"War God: Karthikeya" (2024)

Drawn in ink. Commissioned for a couple's anniversary: the wife was named for Vidhya Devi or Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of wisdom (figure on the right); the husband was named for Kumara or Karthikeya, the Hindu god of war (figure on the left). Both Kumara and Vidhya have a peacock as their vehicle, so the peacock was used as a unifying symbol between the figures. Vidhya is shown with lotuses by her ears, carrying a veena, a stringed classical instrument, with a third eye on her forehead to mark her spiritual knowledge. Kumara carries a spear with his father's symbol on his forehead and on the spearhead. They lean towards each other, and the arc of their bodies and their instruments are meant to create a general sense of symmetry with the peacock feathers. They also have halos around their heads. Their limbs are drawn stylistically, in a cartoonish manner. Sharp angles and thick, flowing lines are featured in both their garments.

Brochure designed using ink. Each piece from the concert repertoire was incorporated. For instance, "Stained Glass Windows" was a general theme, hence the entire piece is framed into a classic, Gothic window. The upper panel represents "March of the Planets," the rose beneath the planets represents the "Roses" piece, and the upper-left panel represents "La La Land: City of Stars," in which Emma Stone dances beside 5-star film ratings and a streetlight (which is reflected on the right panel's border). The upper-right panel contains Georges Bizet's "Carmen" via a sweeping skirt covered with the hearts of men who fall for Carmen. The central plum symbolizes the "Sugar Plum Fairy," the reed flutes lining the lower left and right panels' edges are from the "Dance of the Reed-Flutes," all from Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite." "March" from "Nutcracker" is combined with the "March of the Toys" piece in a soldier-teddy-bear playing piccolo on the lower right panel. "I Have a Dream" from "Les Misérables" is captured on the lower left panel through the girl from the novel's book cover. Finally, "Treasures Under the Sea" is portrayed through treasure chests and seaweed in the lowermost panel. Bold lines and reflective scripts are used to highlight the concert date as window shutters. The "Bi-Co" or bi-college is similarly kept in thick, sharp angles, with "Winter Concert" script kept in diminishing/growing font. The entire brochure design exemplifies symmetry and harmonious composition.

Created with ink, draft (scroll down) created with pencil. This illustration depeicts the Hindu god Sri Rama as the center of the universe, providing balance between opposing sides. He carries an arrow (with a crescent-shaped head, similar to that of ancient Indian arrows, which had different shapes) and bow whose string curls around his arms. His crown, belt, and jewelry indicate his status as a warrior king, and a sun-like halo surrounds his head. His forehead is covered in the symbol of the god Vishnu, whom he is the incarnation of. His pants are drawn stylistically to show draped silk. His feet have small sparks next to them. He is surrounded by a structure which contains suns and moons, planets and stars. Rama's name, in English, Telugu, and Hindi, is written amongst these parts of the universe. The structure symbolizes both the universe and an atom: to suggest that Rama is present in the largest scale and smallest scale. In this illustration, centering him within the smallest particle is a reference to Telugu poet Annamacharya's writing on the same subject. Finally, the sacred syllable "Om" outlines the structure. Note: This piece was intended to be the first in a series of illustrations for a devotional kirtan (song) about Rama, written by the late Dr. Advikolanu Muralidhar. So, this imagery reflects the lyrics. This style of art is inspired by the Vedic Art style, hence the curved body of the male figure, the oval-shaped face, and elaborate ornaments.

Page 1 of Executive Summary targeted towards potential investors for Bloqcube Inc, a pharma-tech start-up. Designed using Adobe Illustrator, with arrows from company logo to emphasize transition towards new software and to keep eyes moving across the page.

Watercolor pencil painting which incorporates elements from folk-art styles across India. Accepted for display at Sochi Winter Olympics exhibition in Citibank's office in Moscow, Russia. Included in printed booklet displaying artwork made by students at the Anglo-American School of Moscow. PIECE INFO: *Upper-right corner* contains peacock, dancer, trees in Warli style from west Indian state of Maharashtra. *Diagonal floral border* inspired by borders in Mughal paintings of Sita's kidnapping in the epic, "Ramayana." These paintings were commissioned by India's Mughal emperors and hence, Islamic styles of art, which highlight nature and geometry, became part of the epic's portrayal. *Left side* features leaves and a parrot. *Right side* is a woman wearing a bottu/bindi (mark of spiritual third eye) in the Bengali style. *At the bottom* is a chakra (discus/wheel), representing an Ashoka Chakra (symbol of Indian unity, featured on India's flag, named for Emperor Ashoka). Chakra also symbolizes cycles which guide Indian philosophies, such as Samsaara (cycle of reincarnation) in Hinduism and the Eight-Fold Path in Buddhism. Finally, the chakra is an ancient weapon used by gods in Hindu mythology.

