In Between Cultures

Back to Maldives..

Lake

Yam Field

Shiny Sand

Islands

Clouds

Went back to Maldives for holidays and these are some of the captures…

The Nelum Pokuna (Lotus Pond) – Mahinda Rajapakse theatre.. it’s a new theatre opened in colombo.. went there a few weeks ago and took these pictures.

the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few
—Spock, Star Trek II

Do not become slaves to needs, appreciate want as well, this is something to keep in mind when selling a product. Giving people reasons why they need it, when in reality they don’t really need it, most of the time, without thinking of the things they want. This happens a lot in advertising doesn’t it. So think about it ^_^

Went to an Art Exhibition at National Art Gallery

Last Friday I went to this exhibition. Paintings from many Sri Lankan artists were exhibited. The old and the new. It exciting to see all the different styles and different mediums.

There were some old comics and film poster paintings as well. Famous peoples paintings and sketches too. A painting of Lady Diana, Mahathma Gandi and Michael Jackson among others. Movie stars like Shahrukh Khan, Amithab Batchan and Saif Ali Khan, etc. Portraits of people, scenes from daily life, still life, it was a good collection.

Keep in mind that the colors you see here in these paintings are not exactly the colors they had. These are pictures of the paintings and they are not even close to the real thing. You have to see them your self to see it’s real beauty. There were a lot more paintings and sketches there. I think these are enough to give an idea of the Exhibition.

Traffic, I hate traffic. Grown up in a small island, where roads are empty most of the time, now living in Colombo were roads are full all the time it’s different. I’m not saying I don’t like the life in Colombo, just the traffic. Took this shot tonight while stuck in traffic.

I ran into these school kids doing a parade. What struck me was the traditional drum the kid is holding. Not because I haven’t seen drums like that before, it’s just that the school bands we have in Maldives (not talking about all the Islands, just the one I grew up in), they don’t use traditional drums. So for me this was kind of new find. I think it’s great that these kids (there school) is mixing traditional instruments and new ones you will find in any school marching band.

Historical Cave of Rajamaha Viharaya

A friend told me about this place, he said it was ruins of a king. My first thought after walking up a gazillion stairs was “hey where are the ruins, it looks more like a temple”.

I headed out with some of my friends 120 km from Colombo to a town called Kuruwita. There we went to a temple; it’s called “The Historical Cave of Rajamaha Viharaya (temple)”.

The temple being in such a height from the sea-level probably shows the importance of it. Rebuilding of some areas in the lower part of the temple was going on, and there were a few shrines of Buddha scattered around the lower part. A steep staircase (this was after the one too many stairs I had to climb) took me to the cave.

First thing that caught my eye was a statue of a huge frog in the middle of a wishing well (deduced this from the coins that were thrown into the well). I’ve been to two other Buddhist temples before but this was the first time I have seen a frog statue.

There were statues and paintings of other deities which looked similar to Hindu gods. A typical dome like shrine which is seen in all the other temples and a standing Buddha statue (it might be the statue of Rajamaha) was there too. Stories or parts of the same story were painted on the uneven walls of the cave mostly near the entrance to the main chamber which had a huge (around 20 ft) statue of the resting or sleeping Buddha inside it. Some of these paintings were reliefs.

At the entrance to the main chamber there was a sign which said “It’s not allowed to take pictures inside”. So no pictures of inside the chamber. From the looks of it the huge statue was carved out from the walls of the cave itself. The workers who made it must have cut the rocky walls and made the statue. The walls behind the Buddha statue had an aura painted in blues, yellows, reds, and greens which continued all the way to the other side of the chamber. For me this aura was confusing, because I couldn’t decide if it was a protective shielding or energy radiating from the Buddha statue. This was because the first four aura lines came closer the last one to the previous as they got away from him, suggesting it’s a barrier but from the fifth the aura lines goes far apart suggesting it’s being radiated.

There were two other statues, one wearing a garment that had wavy lines. From his posture and clothing he probably was the high priest. And the other statue was in a throne like place, inside a veil. This probably was The Rajamaha. The walls behind these two statues had drawings on them depicting a story. These two statues were facing the Sleeping Buddha statue.

Sri Lankan fishermen at work. Captured this shot on a boat ride a while back. Me and some friends, we hired a fisherman to take us on a ride. It was fun. ^_^

Something I wrote to promote myself. The best part is I found some Photoshoped images of myself that I did some time back that matches with the Copy, So there they are glued together.

“Ever heard of a Photoshop Guru? Nooo! I’m not him… I’m his Guru ^_^” - the picture shows a photoshoped me. It was done around 2007 or 2008 I think, so be gentle at my skills back then ;)

“Seriously? you never heard of me?” - the picture shows myself as Osama Bin Laden. This was done around \2009, I think.

What is better than an Ad campaign to demonstrate the effectiveness of the product!

That is what Faber Castell did with this Ad campaign. The German pencil/pen manufacturer teamed up with Chan Hwee Chong, a Singapore-based art director and designer. Chong uses a single long line to create spiral recreations of famous artworks.

Single line reproduction of “Self Portrait by Van Gogh”

Single line reproduction of “Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci”

Single line reproduction of “Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer”

Chan Hwee Chong created these spiral illustrations using Faber Castell pens, starting with a blank canvas and drawing a continuous line in a spiral. He does this with incredible detail.

This isn’t the first time Faber Castell showed their Pen/pencils with a sketch or a drawing. They have done it in the past too, but this stood out to me because of the technique used.