Art has always been an inspiration in my life. Watching my father, I grew to appreciate the true beauty in art. There is no time in history where there was no presence of art in civilization. Those who understand and appreciate art have a love for nature and its essence. The flash shows the audience of how many types of art exist and the creativity that ignites throng the endless eras of imagination. I hope everyone finds an inspiration through art.
Art
• Expedition in Art
- For thousands of years, mankind has been fascinated by the beauty and mystery of nature and has been inspired to create art of great beauty and significance.
– History of art
• Forms of Art
- Art embodies many forms. All manifest the magical connection between mankind.
- Mystical hands- Beauty lies in an artist’s brush to manifest to the world his thoughts. Hear of the art is able to communicate an unspoken language that makes a connection to each and everyone of us.
- Music, the Common Ground- Music is truly the finest expression of beauty and it is the truest interpreter of social conditions.
- Movements + Change- Fine Arts exemplify the highest achievements of mankind. Today we are using art to convey every inch of our lifestyle. From Media enterprising to famous architectures and designs. It is endless. Art is evolving with time, but the sublime message of beauty in each source of art will continue to remain as it has for thousands of years.
• Global Creativity :
-African Art
Constitute as one of the most diverse legacies on earth.
Emphasis on the human figure:
Visual abstraction:
Emphasis on sculpture:
Emphasis on performance art:
-Indian Art
Intertwines with the cultural history, religions and philosophies, which place art production and patronage in social and cultural contexts.
Indian art can be classified into specific periods each reflecting particular religious, political and cultural developments
- rock-cut art
- Indian Fresco
- Folk and tribal art
- Visual Art
- Music
-Chinese Art
Has been divided into periods by the ruling dynasties of China and changing technology. Different forms of art have been influenced by great philosophers, teachers, religious figures and even political leaders. Chinese art encompasses fine arts, folk arts and performance arts.
• Gallery
- Collections of beautiful art from all over the world.
Playing piano is the closest thing to magic for me. When I place my hands on the keys everything fades away and it is only me and my piano. I have shaded the image in half to show that even in times when I am feeling low, I always have my piano.
SMASH is creating an immense impact on all the scholars’ lives. Those who just entered SMASH and those who are leaving have full gratitude to be part of this program. In this podcast Nick, Alberto and I have interviewed two first years and two third years. Listen to find out what they had to say.
“Is it pronounced like Radical? Or is it Rad-ika?” is the first remark I come across when I say my name. Radhika Mitra, when people hear my name for the first time, they have various reactions. Some say it’s beautiful, others directly connect it with my ethnicity and others don’t really take the time to understand what it means. Radhika comes from an Indian goddess named Radha, though it is religious, goddess Radha represents a sense of divine energy. In my images I highlighted the pink flower and the goddess to represent the soul of my name. My last name, Mitra is very unique and relates to my Bengali heritage directly. The contribution of naming me Radhika Mitra came from my grandparents. I have represented their love and support through a traditional Indian agarbati holder (incense stick holders) wrapped around with a payal (anklet with jingles on the ends). It is because of my grandparents, I had a childhood that instilled the values and morals I posses today.
My montage displays my passion, values and dreams, which defines who I really am in the inside. My love for photography arose from my father, who has always been the person I look up to. I have dedicated a camera on my montage to represent my father’s love as well as to present my interest for the art of photography.
Music is one of my greatest passions. I have been attached with my piano through the rainy and sunny days. I had thought of giving it up, but that is when I truly understood how much I love it. Piano has become a strong driving force in my life. People often ask me, “Radhika, if you could have a super power what would you have?” I always answer, “To make people smile.” Piano is the only way I can do that. I can bring in happiness in people’s life through my music. My dad being a photographer, he influenced me greatly on the art I pursue as my passion, which is music. He always tells me , “Always do what you love and stick to it, Don’t jump around.” I find his words encouraging at times and overwhelming at others, but in the end I always feel inspired.
Balance in body, mind and spirit is an important component in my life as the world just continues to pour stress and work down our back. Without the balance I find my self lost and complaining. My Ma always gives me advice when I feel that way. She tells me, “Bringing discipline and balance in your life can be the only way to heal your self from the stress.” I practice martial arts to not only train my self to stay physically fit, but to also stay away from stress. Thus, I have given a picture of myself when I began training. At first, it was very challenging for me to bring structure and commitment in my life, but as time went, I developed and grew. I chose a picture which was taken in the beginning to represent the challenges and rewards I have received when I was introduced to martial arts.
My goal is to attend Stanford University for my future education. I know with determination and with the right heart I can reach there and go on to make a difference in the world.
These are all the things that encompasses around the name Radhika Mitra. My identity and my life does not solely rest on my name, instead it involves everything that makes me myself. I will always continue to stand with great pride in myself, my background and my values.
Radhika Mitra
Media, media, media! The lifestyle we lead now encompasses vastly around media and there is no doubt it has affected me in various aspects.
As a kid, I was always fascinated by the computer monitor that stood on a table in my parent’s room. When I was four or five years old, I still remember sitting beside my dad, watching him designing and etching his own circuit boards, soldering, his hobby electronic projects and assembling high performance computers for audio video applications. I grew up seeing computer engineering first hand, literary playing with computer medias like discarded track 0 bad floppy disks and scratched CDs.
I remember my self interacting a lot with computer video games. Like most kids, I was a huge fan of Cartoon Network and I still am. As I grew up, I became interested in Photography . That was again greatly influenced by media. Due to the availability of internet and being able to view various artists from all over the world, I was inspired to become a photographer myself. Nevertheless I have been greatly influenced by my father who is an avid nature photographer. Some of his portfolios are displayed in his website.
I play piano too and music is my passion. Since I have started playing piano, I became aware of the various tools used by modern musician. I was amazed by how much computer technology and media contributes to the sound engineering world. It is now possible to use sound samples, various VST instruments and suitable sound editor to mimic sound of any natural instrument. Just connect your Midi Keyboard to a Laptop loaded with right software and voila! You have a 100 year old Steinway under your fingertips. Isn’t that amazing?
Midi has become my primary source of sampling audio files for old & contemporary jazz pieces as well as classical ones. Even writing sheet music has changed into new digital media form. I can now use Sibelius to type my music in Laptop and it stores the sheet music in its digital media form. It can also play back the piece through computer sound card. Also now I can scan a sheet music into a digital image media and then use Photoscore to convert into Sibeluis format.
Ever since Apple launched its iPod , another form of digital media became popular- it is Pod-Casting . This is all about creating a streaming digital audio media and publishing in a website. Young generations are now making full use of this media technology.
Media discussion will not be complete without touching YouTube. It is the most famous and infamous low bandwidth personal video sharing service. You can find most useful information to most useless crud in Youtube. One thing for sure, it has changed the way think or express ourselves by making audio video media so easily sharable and publishable. It is fascinating to see, new digital still and video cameras are advertising “YouTube compatible” as their key selling point.
Contributing back to the society is one of my main goals and in order to do that I am involved with Do Something. Without the source of internet I would have never gotten to know about that. Do Something has become a great part of my life now as I am currently their journalist for interviewing celebrities that are creating change in the society and I am also a selected contributor to their Youth Advisory Council from the nation. Without the help of media I would have never been able to connect myself with such causes and get the inspirations I have today. I am looking forward to strengthening my technical skills so I can inspire others in the future.