Book cover and jacket designed using Adobe Illustrator for "The Suicide Pact," an English play by Dr. Advikolanu Muralidhar, a South Indian Telugu poet and writer. The central lesson is highlighted on the back cover. Each element from the set design and the themes/events themselves are illustrated. The play centers on a professor and his artistic wife, Lalitha, who despise one another, themselves, and their lives. One night, they draft a suicide pact. Since the play occurs over one night, the book spine, and the book cover's ceiling fan contains a single moon. The ceiling fan, with a sari and tie hanging from it, implies potential death looming over the characters' heads. The eye in the fan represents the audience bearing witness, who ultimately decide the story's conclusion. One line from the fan spirals into two, connecting to "U" and "I" to symbolize individuals, once united in love, now estranged. The wall has several symbols: There are two portraits of a hanging, one with and one without the head attached, to show both potential conclusions to the story. There is Lalitha's scribble next to the hangings, as she laments the meaninglessness of art and art critique. A sketch of a mother and child is drawn by Lalitha yet slashed to show her lost dream of motherhood. A question mark and quotation marks show how the majority of the play is dialogue with existential questions. The quotation marks also hint at the professor's monologue about the pointlessness of speech. A cage from the set design provides a feeling of being trapped in marriage/life. Cigarettes, a watch, a fountain pen, bangles, an ashtray and the suicide pact itself, are laid out on a table. The mangalsutra (wedding necklace) lies discarded, to show the dissolvement of marital bonds. The professor's glasses are cracked, to show distorted perspectives. The table doubles as the Bombay apartment where the characters reside, with shattered windows on one side and windows with the words "You, Me" scribbled on in Telugu. "You, me" is a phrase repeated when the characters are in love, yet those words change their meaning that night. The last letter of "Me" and the first letter of "You" are the same in Telugu, hence they merge initially (to symbolize unity in love) and gradually separate and reflect (to symbolize distortion of the self and separation in marriage) on the apartment and on the back cover's lower border.

Created using Adobe Illustrator during Visual Design & Digital Making Virtual Summer Intensive, co-sponsored with LITS at Bryn Mawr College. The aim of the piece was to create a logo to represent Bryn Mawr College's annual tradition of Lantern Night. Hence, the college's color scheme of navy with canary and butter yellow. A curvaceous script was drawn to bring a sense of whimsy, in line with the enchantment of lanterns aglow in the dark. Open hands show the acceptance of light and knowledge. The design of the hands was broken up to highlight the palms and fingertips, and the dispersion of light particles is shown with the circles.

Watercolor pencil and ink painting of a woman, inspired by traditional African masks and South Indian Tamil style bottus (spiritual third eyes and marks of which Hindu deity one worships). This features the artist's love for finding and bringing out symmetry with geometric shapes in human faces, namely focusing on crescent, circular, and triangular shapes. Style is also influenced by Bapu, a South Indian Telugu artist who worked with bold colors and continuous lines.

Created using Adobe Illustrator as part of Visual Design & Digital Making Virtual Summer Intensive, co-sponsored with LITS at Bryn Mawr College. This is from a course exercise on symmetry and patterns. Shapes are nestled within one another, and the body of the butterfly contains a floral burst.

Drawn with ink. This sketch shows a slender hand holding a cigarette, and the illusions inside the smoke cloud. There are two eyes, fanning out like wings, and multiple crescent shapes are present. One crescent holds a ladder which pours down towards a figure, reaching out to climb it. Another crescent holds a swing, while yet another serves as a bed. A crescent ship with a figure on top sits next to an ocean. A crescent swings beneath the ship in the form of an anchor. The last hidden crescents are in the bindi/bottu of the face and in the eyes themselves to mark a line of symmetry. Finally, a face peers from behind at the cloud and the smoker. The style was meant to be surreal, dreamy, yet frazzled. The figures are inspired by Warli folk art from the Indian state of Maharashtra.