The Warli Mural at 313, Foster Street, Durham

It seems unreal – the wall mural has been a fantastic milestone in my art journey of more than 10 years; learning, teaching, and experimenting with Warli as a traditional as well as a contemporary art style. Going from paper to canvas to wood to a wall of this scale seems like a dream! A wonderful, exhilarating experience with my partner-in-crime, Ramya. This mural depicting the history of Durham, using a tribal art style from India has been a true community-driven activity. The support and encouragement by all – family, friends, well-wishers and passers-by – made us feel greatly appreciated. The 10 days just flew by!!

Pic courtesy – Anisha Kumawat, The Picture Lady

My previous three-part blog post talks about the 10 days at the wall –

Part 1 – Onsite Shenanigans – Warli Wall Mural in Durham

Part 2 – Onsite Shenanigans – Warli Wall Mural in Durham

Part 3 – Onsite Shenanigans – Warli Wall Mural in Durham

Once we finished the mural, the amount of historical and contemporary details that we were able to include in the mural, sparked in us a need to document the entire process. Additional interactive activities like a scavenger hunt could also be played by children. So, Downtown Durham Inc (DDI), the non-profit that awarded us the grant to paint the mural, agreed to host a website to house all this information.

That site is – https://downtowndurham.com/warli/! Please do read up about the process of going from the historical pictures to the actual wall renderings plus a fun scavenger hunt!

We were so excited when DDI also proposed to put up a wall plaque with a QR code pointing to this URL, to help vistors of the mural to read up on the background and information onsite!

The plaque with the QR code – pack a picnic basket and play the scavenger hunt with friends and family today!!

Keeping the pandemic rules in mind, there also was a great virtual opening of the wall mural on Wednesday, October 28th at 5:30 pm! Along with our family and Connor Nielsen from DDI, we were so excited to see all the employees of Lexitas attend it. They truly felt like family too. We were super thrilled to have Nicole J. Thompson, President/CEO of DDI check out our wall that evening too!

Nicole, and Connor (from DDI)!

We greatly appreciate the initiative of Anisha Kumawat, a local photographer who runs a photo business The Picture Lady, offer to take pictures of us and the wall on the day of the opening – https://thepicturelady19.pixieset.com/durhamwarlimuralwallinauguration/

We surely appreciate the support of Shilpa Govind, a local entrepreneur-turned-friend, who runs a platform called Localista that promotes local businesses, highlight our mural painting effort just when we were starting our endeavor. Here is that FB interview – https://www.facebook.com/719028738/videos/10158312837158739/

We were doubly fortunate to have her come to the mural wall and interview us on the opening day as well. Here is that interview – https://www.facebook.com/719028738/videos/10158876377738739/

With all the support of so many people, starting from DDI, our spouses, family, friends and well-wishers, we hope this Durham wall mural continues to provide joy to all those who view it. It surely did provide us a lot of joy and happiness.

Our families

Yours truly,

Sampada Kodagali Agarwal and Ramya S. Kapadia.

Read Full Post »

Part 1 – Onsite Shenanigans – Warli Wall Mural in Durham

2020 has definitely been a year to remember – for more reasons than one! When we got the go-ahead back in March to paint the wall mural in Durham, little did we know that it would get delayed so much. Nor did we know that we would engage with the community via social media – by offering free online basic workshops in the Warli style of art, an indigenous tribal art from the state of Maharashtra in India.

When we resumed our discussions on painting the mural in August, a change of wall location happened. The new wall was beautiful and had a great location, except – it was big and high! Ladders were tried – to no avail. The ground was not level. Scaffolding was explored – it was a bit restrictive. So, finally, we turned to using a boom lift. Keeping the terrain in mind, an articulated, 4WD MEWP (Mobile Elevated Working Platform) was recommended! Except, there was a hitch – you can’t just rent one out. An operator of this rig needs to be licensed. And justifiably so.

An aerial articulated boom lift

Yes, this piece of heavy equipment requires a formal certification – so that is precisely what we embarked on. The ‘Aerial Boom Lift 3B Operator Certification’ to be precise! After poring over 10 long chapters (well, it was online, so a proverbial poring :)) followed by a theory exam, that we both passed, we headed out for the hands-on training on Friday, September 18th 2020.

Training with Mike from United Rentals in Durham

That was the first time we realized what we had gotten ourselves into! In a good way! We were hoping to get the boom lift rented out the same day, but of course, it was not possible at such short notice. So the ABL was scheduled for delivery on Monday, September 21st.

Day 1: Saturday, Sept 19th: Since we had the weekend on hand, and no boom lift, we decided to start our mural from the ground level. Starting from the left most end, which was depicted the Durham of early 1700s, we worked for a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday.

An anthill in progress!

The mandatory selfie at the end of the first day!

