DISTANT DREAM will be available for sale at the March 18 launch at Drifters Cafe & Bar in Bandra. Join me there at 12 pm for fantastic beer (I dig their IPA) and food. And support my launch by taking home a limited edition print!

This piece is my favorite one in the Aksa Collection. It currently hangs above my desk and looms large on my website and business cards. I suppose I like it, first and foremost, as a beautiful picture. I dig the colors of the figures and the fact that somehow, through the process of ICM, the subject lost a leg when in reality, there were two. And the two-legged figure in the foreground seems to be supporting the one-legged one as they gaze off into the background where a lone figure faces the sea. In my first interpretation of this piece, the distant dream was of the one-legged figure who wished it was free to move about and enjoy the sun and sea like the figure out near the water. Naturally, bipedal mobility would never be a reality and hence the title.

But I was speaking with a mentor who suggested there was more to this than my own interpretation. Maybe the distant dream was what the background figure was experiencing? Maybe it was dreaming of having a friend since it was all alone by the shore? The fact remains that the interpretation of most art is really open-ended, at least if we’re unaware of the artist’s comments or history. If we’re to experience a piece without any context, we’re quite free to imagine whatever we like. And that’s what’s interesting to me, about Distant Dream and the other pieces in the Aksa Collection. Disregard the titles for a moment and there’s absolute freedom.

What’s your interpretation of Distant Dream? Did you have one before you read my caption?