‘DOT TO DOT’: A beautiful journey

‘Dot to Dot’ exhibition of painter Rupali Thombre starts at ‘Chinha Online Art Gallery’ from 1st May. A picture is not just a creation of pure technical shapes, it is important that the painter has a thought behind this creation. This is exactly what drives the thinking behind Rupali’s ‘Dot to Dot’ series of paintings. When a painter meditates deeply, such piece of art is created. That’s the reason why Satish Naik, the Editor of ‘Chinha’, chose Rupali Thombre’s paintings for this Online Art Gallery, so that Rupali Thombre gets a wider platform through Chinha’s Gallery and her pictures reach the fans all over the world.
Rupali has expressed her thoughts and the concept behind her ‘Dot to Dot’ exhibition in the following article. You can also watch the online exhibition by clicking on the link given with the article. While, you can physically visit the exhibition at Trident Art Gallery, Nariman Point till 07th May 2023.

“The circumference of the circle cannot be drawn without getting a centre”

This line of Marathi textbooks, while in school, is still deeply engraved in my memory. Do some introspection and you will automatically realize and experience the completeness of God’s universe. This thought deeply transforms the full ambit of that pattern which uses both the centre and the circle. Every creation of this universe originates from one point. The point may be the microscopic origin of a foetus, or the gigantic Sun. And from the beginning of that creativity, starts a journey called life.

Whatever I did not see or have seen in this journey, I got to experience it in this shape of a ‘DOT’ and that is why, I concluded that only a ‘DOT’ will be able to present all my observations and experiences. Thus, started the onward journey from one ‘DOT’ to millions of ‘DOTs’.

DOT is one entity; it can be visible as minute as possible, or it can be as vast and limitless as one can imagine. And one of the forms of these dots is a circle …a shape bounded and disciplined by the radius, a series of countless dots, dividing two worlds completely and still able to reach its centre. This seamless shape has been a part of our lives from childhood to adulthood, increasing the curiosity about it, every time it manifests into various forms. From time to time, it is this experience of its myriad forms that has been reflecting in my art. 

The curiosity about it just keeps growing over and over again. While working, the experience of it in different forms was useful as a supplementary to my art. I would be overwhelmed by the galaxies in the sky and today the same has come down on my canvas. My only means of presenting happiness, sorrow, experience, moments on paper are in the form of DOTs… black, white, transparent, opaque, colorful, small, large, hollow, rigid…. all kinds.

They get poured with the flow of ink giving visual forms and shapes to the ideas in my mind. I saw the ball, marbles in the hands of my son and unknowingly entered the world of childhood. During childhood, the first and the dearest plaything in the hands of a child for a long time is a ball. From then on, there has been a strong attachment with the round shape and has grown stronger. After that when in school, it started with a line. I liked the circular twirling lines by pencil over the simple ones. After a short spell, I was introduced to Zero and today Zero has become an important part of my life. I strongly think that creation of the universe can be from Zero only. The eyeballs, the planets-satellites, the atomic molecules, the wheel of history, all have found new patterns of this round shape.

Of all the graphical figures in geometry, the circle came as a part of the masterpiece. Beautiful compositions are made from the right use of points, circles, and rounds. Today, the same compositions have come to my life in the form of drawings. I experienced how a dotted spot filled with paint can be so beautiful, and thus, a different place of the ‘DOT’ was created in mind.

After successfully completing many such cycles of new classes, new studies and finally, the examinations in school, life has now leaped into a new arena.

The cycle of the job is like a wheel gyrating without stopping anywhere. As my job is in the oil industry, my favorite DOT came to life in the form of an oil drop. While managing the oil wells, I realized that the size of the well, its starting and goal, its design, and its units of measurement, started to blend in with the figures in mind. In the software, when oil fields like ‘Bombay High’ are viewed from a very high altitude, the view matched perfectly with the stars in the sky – the constellations. It was thus stored in my mind for so many years.

All the stars of the heavens and the earth started making constellations of thoughts and emotions in the space of my mind. My thoughts got a new direction. New ideas emerged. These thoughts and ideas got associated with pencil and colours. Thoughts and ideas crisscrossed in all the directions, and thus formation of arrays of stars started to form on paper. Such designs of constellations are an important part of my pictures.

These ideas in the form of dots transformed on black paper with the help of ear buds, straws, and empty bottle lids. In fact, it would be wrong to say black paper in respect of my pictures. Because, although the backgrounds of these pictures are still in black, black paper has not been used. On the contrary, this natural colour is formed by giving more than 15 light layers of ink in different colours, mixed with water on white paper. It was filled and spread with positivity, depicting different stages of mind, and various thoughts, thus a picture showing different ideas was completed.

As soon as the treasure in mind started emptying itself onto the canvas, all the senses were activated to absorb the rich experiences of the surroundings.

It is worth mentioning here an experience I had once. Often the kitchen utensils, cups, glasses are all out in the hall if there is a child in the house. Once in a similar situation, the arrangement of these utensils attracted my attention. The beautiful design made by those glazed circles of lesser or greater diameter became a subject in my mind. When I saw the Braille script which brought knowledge in the life of those who lost their eyesight,  the wheels of thought were stuck in the eyeballs. While passing through the cycle of life, overcoming the calamities in a positive way, the bond of relationships and many such things gave me an experience to expand my horizons which I painted on paper.

It is presented in such a way that the viewer visualises many different stories in his mind. Just like a picture that might see a growing festival of moon’s crescents, but the idea behind it is not only to make the moon appear in a different form but also that in every form the moon is a special stage of life.
The full moon night’s beauty is wonderful. But the travel of lunar crescent should also be considered as beautiful. The meaning here is that even if a person does not have everything or some things might be incomplete today, yet life is never meaningless. That imperfection also has the urge to show something in the form of emotions, and that too makes life beautiful.

It is presented in such a way that the viewer visualises many different stories in his mind. Just like a picture that might see a growing festival of moon’s crescents, but the idea behind it is not only to make the moon appear in a different form but also that in every form the moon is a special stage of life.
The full moon night’s beauty is wonderful. But the travel of lunar crescent should also be considered as beautiful. The meaning here is that even if a person does not have everything or some things might be incomplete today, yet life is never meaningless. That imperfection also has the urge to show something in the form of emotions, and that too makes life beautiful.

TO visit Rupali’s online art gallery click on link below. 

DOT TO DOT

Once you overcome the difficulties with continuing efforts and find ways to reach happiness, the person reaches the increasing perfection like the lunar cycle. Every moment in life is beautiful and offers something. For that one’s self-belief should be strong. Similarly, when the rings came together to present invisible experiences with visual experiences, I experienced spiritual satisfaction.

The complexity and hollowness of mind, the  feeling of belonging, the emotion attached to relationships, the struggle in life, the moment of joy emerging from it is realized, but to present them to the world … a thought, a revolving circle around, positive and negative thoughts and their effects are important. It is difficult to convert all these into a picture but, making repeated changes in the impossible things brings about a change and it the impossible possible.

The journey of moments started from the point of ‘I’ is the life; everyone goes from immaturity to maturity. The colour fountain is spotted when the apparently colourless Dot is broken with perpetual attempts. Thus, the DOT … the CIRCLE… the SPHERE gets a new life. A new meaning is created.
And my paintings and pictures are a visual form of such invisible feelings and such impossible colourless DOTS that have reached the highest pinnacle soaked in colours and joy, a spherical ball … DOT to DOT.

*****

– Rupali Thombare