Faith and Fear

Most my thoughts get converted to graphics. Sometimes though writing them feels like a necessity. Here is one such thought that's been troubling me for a while now, put into words. Still, writing does not mean I won't do artwork. I used calligraphy for the title using a crow quill nib and a cursive freestyle hand. In case you find it difficult to read in this image, scroll down for a typed version.

Faith and Fear

I started questioning faith

It had begun to interrupt humanity

It looked like a stranger.

I am unable to decide the state of my mind.

Am I lost or am I mistaken?

Deceived by a thought?

The struggle goes on,

the answer has to be sought.

Faith has transformed into fear

Fear of the undesired,
results not wont.

Rituals have become rules
Rules born of mistrust and unsettled minds.

Sense has turned selfish

Sensitivity has grown unkind

How a demon it has bred?

Faith divine.

Such faith is not inborn but implanted
Implanted in the mind,
implanted out of fear,
that a child may trust where parent not desire.
A faith that is lodged in the mind and it rots.

Let faith be discovered
and embraced by a receiving heart.
Force nothing of this delicate being,
with fear only fear will be got.

Pragya Goenka

back with video

I know I've been away from here for a very long time. The technology is why, even though I am not much of a tech savvy. I am not the person to jump at anything new that comes along. So I started with instagram pretty late, partly also because they took some time to come to android and I don't have an iphone. But since I decided to finally start using instagram, I got addicted. It is such an easy way to keep a daily dose of inspiration handy. It also motivated me to practice my lettering and calligraphy more regularly as the response I was getting on my posts was exciting. So not only have I been spending a lot of time trying out new writing styles and practicing my good old hand, I have also learnt how to shoot and edit videos of the process. I have been enjoying doing this thoroughly. Here are a few samples of what I have been doing these past several months. You can also go over to instagram and check out more such activity @pragyagoenka I'll be posting more videos in the coming few weeks.

type it up

Drawing alphabet may begin when you are still crawling but it definitely goes a long and complex way if you decide to keep drawing them for a living. So I made this seemingly ridiculous (for those who aren't in this field already) decision a while back when advertising started to bore me and graphic design just wasn't enough. Typography, type design, lettering and calligraphy (yes, they are all very different from each other) wasn't new for me, I just never gave it the attention it needed. So now I have been correcting my mistakes and indulging my passion with professional seriousness. The best part, doodling and scribbling for creating main pieces gives opportunity to so many small fun pieces. I have shared my word doodles here before, but this time I went a step ahead and explored application of these designs. Here are some of my letter sketches making objects of daily use a little bit more interesting. If you like this and want to see more of my type scribbles, doodles and finished works, follow me on instagram @pragyagoenka

I sprinkled this empty shampoo bottle with sparkle and painted the words with acrylic paint.  

Here's a fun tote. A little freehand sketching and very little acrylic paint. 

Well these are just mock ups, but don't they look cute.

August 23, 2015 Coorg - nature and soul

Have you been to paradise lately? It has smooth winding roads surrounded by green slopes of unripe coffee bean plants, with garlands of big pink bell like wild flowers over fencing bushes, paddy fields at a little distance down the slopes and far away a view of hills, blue and dreamy, wearing dark rain clouds like a scarf. Tour operators and websites may tell you to visit Coorg in the winters to smell the coffee bloom, but if you want to experience nature at its most beautiful visit during monsoons like we (my husband and I) did last month.

Whether you are a tourist or a traveller, skip the hotels this time. Homestays are aplenty in Coorg and I believe the one we chose must be the best. At a comfortable distance from the two main towns of Kodagu (local for Coorg), nestled in the middle of a coffee estate, a vegetable garden and rows of hydrangeas and anthuriums this family home built in the old english style is Souland Estates Homestay. I could say that this home is exactly what you need to enjoy a real, serene and unspoilt place like Coorg to its fullest. While we couldn't get enough of driving around the roads lined by greenery, or walking through the village roads, when we did come back, we came to a warm home filled with so much personality and love, a hotel just cannot match that. The house is filled with personal collections, art, trinkets and books. Walking through the hallway to the dining room, we had many interesting little things to see on the window sill and the shelves. Everyday I could spot something new. The owners of this beautiful home, Jayprakash and Prabhavati are the kind of people one needs to know. They take you in their home with warm hearts and open arms. We couldn't but call them uncle and aunty with affection after only a couple of hours of being with them. Uncle gave us thoughtful suggestions on places to visit, and it must have taken some thought given our preference of non-popular destinations, recommended hikes and trails, shared interesting stories about his childhood and adulthood and heard to all of our jabber patiently. Aunty took care of our tummies. She cooked the most delicious food and a rasam that I am still attempting to get right. Sipping coffee on the verandah looking at big blue butterflies fluttering around the various blooms, and there were so many for a rainy season, brought us as close to the nature as dodging spider webs and spotting camouflaged frogs while walking in the family's coffee plantation. 

I have so much to share about Coorg I might make a couple of more posts, I will say this however; you could go to Coorg for coffee or for elephants, even for its pleasant weather. But I will suggest you go to Coorg to learn about nature, to see beauty in simplicity, to be a better person. Sit in an open verandah and look at the birds and the insects, the trees and the flowers, the rain and the fog and you will be surprised how easily you will feel better about everything in the world. 

a beautiful wooden cottage on stilts in the middle of the coffee plantation at souland estates homestay

plants in the verandah of souland estates homestay

a vase made of coconut shell and wrought iron chair

i won :)

I decided to send an entry in the poster design competition at typoday2015 this year and guess what, I won :) My poster was selected along with others to be displayed in the exhibition through three days of the event. Being a winner in an international competition is truly an amazing feeling.

A bit about my design now - The subject of the contest was nature to be represented typographically. I created an ambigram of the words Nature is God. It means when you rotate the artwork by 180 degrees, it is still readable and reads God is Nature is this case. If you want to see the detailed process of how I created this typographic design click here. 

growing up

GROWING UP 

As a child I wouldn’t bother 

I would run to those urchins. 

I’d not know their names or families they come from 

Only smiles on their faces I would recognise 

And water dripping from hair 

flowing from forehead to the cheeks, 

Forming little droplets under the chin 

Lingering for a second and then falling, 

Their laughter was all I’d hear 

And know their eyes are calling. 

Calling to make splashes in the pot-holes and see 

little paper bits melt away 

To watch our faces dissolve in ripples 

and form again with settling waves 

To be drenched in the pools collected below 

And the rain falling from clouds hanging low 

To be drenched with water - 

Be wet and cold, 

And have my heart drenched with and behold - 

Happiness. 

Not denied but only by me who put too much faith 

in propriety that comes with age. 

The walls I made all around 

To keep away the storm and thunder 

What a pity, I let it succeed 

In taking away the rain from me 

the splashes, the ripples, the laughter, the wonder. 

One rainy evening when I was doing this experimental shoot 

by the window of my room, I saw some kids playing outside 

in the rain. Although I don't mind getting wet in the rains 

sometimes, the unihibited and free frolic of those kids made 

me think.

word doodles

A few pages from my diary. 

Word doodles are my favourite type of doodles.