Mikey's Mumbai Printmaking Adventure

Exciting times for Mikey Fresh in Mumbai.

Yesterday I began my first day working with Tanuja Rane: printmaker and upcoming contemporary artist in Mumbai, India.

Here I am in the studio, sitting on the sofa/my bed, taking a break from inking and wiping plates.

For those of you who don't know anything about printmaking, (and there seems to be a lot of you) its a fine art medium that was popular with Rembrandt, Picasso, Warhol, Haring, Goya, Toulouse-Lautrec, Hokusai, and many others. It generally involves working plates of different kinds (metal, wood, stone), covering them with ink, and then printing them using a hand cranked press. It's what I studied in University and its my medium of choice.

It's been wonderful, but hard work so far. I've moved to the studio actually where we are all crashing until the work is done. We have to be ready for her show which opens on the 18th of October, and the pieces are huge, so there is a lot to do.






Last night Tanuja's mother, the families Nanny Sital, and baby Sparrash all came over. Sital and Tanuja's mother cooked for us right in the studio and we all had dinner together. It was so sweet, God, I love how Indian families take care of each other.

Here's Tanuja with her beautiful baby boy Sparrash, and her nanny, Sital.


Just to give some updates, up until yesterday I've been staying in Colaba, South Mumbai, an area made legendary by Gregory David Roberts in his amazing book Shantaram, currently being made into a movie starring Johnny Depp, and being directed by the fantastic Mira Nair, director of one of the greatest movies I've ever seen, Salaam! Bombay.

I actually had the amazing good fortune of meeting Sooni Taraporevala, screenwriter of Salaam! Bombay at an art opening the other night. So amazing.

Other than that I've been hitting a lot of art galleries and meeting a lot of artists. I'll catch up more later, now I've got to get back to the studio! In the meantime, you can check out a few more pictures of me and the gang at the studio here.

Until next time, Salaam!