Above: Clayton Patterson, photographs of the Lower East Side
Right: Ryan McGinness
Below: Gregory Colbert

It's obvious...I'm an Art nerd...
Admittedly, I have a far ways to go before my artistic abilities mirror what I see in my head.
But to be honest, I have no great dream to be the next great artist or to usher in the next great movement. My dream is to understand them, to know them as people, as ideals, as symbols of the culture we live in. I guess it's something like a serial killer becoming a forensic detective. I feel I would be able to understand and explain what I see because I've been there, I have that mind-set. I want to be a curator and a historian...but where that story goes...I don't yet know...

How to begin...the wish to speak in generalities is greater than the ability to understand them.
I would love to break down who I've been and what I've done these past 23 years but my capabilities are grounded by my lack of technical ability...hence, SVA.

I wish I could explain what it means to me to be able to attend classes there, but it's something akin to the adrenaline rush that comes with knowing you're fulfilling your destiny against the rites of tradition. It's the fear that comes with taking the plunge headlong into deep water.

I was born in India, raised by strict traditional parents, grew up with no electricity, running water, or air conditioning in a place that's 120 on a good day in the summertime.
Everyday when I wake up in my apartment and wash my face with temperature adjustable water, when I flick my light switches on, when I turn the knob and I suddenly have fire, I realize how lucky I am and how deluded humans are in general to think we're that far out of the dark ages.

My mission in life is to take my passion for art and focus it on humanitarian needs.
I know what you're thinking, "good luck Mother Theresa wannabe"...
but honestly, I believe there is an idealist in every artist and we're the only ones crazy enough and with enough passion to make moves.

Don't get me wrong, there are philanthropists galore the world over, but while they've succeeded in aiding someone, somewhere, they haven't really had the domino effect necessary to make hundreds of people at once work towards these causes.

Not that I think I will...I just know that ideas are like ripples in a pond...

This picture below is one by Gregory Colbert for his "Ashes and Snow" exhibit.
It reminds me of my childhood, of running wild with the wild.
Of the 7 dogs my family had constantly patrolling the perimeter to keep snakes from entering our house...of the family of elephants that used the small lake near by and strolled through our town, and of the baby elephant that always trailed behind and showed his sweetness the way he knew how...by touching me clumsily with his trunk and letting me walk with him a small ways...