Until someone sent me this link, I'd never heard of Kolams. This is so beautiful. Enjoy watching it, and then find some sidewalk chalk. Art for Art's sake, beauty for beauty's sake, generosity for generosity's sake, play for play's sake. Yes, more of that, please! Watching this video led to spending the next couple hours on youtube! Thank you, Kaaren Beckhof, for making this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbQcGdyT86Mhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbQcGdyT86M
This practice is done daily as an offering, usually by females in the household, for protection from evil and to bring happiness/prosperity. I think the viewers prosper in seeing the daily designs as much as the makers. What a rich culture! Why don't I live in India?! The music, the culture, the colors, ahhh.
Rice flour is mixed with chalk dust, usually white, to make the dot and line drawings. Dots are drawn in a pattern and all lines must interconnect - to keep out evil spirits. Kolams are done on the floor/ground which is swept and washed each morning with water, the great purifier. I love its ephemeral nature and reminder of the boundless creativity and ways to say "thanks" and make offerings, here on this beautiful planet we call home.
So what's the point in pointless play/creativity/delight? (Who would ask such a thing!) The point is that in all this broken-heartedness we face in everyday living, the rotten news, the corruption of church and state, facing our own defects and shortcomings, death of our glorious ecosystems - despite all this, there is a way to give or at least enjoy some grace in our existence, a reminder to remember what we're made of, what this Universe is made of, and celebrate it and share it with passerby, maybe lift them up a little bit, too.
I will post some attempts outside our apt. fourplex building if I succeed in making any kolams. I hope the "threshhold" trend catches on. There are other art forms too. Men, don't feel left out! You can do rangoli! Men, women, and children do it. Rangoli often uses brilliant colored flour/chalk dust.
Here's a link to a rangoli video of a man making a Ganesh mandala on the street; beautiful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C45QsOCb3Zg&NR=1&feature=fvwphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C45QsOCb3Zg&NR=1&feature=fvwp
