper with it to make things better for you. It's a kind of silence thrown my way, silence from the routine, silence from human connections, silence from the ''next'' thing to do. A silence that I needed more than I ever thought I did. So amazingly beneficial.
Mixed Media on Canvas, 24 x 48 in. each
This diptych represents a combination of looking out the train as well as car windows in India. Something about the beautiful dense sap greens, some very peculiar yellow greens that I just can't seem to find here in America, speak to my soul. What I truly savor are those little moments and holes that you can find the distant sky in between the stunning Desi vegetation....as if to break the unevenness of mother nature. An unevenness, so phenomenal, that somehow it all makes sense to me.
Growing up, I was never one to enjoy long journeys due to my severe motion sickness. However, once the journey was lengthy enough, it would come to that point wherein my queasy feelings would have long passed as my body adjusted to the state of travel. My mind slowly proceeds to a kind of trace where I drift into some intense day dreaming. My imagination is unlocked and set free into the wildest of wilds. The visuals I experience as I stare out the window play a major role in the manifestation of these thoughts and imagery.
Growing up, I was never one to enjoy long journeys due to my severe motion sickness. However, once the journey was lengthy enough, it would come to that point wherein my queasy feelings would have long passed as my body adjusted to the state of travel. My mind slowly proceeds to a kind of trace where I drift into some intense day dreaming. My imagination is unlocked and set free into the wildest of wilds. The visuals I experience as I stare out the window play a major role in the manifestation of these thoughts and imagery.
Mixed Media, 36 x 48 in.
This painting speaks to the changing skies I often witness towards the end of the day as we head on home from a day filled with new adventures in an unfamiliar city. The evening sky unfolding into nighttime is such a breathtaking phenomenon and almost serves as a metaphor to the beginning and end of life itself. Almost like falling asleep as your eyes slowly close and experiencing all that haze while that happens....
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