Author name: WebZeal Online

Fingerprints are our unique identifiers — the thing that makes us us. They’re also used by bureaucracies and systems to identify, sort and systematise populations. In a modern life — fingerprints have become part of the personal data we relinquish ownership through. Synchronised with our phone numbers, addresses, tax records and other data, our fingerprints created by our most recent class took on their own lives, as metaphors labyrinthine state bureaucracies, for individual acts of statehood within the societal collective, and spaces to reclaim who we are and wish to be. I am making my brain. And an apple. I love apple as a fruit. But also because it is a good example. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Apple of my eye. Even a rotten apple. My brain is full of all these words, and this is an apple that I want to be like. When stress is high, coffee calms my nerves down. It’s the same attention I’m taking to make this beautiful thing. It what makes my mind relax. I am making nature. A tree, a lake a duck. And I may make a sun. I’m allowed to make only one sun right? Or can I make more? I’m making a tree. I don’t know what to make. I’ve never made anything before. I’m trying. I’m not accepting defeat. You only get somewhere in life when you try. It’s a candle. When you make your fingerprint it blackens the page. But when the candle comes, there’s light. “I am using pens. I like greenery. I like colours. I like a lot of colours together.”“Anything else you want to say?”“Yes”“Go on”“Mere life mein bhi aise ran bhar jaaye”

Pieces come together Our women’s class has got really into painting, and is finally starting to think about how to build compositions using the entire page. This class we set them the task of making mosaics — constructing a single image out of fragments of coloured squares. The goal was to combine what we’ve previously explored making patterns and mandalas and add colour to make images. Our women’s class has got really into painting, and is finally starting to think about how to build compositions using the entire page. This class we set them the task of making mosaics — constructing a single image out of fragments of coloured squares. The goal was to combine what we’ve previously explored making patterns and mandalas and add colour to make images. We got a lot of great feedback as well — students told us they really enjoyed making these works, they sat silently and didn’t speak for three hours straight, and we saw them sharing skills with one another, like borrowing and sharing colours on their palettes. Some kept working through the week and brought completed works to the class after. It was nice to see the class, like the mosaic paintings, come together!

Making faces “Dhruv,” an image created in our portrait class in the men’s prison at Byculla Jail, June 2024. Our men’s class loves drawing faces. We often find portraits of themselves, each other, and their loved ones in their sketchbooks. They are trying to capture joyful memories of their lives outside of prison . Each face is an attempt to stay connected with people while they are physically separated from them. Placing the nose, eyes and mouth — image created in our portrait class in the men’s prison at Byculla Jail, June 2024. There are no images or photographs in prison. Students frequently ask us to teach them how to make photorealistic portraits. Portrait artists in the outside world may be struggling to find work in the world where everyone is armed with a camera. But in this place, displaced from moving time and modernity, the art form has renewed relevance and utility. I started the class by giving students a sheet with printed faces, without any features, and demonstrated the basics of giving them life. I explained some basics proportions and measurements in the construction of a portrait. They had many technical questions about proportion and measurement. Accuracy was important to them. I showed them how to vary face types and features, and then introduced expressions — shock, horror, joy — and showed them how different emotions distort the face.

Our women’s class has got really into painting, and is finally starting to think about how to build compositions using the entire page. This class we set them the task of making mosaics — constructing a single image out of fragments of coloured squares. The goal was to combine what we’ve previously explored making patterns and mandalas and add colour to make images. Our women’s class has got really into painting, and is finally starting to think about how to build compositions using the entire page. This class we set them the task of making mosaics — constructing a single image out of fragments of coloured squares. The goal was to combine what we’ve previously explored making patterns and mandalas and add colour to make images.Our women’s class has got really into painting, and is finally starting to think about how to build compositions using the entire page. This class we set them the task of making mosaics — constructing a single image out of fragments of coloured squares. The goal was to combine what we’ve previously explored making patterns and mandalas and add colour to make images.