End of Saturday, Sept 19th 2020

Day 2: Sunday, September 20th: Once we had a few hours of work put in, we got a bit comfortable over the day with the wall and the paint. The forest and vegetation of the early 1700s started shaping up, with the various trees and animals (deer, in particular).

The forest of the early 1700s

I already had an overall layout of the mural in mind – all events would be depicted chronologically from left to right and so started with the base of the ‘Tree of Life’!

The roots of the ‘Tree of Life’ done

I was especially pleased with the roots and how they (sneakily) spelled out the word ‘Durham’! Little did we know that this idea would really become a rage and a wonderful photo-op spot for visitors!

End of day, Sunday, Sept 20th 2020

Day 3: Monday, September 21st: Monday dawned beautiful and clear! We continued our work on the wall in the morning since the ABL was scheduled for delivery around noon. We were so excited!! Especially since that would allow us access to all parts of the wall!

And there it was!!

It was wonderful seeing the ABL make its way on the 18-wheeler flatbed truck and then find its way down along the wall!

We were all excited about getting onto the platform and eager to start painting the Warli motifs in areas where we couldn’t reach earlier. But first things first – since I anyway had a chalk handy, we had to make the ‘shree’ symbol on our ABL! For auspicious beginnings and trouble free endings!

SHREE – for auspicious beginnings and trouble free endings

The stage was set – our picnic blanket was out and we were ready for lunch (we figured the best way to tackle a big machine for the first time was with a full stomach :)) before starting to use the boom lift.

A picnic lunch before our first use of the ABL

The boom lift was truly an answer to our prayers – Ramya took to the helm and operated it magnificently, while I, chalk in hand, worked on the basic template of the ‘Tree of Life’ – one of the central motifs on the wall. Since the Durham and NC area is known for the oak trees, we decided to use the oak leaf on this main tree. This was unknown territory – oak trees are not part of the Warli vocabulary since there are no oak trees in India, but our combined enthusiasm was infectious! This mural was a wonderful opportunity to depict Durham and its history, so all traditional Warli motifs had to be reimagined.

The ‘Tree of Life’ taking shape!

Our partnership was made in heaven – each of us bringing such joy to the task – time simply flew! And the tree started to take shape. A part of the grist mill got added to the wall, as well!

Work done by end of day, Monday, September 21st

Signing off for now. Hope you join us for the next part.. 🙂

Yours truly,

Sampada Kodagali Agarwal and Ramya S. Kapadia.

Read Full Post »

A Warli Mural in Durham – the start!

A lot has happened since my last blog post back in March. One very important change, of course, has been the rampant worldwide spread of CoVid-19 and its impact on life, in general. I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole – not during this blog post.

Instead, I would like to highlight this other happening in my life where an art opportunity has opened up – to capture the changing landscape of Durham using an indigenous tribal art form from India called ‘Warli‘ as part of the Downtown Durham Public Space Project. My partner in crime in this project is Ramya Kapadia, a fantastic Bharatanatyam dancer as well as an accomplished Carnatic singer. Needless to say, her attention to detail makes her a great visual artist as well. Most importantly though, she is a great collaborator and a joy to explore art with.

Once we submitted our proposal in January, it was then a waiting game. On Feb 14th, when we received the project proposal acceptance email, we were thrilled to bits! We could not believe that we were one of the 7 projects accepted out of the 30+ submissions. Soon it was time for us to meet up with the lovely folks at Downtown Durham Inc, the non-profit supporting this initiative. Project plans were discussed and possible venues were explored.

It was a fun, cold, early morning when both me and Ramya drove around in Durham to scout for that perfect wall to paint the mural on. We narrowed down and prioritized from the list given to us. Soon, we had the wall chosen and approved by the business. Just as we were about to embark on this art journey, the virus struck. Once the area and the state of North Carolina was under lockdown, we could not proceed with painting the mural nor run learning sessions for passers-by in an effort to engage the community, as originally intended.

April 24th 2020 – Introductory workshop

April 30th, 2020 – Warli, the next steps

Instead, we persevered and decided to conduct two online Warli workshops for any and all to join and learn the Warli vocabulary and the basic building blocks of this art style. We were so very glad to see a great number joined the live sessions and appreciated them. We still have folks looking up those recorded sessions and getting initiated in the art form. We learnt that in spite of the lockdown (or maybe because of it), community engagement – a key goal of our project – has definitely been met; online engagements help break geographical barriers, for sure.

Here are the links to the workshop recordings, for your convenience.

Workshop 1 recording: https://www.facebook.com/sampada.k.agarwal/videos/10219601730026959/

Workshop 2 recording: https://www.facebook.com/sampada.k.agarwal/videos/10219677807688853/

Looking at the interest raised among all those who attended/viewed the workshops, I consider it a true win for Warli, a simple, yet highly expressive art style that sneaks into people’s hearts with its guileless, matter-of-fact approach to art.

Warli and nature – an inseparable bond!

Read Full Post »