Why I Am Going To India?

Multiple exposure taken with HOLGA camera - 120 film- processed digitally as a tritone

Unfortunately, most Americans know very little about India and its unique charms. Most folks I meet want to know why I would ever choose to visit a country with such abject poverty, disease, overcrowding, pollution, lack of human rights for women, etc. etc. I politely listen and then ask if they have ever actually visited the country....of course most never have and never will, and I consider it their loss, not mine.

This is my third trip to India in the last ten years. My first was to Rajasthan to visit the state during the Pushkar Camel Festival, and the second was to southern India to visit Mumbai and Karala. Both trips opened my eyes to thousands of years of ancient history and magical sights that remain some of the highlights of years of adventure travel.



Tritone photograph with multiple images taken with HOLGA camera in Delhi, 2007

 

I also have collected folk art, Art Brut and Outsider Art for more than 20 years. In 2010, I began seeing a small editorial paragraph in the outsider art magazine, Raw Vision, promoting an opportunity to stay at the rock garden and help to repair and create mosaics, and I knew that was what I wanted to do someday. It achieved three goals on my bucket list: visit a foreign country for more than ten days so that I could shed the tourist coat just a bit; collaborate with other artists and have the opportunity to work with a visionary folk artist in a meaningful, deep way.  

 

In 2012, I experienced a series of life changing events including the death of both of my parents unexpectedly. While overwhelming and stressful at times, those events unfolded to create a window of time and transition that made such an experience not only possible but desirable. I needed to get away for a while, create some new experiences and start over many aspects of my life. This was the perfect opportunity.

 

I wish I could sound more together about what I will be doing and how the time at the rock garden will go, but in truth, I have no idea if or how this experience will unfold. And for the first time in my life, I am ok with that, because in some mysterious way, that is the point....to be secure enough to not have too many expectations so that I may be open to its unique gifts, wherever they may come from.