Celebration
The Celebration series looks back at my immigration journey that spanned over a decade since I was 18. On each of the paintings in this series, I wrote the name of one of the many immigrations forms I had to fill out. The names are always a random mix of letters and numbers like 1040-A or I-120A, which were often intimidating codes impossible to understand.
The colors on each painting coincides with an outfit my mother wore during a celebration I missed at home in Kathmandu. I printed out photos of my mom sent from home as my color references.
Overall, the Celebration series celebrates the end to a grueling immigration process while acknowledging having sacrificed the most valuable thing in life
-my time with family - so many pujas, jatras, purnimas, birthdays, Dashains, Tihars missed.
Often the immigration process is a source of shame for immigrants, and they often don’t talk about it. I imagine a time when immigrants will be celebrated, and the immigration journey becomes something to celebrate.
Celebration 1 Acrylic ink on paper 18” X 24”
Celebration 2 Acrylic ink on paper 18” X 24”
Celebration 3 Acrylic ink on paper 18” X 24”
Celebration 4 Acrylic ink on paper 18” X 24”
Celebration 5 Acrylic ink on paper 18” X 24”
Celebration 6 Acrylic ink on paper 18” X 24”
Celebration 7 Acrylic ink on paper 18” X 24”
Celebration 8 Acrylic ink on paper 18” X 24”
Celebration 9 Acrylic ink on paper 18” X 24”
Celebration 10 Acrylic ink on paper 18” X 24”
Celebration 11 Acrylic ink on paper 18” X 24”
Celebration 12 Acrylic ink on paper 18” X 24”
Celebration 13 Acrylic ink on paper 18” X 24”
Celebration 14 Acrylic ink on paper 18” X 24”
Celebration 15 Acrylic ink on paper 18” X 24”
Devi
Devi is a sub-series within the Celebration Series. My Devi paintings are portraits of my mother during one of my favorite Nepali festivals, Tihar. I stacked the names of the last three immigration forms I had to fill out to apply for my Green Card. Devi is my mother’s middle name and also means goddess in Sanskrit. In Devi, the gold whips represent the fierce energy my mother exudes and the energy I like to think I have or at least temporarily possessed as I went through the long immigration journey. The delicate but fierce gold gestures radiate off the canvas and on to the walls because the energy cannot be contained in a small space and must have the colossal presence that most of my murals embody.
Devi 1 Acrylic ink on canvas 30”X40” 2021
Devi 2 Acrylic ink on canvas 30”X40” 2021
Devi 3 Acrylic ink on canvas 30”X40” 2021
Home, too.
Inspired by my Home series, I have been painting these lettering patterns doing them again and again to make them balanced without any measurements or guidelines. The symmetry simply depends on the precision of my brush strokes and I regulate my breath to achieve this.
The paper I’m painting these on is very special to me. I brought them from Nepal from a paper store in the old part of Kathmandu where my dad grew up. The roads aren’t wide enough for cars so me and my dad went on his motorbike and carried the roles of paper on the back of the bike.
A bit of a scary ride back home but my dad supported me on this venture and it was special trip we made. It was really worth it especially given that I haven’t been able to see my dad for a year and a half due to COVID.
I have a limited stack of this paper and I know I won’t always get this paper the same way forever. I am thinking about how this piece came to be and the journey it took. Of course, I’m thinking of home some more and the objects I collected with my father.
Untitled Ink 1, 20”X30” Ink on Nepali Handmade Paper, 2020
Untitled Ink 2, 20”X30” Ink on Nepali Handmade Paper, 2020
Untitled Ink 3, 20”X30” Ink on Nepali Handmade Paper, 2020
Untitled Ink 4, 20”X30” Ink on Nepali Handmade Paper, 2020
Untitled Ink 5, 20”X30” Ink on Nepali Handmade Paper, 2020
Untitled Ink 6, 20”X30” Ink on Nepali Handmade Paper, 2020
Untitled Ink 7, 20”X30” Ink on Nepali Handmade Paper, 2020
Untitled Ink 8, 20”X30” Ink on Nepali Handmade Paper, 2020
Untitled Ink 9, 20”X30” Ink on Nepali Handmade Paper, 2020
Home
Home 1, Home 2
24”X24”
Acrylic on wood panel
2020
When the crisis began and people began to realize they would be stuck indoors for a long time, everybody wanted to be home.For me, flying back to Nepal to my parents’ place didn’t feel like a good option because I wasn’t sure if I would be able to come back as I assumed the travel restrictions would only grow.
Right now, I miss home. I want to be surrounded by the comfort of home when the world feels like it is ending.
In my painting series Home, I repeatedly paint the first letter of the Nepali alphabet Against blue backgrounds. Blue feels calming to me and it is also the color of the sky everywhere in the world. I believe that we are all in this together; all of us want to be home.
Unlike most of my paintings, I did not paint a word or phrase as Im finding it hard to come up with a message or a mantra during these turbulent times.
So I turned to writing the same letter over and over again with as much precision as I could. To paint each letter I held my breathe at the same points every time to get an even pressure on certain parts of the letter and this process became a meditation.
Repetition took the feeling of uncertainty away and welcomed a feeling of familiar comfort...just like home.
2019 and earlier
Manu-rach 30”X30” Acrylic and aersol on wood pane 2019
Moksha 1, 16"X16", mixed media on panel, 2019
Moksha 2, 16"X16", mixed media on panel, 2019
Moksha 3, 16"X16", mixed media on panel, 2019
Ashcharya 2 30”X30” Acrylic and aerosol on wood panel 2019
