BROWN-MAN LAND: Portfolio

My portfolio when applying to college was a blend of old and new work- meaning not only old work that I did when I lived at home (Karachi), and new work I did in Leysin, but also work that I did during breaks.

1. Belts and Buckles - 2007
Watercolor
An observational study of belts

2. Bicycle study- 2006
Graphite Pencils

3. Log - from observation- 2007
Watercolor

4. Beneath The Surface - 2007
Watercolor

5. Books - Still Life - 2007
Watercolor

6. Wings (Sketchbook) - 2008
Graphite and Colored Pencils

7. Wings - 2008
Chalk Pastels

8. Free (Sketchbook) - 2007
Acrylic and Pen

9. Self Portrait - 2007
Oil Pastels, Colored Pencils and Water Color
Influenced by Alex Katz, Jackson Pollock, and Chuck Close

10. Wangechi Mutu Series (Sketchbook) - 2007
Pen and Ink, Collage
While researching the artist Wangechi Mutu, I decided to start a series project using the outline of her face. Initially I tried to somehow link my series with a similar theme, i.e. the crow and the trees, which runs through my entire sketchbook, but after finishing my second piece, I came to realize that any more links I create would make my series congested. I figured out, that it was in fact the outline of Mutu’s face that linked each piece together, and with that I began to put down whatever was on my mind.
The Radiohead album “In Rainbows” had just been released at the time, and therefore my last three pieces being heavily influenced by them. This project for me was a real eye-opener, for even though I had tried to not link the pieces, my crow showed up in my fourth piece again. I learned of a form of freedom and that, as an artist everything eventually links up, whether one tries or not for that to happen.

11. Un-Readable Trees Series (Sketchbook) - 2007
Pen and Ink, Collage
My obsession with the crow and that linked with trees came through in this series, as the aim was to show growth from an already existing image. I took a picture of trees that I googled, and decided I was going to use 3 of the same picture. As I placed these on my sketchbook a poem Kim Cope Tait came to mind. It dealt with matters of time, lightness/heaviness, music, feathers, and hands(or the body in general). As I started using the image of the trees to grow into other things, I thought of my love for music, how I have the heart of a musician but was never formally trained to read music. I decided to make this series, I prefer to call it a growth exercise, into a portrayal of where I was in my life at the time; creating fake notes- gibberish- allowing a link to form between the trees and musical notes, that made no sense.

12. My Italy (Sketchbook) - 2008
Pen

13. Self-Portrait- 3 Hours- 2008
Colored Pencils

14. Days of My Life Series (Sketchbook) - 2008
Pen and Ink/ Watercolor/ Colored Pencils/ Collage (mosquito blood on tissue paper)/ Pencils/ Pressing of newspaper images

During Christmas break I decided to do a page a day in my sketchbook- no matter what- and see what I get:
12th- Travelling back from Geneva to Karachi
13th- Indian airplanes invaded Pakistani air space
14th- The murder of a Mosquito
16th- The end of the world.
19th- Ever smoked a tulip?
21st- Newspaper frenzy
29th- Bangladesh Poker and Local Artist Influence
30th- Remembering Dhaka
31st- Missing my fat, ‘lamb chop-eating’ Asian man.