We have suffered the scarcity of the socialist years, and surfeited on the excesses of the consumerist age. Perhaps it is time to draw a balance, and arrive at the ethical and intelligent approach of thrift. More>>
An American by birth, married to a German
and living in India, Sandra M. Schweppe expresses her inner quest in pen-and-ink
drawings
Little
dots of white, little dots of blackand a shape takes form. One prick of
a needle and from a leaf emerges a hand. Fairy hands, healing hands. They hold
you, guide you, give you solace in bad times. Lovingly, they caress your face.
They force you to look into your heart, mind and soul. You pensively look over
the woods, searching for the real you. Your myriad faces stand out. Three of them.
Is that you? Then who is that other one? Finally they merge in one. Are all three
the real you? "If only my roots were as deep as the ancient tree," you wonder.
"Man is inseparable from nature," explains Sandra M. Schweppe. "I've always
seen us humans as a part of nature. But most of us don't understand it." So evolved
a series of pen-and-ink drawings. "Most artistes perceive the solid form. I was
looking at the microscopic level of things, so I opted for these pen-and-ink drawings.
These little dots explain our existence on earth: small energy particles make
up the larger energy framework."
Sandra's husband, Walter, is the director
of languages at the Max Mueller Bhavan, the German cultural center in New Delhi,
India. She has traveled extensively all over the world and in India.
Yet the quest continues. You search in the circle, knotted with the various aspects
of life. Little knots of your daily life, and big knots of your life beyond life.
So difficult, yet so facile. For it's a circle, it ends where it starts. But you
have to reach that center. Your hands reach for that center in which lie all the
mysteries of life. Encircle that center, let it not escape, for all the answers
are there.
"We're constantly besieged by feelings of fear, anger or
sorrow. I wanted to show how to let go of it. I didn't want to draw anything shocking,
I wanted to draw something that heals. Something that would make sick people happy
and give them hope," says Sandra.
Even that trail
of snails, they are also after that circle. Lend not your hands, lest the circle
escapes. Is this quest for us humans alone or can the animal kingdom claim a share?
And inanimate objects too? Those pretty seashells, see how they call to each other.
The waves of the ocean in their heart, in the core of their being. Turbulent,
frenzied and then the eternal calm. They are washed to the seashore, collected
by humans.
"I always felt that nature can uplift. It can give positive
energy, which all of us require," elucidates Sandra.
Still, that quest,
that burning desire to unravel the mysteryit's everywhere. In the skies,
on earth, in the water depths. Stop that wind, else it will blow the quest away.
But you don't rest, search on in another land. For by "being one with nature,
being positive, you can heal yourself and others".