my Indian wedding sari
I had some errands today, including a trip to the art store for a few new pastels and pastel pencils, so I'll try for adding another photo of my progress on the pastel of Kimberly later tonite, but I promised to talk a little about my decision on it's title. When we did the photo-shoot of Kimberly for the series of works I wanted to do of her, I had a number of white fabrics I used as veils, but I also tried putting my Indian wedding sari on her as another kind of Mary veil, and we wound up using this special sari in about 50% of the photographs I took. I love my Indian wedding sari, and it hangs in the doorway of my studio these days. I was told when I bought it in a small shop in the East Village that this particular kind of wedding sari is from the 1970's and is not made anymore, since the beads were sewn on by hand.
It felt apropos for Kimberly to wear it, because it was Kimberly who introduced me to Amritanandamayi Ma. In fact, Kimberly and her husband were honored to be married in 2003 with Amma performing the wedding ceremony.
This was one of the poses that to me is a portrait of both the 'Mary' in Kimberly and the 'Amma' in her also, and since I've explained how, for me, Amma is a kind of living manifestation of Mary, it feels like both in that way also. Hence the somewhat mystifying title of "Mary in Amma in Kimberly". It feels just right somehow.
