I just finished this new piece. Smaller versions were made for friends’ birthdays. The larger version was etched using a laser cutter on this beautiful piece of birch I found.

New piece! This is a baby elephant drawn in the style of a traditional Indian tattoo and the whole piece is burned on wood with a laser cutter. Had a lot of fun making this guy. #instaart #artist #lasercut #lasercutting #babyelephant #art #wood #woodworking #elephant #henna #india #indian #woodburning #burn

A post shared by Shriphani Palakodety (@life_of_shriphani) on Apr 10, 2017 at 7:29am PDT

I just finished a new art project: Coasters with the cartouches of my favorite pharaohs + the backing digital sketch.

In chronological order:

• Menes
• Sneferu
• Maatkare
• Akhenaten
• Ozymandias (Ramesses II)
• Alexander
• Ptolemy
• Cleopatra

I just finished this piece:

Incredibly stoked to show you guys my next piece. This is Pegasus in black acrylic on white acrylic. Exploring some themes from Ancient Greek pottery in this piece. #art #artsy #pegasus #acrylic #acrylicart #equestrian #horse #ancientgreek #artist #artistsoninstagram #flyinghorse #blackandwhite

A post shared by Shriphani Palakodety (@life_of_shriphani) on Feb 24, 2017 at 9:42pm PST

The making of:

Installed this new piece. Seahorse in gold and blue on canvas. #spraypaint #sprayart #art #artprocess #artist #artistsoninstagram #artwork #artsy #painting #paintingwithatwist

A photo posted by Shriphani Palakodety (@life_of_shriphani) on Feb 12, 2017 at 10:31pm PST

Dragon. Spray + Acrylic on canvas. Stencils built using a CNC shopbot.

The incredibly talented Pem Lasota, Aram Ebtekar and I put together a small project to enhance the music experience in our living room.

What ensued is the first of many projects we plan to roll out - all focused on building the greatest living-room music experience in the world.

The setup involves 4096 LEDs arranged in a matrix, powered by a raspberry pi and a beefy condenser mic. The electronics fit into a 3D printed case. Pem did a significant chunk of this in Solidworks - a piece of software I was extremely impressed with. In one of the sessions, I was able to make reasonable headway with mild supervision. Few pieces of software are this easy to pick up. Solidworks have done a solid job.

Fresh out of the 3d printer

A photo posted by Shriphani Palakodety (@life_of_shriphani) on Jul 24, 2016 at 11:50am PDT

and when everything is put together, it looks like this:

Step 2

A photo posted by Shriphani Palakodety (@life_of_shriphani) on Jul 24, 2016 at 7:38pm PDT

The frame listens via the condenser mic and generates beautiful visualizations when it “hears” audio. This is what happens when we blast Pavarotti on our music system:

#Pavarotti's incredible range on our #raspberrypi powered picture frame

A video posted by Shriphani Palakodety (@life_of_shriphani) on Jul 30, 2016 at 2:48pm PDT

A neutrino effect to Flume's Hyperparadise:

#whenthebassdrops @flumemusic hyper paradise

A video posted by Shriphani Palakodety (@life_of_shriphani) on Aug 9, 2016 at 7:35pm PDT

The Matrix effect when the bass drops:

When the bass drops

A video posted by Shriphani Palakodety (@life_of_shriphani) on Aug 8, 2016 at 7:10pm PDT

For over five centuries the Sistine Chapel ceiling has been among the greatest things man has produced. I would give two limbs for a magnum opus of its caliber.

In contrast, the first time I saw a Rothko in my early teens, I concluded that this was the outcome of giving a child with severe OCD a set of crayons.

Over the last few weeks, amidst a very tough and frustrating period (this is far too complex for this one post) in my life, I had a chance to reflect on one of Rothko’s signature pieces and study the underlying process through a MOMA video [1]. I felt a new sense of respect for Rothko’s works. A Rothko is quite literally a metaphor for life. Our visible exterior is the product of several layers that comprise our experiences.

Rothko had a famous quote:

The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them.

It took eight years for me to have this experience. I am better off for it.

[1] The Painting Techniques of Mark Rothko: No. 16 (Red, Brown, and Black)

Disco Dora Maar, made with Quil and Clojure.