mvp - work in progress

washing…

margavp — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:00:04 +0000

Women washing just after dawn (around 6.00am) in Buddavaram. Only women wash and smaller children (boys and girls) help them. In this same spot men wash their buffalo daily and rubbish is regularly tipped into the river regularly floating by.

A little way up you can often see river snakes swimming and also brilliant green and blue kingfishers. In October it is an excellent space for spotting butterflies.

Filed under: commentary, film, india Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, dawn, kingfsher, river, women washing

photoshop for beginners…

margavp — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:37:48 +0000

So the in charge of IT in the 2 schools where i teach has implemented a new policy this year of getting much younger children involved in using computers. Because of this i have taught much more photoshop this year and to younger kids. I concentrated on the drawing aspect of photoshop as they will be taught photography manipulation by the school. They have only been learning since i have been here and they made some genuinely beautiful drawings…

Above are 2 works by Christu Raju whom am convinced is some kind of genius…and yes that angel does look a bit like Michael Jackson…

Work by Hari…another genius…

As i may have mentioned before, photoshop is actually a valid and extremely vocational skill to be learned for young Indian students. As well as the fact that Andhra Pradesh (or namely Hyderabad) is a centre for information technology, there is also a flourishing industry for Photoshop artists who work in tandem with photographers to create fantasy albums for special events such as wedding ceremonies etc…

Chandra came in with a tiny newspaper cartoon clipping and came up with this…

…another beautiful drawing by Siva

Filed under: art, classes, india Tagged: children's art, photoshop

gannavaram and multiconfessional temples…

margavp — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:30:58 +0000

Took an auto rickshaw taxi to Gannavaram…here are some of the people who shared it…

The ladies of Venus fancy goods store, Gannavaram washing pan leaves. They can be chewed and are a mild stimulant, but they also use them to wraps hand made sweets…

Up the road from Venus…I love this temple, it covers the Christian, Hindu and Muslim faiths…

The sign tells us it’s the Gannavaram temple, the address and it’s benefactors…

Filed under: india, photographic Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, autorickshaw, christian, Gannavaram, hindu, multiconfessional, muslim, temple

saluting 10th class…

margavp — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 08:25:26 +0000

A salute to the boys of 10th class the final year in the english medium system in India. They lead an intense life of study with occasional breaks for eating. A funnier, brighter, kinder bunch of boys you could not find. They will leave for college in a few months…i miss them already!

Below Ravi Sagar and Gowri tell me what a typical day is for them…

…oh yes and they can dance too! not one of my films below, skip about one minute in to get to the good stuff:

Filed under: art, classes, film, india Tagged: 10th class, Andhra Pradesh, dance, english medium school, man in the mirror

illustrators…

margavp — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:24:49 +0000

My brilliant students from 10th Class excelled themselves in Illustrator this year. They were in my original photography classes in 2009 and now they are leaving school in a few months. Am so sorry i won’t be teaching them any more, they are bound for college and greater things i think…here is some of their work…

by Ranga

by Raja

by Ravi Sagar

I also taught 3 older girls Illustrator with the idea that they will pass on the skills to younger kids when i have gone. They also did some great work. I gave them some of my photos to manipulate:

Tessy’s version of EUR in Rome

Satya’s psychedelic vision of Daddy’s Home school

Ramya’s vision of a view from the Milan Salone

Filed under: art, classes, india Tagged: adobe illustrator classes, Andhra Pradesh

sketching…

margavp — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 08:41:37 +0000

I don’t draw nearly enough these days, but here and especially in Butterfly Hill i generally manage to do something…here are some of my sketches from this year, Nov/Dec 2011…often done with a large audience of assorted orphanage kids who lean into you, grab your arms, grab your pens, grab your book…i got quite used to it after a while…

mango tree – drawn while sitting in the shade of the dispensary veranda in Butterfly Hill

banana tree – drawn during lunch time, covered in a shawl to stop the fierce sun from burning me

neem tree plus leaf drawn from the veranda of one of the houses on Butterfly Hill campus

palm trees – drawn in the evening at Butterfly Hill waiting for the milk van to give me a bumpy lift back to Daddy’s Home

papaya tree – drawn during lunch time in the cultivated fields round Butterfly Hill, i drew while the field workers took a lunch time snooze

Filed under: art, india Tagged: bananas, botanical, drawing, drawings of trees, margarita vazquez ponte, sketch

vijayawada fish market…

margavp — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:26:55 +0000

Went to Vijayawada fish market early for once so the smell was not so acrid and now that i have mastered a few Telegu phrases at least i could speak a little with the workers there…

Filed under: india, photographic Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, fish market, Vijayawada

origami…

margavp — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:59:24 +0000

Who would have thought that the humble origami water bomb could be so useful..except we don’t use them for that. Instead when painted they make great, cheap Christmas decorations…We design our own origami paper and then get folding…

and in action on the tree…

Filed under: art, classes, india Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, christmas decorations, indian school, origami, water bomb

crib wars…

margavp — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:12:40 +0000

So every house in the orphanage has a crib/nativity scene that they construct themselves and they take it all very seriously, in a previous post you can see the boys going into the forest for materials.

I am a little anxious as myself and one other guest are supposed to award a prize for the best one, but they are all so good we don’t want to choose…so everyone who took part gets a prize…phew…

Click to view slideshow.

My 2 personal favourites however…this one by the small boys in the Lake House who made everything out of plasticine (including dinosaurs)

…and the 10th class boys who built a human scale grotto!

Filed under: india Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, christmas crib, nativity scene, orphanage

christmas day…

margavp — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:25:38 +0000

Each home has it’s ritual for Christmas day. Here the stockings are hung along with final decorations at the last minute on the 24th, on Christmas morning the girls get fresh flowers for their hair… In the morning there is also one gift each for the kids. It’s really very nice to be here at this time…no TV, NO advertising…NO pre and post Christmas sales…

Filed under: india, photographic Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, christmas, flowers in hair, orphanage