Meherabad, Happy Valley, Ellora, Ajanta, and Back

Mikey in the amazing, and the ancient, Happy Valley.

My sincerest apologies to anyone who has actually checked this blog in the past week and been disappointed not to find a new entry.

Amazingly, as evidenced by the fro poll to the right, where an amazing 13 whole people voted, it seems that a handful of people outside of my two brothers and one beloved sister are actually starting to become interested in what I have to post.

So much has been happening its been hard to keep up.
Holy shit its a mad house in the life of Mikey FRESH!! But I'm diggin it.

Last time I checked in I was in Mumbai, working with Tanujaa Rane on pieces for her upcoming show. Since then I've left Mumbai, gone back to Meherabad, introduced one of my longtime friends from Hawaii who showed up out of the blue from Madagascar to Baba's Ashram in Meherabad, travelled to an amazing place called Happy Valley where Rama, the ancient Avatar of Hinduism shot an arrow in the ground 5,000 years ago and created a fresh water spring so that his beloved Sita could take a bath, swam in the water falls there, fell off a water fall there, travelled to Ellora only to find closed, tried to sneak in by travelling to the top of the mountain and climbing down into the caves, found yet another waterfall on the way,
swam in it, got caught trying to sneak into the caves, made friends with the sweet security guard, played with his hat,
visited the Valley of The Saints where 1400 saints are buried, decided to travel on to the Ajanta caves 100 kilometers away since Ellora was closed, got kicked out of there as it was closing, hung out in Meherabad for one more day, took an 8 hour car ride, had a gin and tonic at The Leela 5-star hotel, and now here I am back in Mumbai, getting ready to go to the opening of Tanujaa's big show (http://www.gallerychemould.com/exhibitions.html).

So between blogs I've left Mumbai and come back already.

Tomorrow I start the mission of accomplishing a life long dream, attempting to find waves and surf in India. We board a train in the morning to Kerala, and its a 30 hour ride to Trivandrum. Sadly, I've got to run to catch the opening but I'll report more soon and catch up. Until then, adios amigos. Pray for surf with me.
-Mikey

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!