Artist Sukanya Garg

Kashi to Kathmandu Art Camp by Sukanya Garg

The Kashi to Kathmandu Art Camp was a jubilant experience, providing a platform to harmonize cross-cultural artistic talents. Being my first art camp, it was a great learning opportunity. Meeting people from various artistic disciplines and different regions of not just Nepal, but also India, I felt inspired by the new cultural elements and stories of other participants as well as the communications I had with the local Nepalese people. Visits to sights like the Pashupatinath Temple and the Boudhanath stupa urged me to self-introspect and to re-think the cycle of birth, life and death. While the funeral ghats evoked a feeling of loss and ephemerality of all life, the Stupa instilled a sense of continuum and calm. My artwork AJNA depicts the third-eye chakra, also called the Ajna, through the union of the two spirals, one composed of eye-like forms as seen on Buddhist monasteries in Nepal and the other composed of “Moli” or the holy thread in Hinduism. Metaphorically, while the work shows a journey inwards towards self-awareness and the awakening of the universal consciousness within us, the symbolism of the eyes and the thread, at the same time, hints at the confluence between Nepal and India. The work is a journey from Kashi to Kathmandu and thereon to the higher realms of consciousness. Subsequently, the Lumbini World Peace Forum Art Camp was a unique endeavour. It was an honor to have the opportunity to paint with fellow artists from India, Nepal and France, against the meditative backdrop of the Boudhanath Stupa surrounded by local people and tourists from across the world admiring our work. It was a memorable day and the pouring rain only further induced spontaneity in our artwork, re-vitalizing our artistic energies, resulting in a beautifully artistic and humbling experience.