Part 3 : Big Life Lessons From A Mammoth Canvas Art Masterpiece — The Installation
Great things happen to those who work towards a goal greater than themselves, and do so in a selfless manner.
The Installation
With Adithya’s hardships having come to a close, or seemingly so, I guess it was my turn now. While Adithya was busy with the painting through April 2019, I had come out with the concept, song-list and album cover for my next album “Voider Perspectives”. For those who do not know, I also have a day-job in a Technology company. I was in the flow with the album concept and also with one other thing that took all my focus for the latter half of 2019 — More on this “thing” when the time is right!
The painting was folded and kept in the studio. I contacted my studio guys to get the painting up on the ceiling — the installation, so to speak. Months passed, with my focus unwavering from the “thing”. I guess this was by design. I just had to let the painting be.
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished — Lao Tzu.
To all my good friends who commented on the time it has taken for the painting to be installed and that it was “finally done”, the above quote should come as a revelation. I remember reading this article on Medium where it says all of life as we currently know it, everything we see living around us today, represents at most half a billion years of evolution. Every recognizable form of life, from flowers to insects to dinosaurs to deer, evolved in less than 1/8th of the time life has been on Earth. Neanderthals only existed for a few hundred thousand years before being put out of business by modern humans, Homo sapiens.
So, to put things in perspective, 1 year or 10 years into a human-made creation in this cosmos is not significant. What’s significant is actually creating it and making things happen. Moreover, it is believed that anything to do with Surya or Sun God leads to a lot of obstacles that have to be overcome.
Lesson 5 — Prioritize the things that must get done, and then leisurely work your way through them
The painting would rest on the studio floor until December 2019, when there was this sudden urge within me, to get the painting framed and the installation done on the ceiling. I reached out to a couple of carpenters besides my studio guys (since they were housed in Chennai, logistics was a problem in execution) and slowly got down to the details. The studio’s sound could not be compromised on — a big input on planning the installation was the hypothetical impacts it could have on the sound in the studio. This resulted in a lot of discussions.
Once the painting would be framed as a 10’ X 7’ panel, there was no way it could enter our house (the height of the door is 6 ½’!). Hardship no. 1! How do we get the painting inside the house, let alone get it into the studio? Carpenters traveled from Delhi to figure this out but to no avail. A week passed. Some provided their quotes and some gave up at that point. Good for the painting, I thought. Finally, it was decided we had to cut the canvas into 2 parts — the day and the night — in order for the painting to enter the house and the studio. Serendipity with the day-night cut? I’d like to think so. The universe was working on it, I am sure!
With this hurdle crossed, next step was to figure out the installation options on the studio ceiling. Should it be nailed directly or should it be projected a bit below the ceiling? It was eventually decided to go with a fall ceiling but not too deep. I had to get the ceiling fan removed in order for this to happen. Slowly but surely, things were moving ahead. The installation took 2 weeks. The studio equipment was housed outside all this time. Carpenters, Painters and Electricians all worked together to make it happen.
The final hurdle was with the lighting of the painting. Adithya had proposed back-lighting as there are finer aspects of the painting that would show up and would provide for an interesting view and perspective. So, it was decided to light it with LED strip-lights. There was no way for us to figure if the lights were appropriate until the painting was actually put up — which was the final step! We picked up a bunch of strip-lights and got them fixed. The lighting was abysmal.
“It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
We re-looked at lighting and after much trial-and-error, we decided on LED 30W flat-squares and flat-rounds. We had to pick up 9 such pieces for the day and for the night, extra LED strips, it was thought, would do. The lighting was better but not yet there! Eventually, directional lighting helped and we were all set to mount the painting.
Here I’d like to pause with a thought on the team.
The difference between success and failure is a great team. I’d like to alter this a bit to state that the difference between manifestation of a thought and the death of it, lies with the team.
The carpenter, painter, electrician and associates had put in tireless efforts every day for these 2 weeks — in spite of their current state in life, their trials and tribulations, their relationships and the countless sacrifices made by their families for them to work in peace.
They were all enamored by the magnificent piece of art that they helped installing. They started finding shapes and designs hitherto unknown to us. I think that the painting had served its purpose and will continue to do so, for years to come.
Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results. — Andrew Carnegie
Lesson 6 — Great things happen to those who work towards a goal greater than themselves, and do so in a selfless manner.
Adithya had mentioned that Rathasaptami (An ancient festival that marks the change in direction of the Sun, ushering in Spring) was around the corner. I checked the date — it was 1st Feb. The timing was just perfect for the painting of the Sun’s chariot to be put up in the studio. We all ensured that the painting was put up by then. A glorious end (or should I say a glorious beginning — to the stars!) to a project that Adithya mentioned was not just commissioned but even produced by World Void Web.
When I look back at all the events right from my childhood influences to my foray into music, to meeting Adithya (courtesy my debut album) and manifest this painting that waited until Rathasaptami to proudly occupy its rightful place in the studio, I’d like to think that the painting was created and produced by the Universe.
Read Big Life Lessons From A Mammoth Canvas Art Masterpiece — A Brief History
Read Part-1 : Big Life Lessons From A Mammoth Canvas Art Masterpiece — The Inception
Read Part-2 : Big Life Lessons From A Mammoth Canvas Art Masterpiece — The Making
Part-3 : Big Life Lessons From A Mammoth Canvas Art Masterpiece — The Installation — YOU ARE HERE
The Summary of Lessons (TL/DR):
