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Natasha Patel, Colored Pencil & Micron Pen, 12-10-21, 7x5

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We are holding hands to pray. Scissors, representing the current day pressures, come to chop our hand holding bonds while praying. To me, this shows that the new generation doesn't pray much anymore because we don't have time, opportunity, or we get judged for it. The girl in the blue saree is the younger generation, who worries about these pressures; while they don't affect the older generation, who turns away, ignoring it. The scissors are larger than the family, to demonstrate how societal forces are a much larger power. I incorporated warm colors in the background as a recurring theme in my works, symbolizing the undying presence of religion.

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Natasha Patel, Charcoal & Chalk Pastel, 11-26-21, 8x8

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The Nowruz Table is significant in our religion because each item represents an aspect of Creation. I chose to draw traditional items in color to show the beauty of them; while our current day table is in black and white, demonstrating how that beauty is lost to convenience. This piece is realistic rather than cubist, since the the border of "past" and "current" is clearly defined. Three months after finishing all objects, I decided to cut it up and glue each piece on in a different composition.

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Natasha Patel, Oil Pastel, 3-21-22, 12x16
This piece is inspired by church's stained glass. The symbols (humata hukhta hvarshta) are the Zoroastrian values: good thoughts, good words, good deeds. The figures represent the current societal pressures, emphasizing the divide between traditional and present. The figure's eyes are closed, contemplating her internal conflict.

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Natasha Patel, Acrylic Paint, 9-26-21, 20x8

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The girl looking in the mirror represents how I view myself based on what I want to look like: myself see myself a basic, American girl (straight hair, flat nose). However, looking in the mirror, she sees her roots (curly hair, droopy nose) and ancestry (wearing traditional Parsi clothes). With this idea, I want to show who I wish to be due to societal pressures versus who my ancestors hope me to be. I believe acrylic paint will work well with this idea and style because of the vibrancy of the colors. The ability to marble colors fluidly will aid in demonstrating confusion. As for the background, the left side's deep red symbolizes the fire which encompasses traditional ancestry's religious practices, whereas the right side is yellow, illustrating a false/new sense of happiness. This piece symbolizes the balance at the beginning of my process in finding my identity.

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Natasha Patel, Chalk Pastel, 16x12, 9-1-21

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Pablo Picasso, Girl Before A Mirror, Oil on Canvas, 1932

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My idea was to draw a portrait of myself reflecting on how my ancestry defines who I am versus how I am developing as a person. My inspiration is Picasso. The candle represents fire, which is the symbol for God in my religion, illustrating its presence on the side of the traditional reflection. The background is realistic while the characters are cubist, to show how the world has got it figured out while I am still discovering my identity. The girl in the mirror (on the left) is a more traditional Picasso style, while my current style is all over the place; I experimented with layering paint and different, untraditional methods. I think my biggest success is the marble effect on the girl. The one thing I would change is the color theory of the background. I'm proud of my artistic choices in this piece (diptych), and it will be interesting to see how much my view has changed by my last piece.

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Natasha Patel, Acrylic Paint, 10-21-21, 8x10

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This piece digs deeper into specific changes from my current situation. The expression is accepting, yet anxious. This idea illustrates the "current societal" forces that pressure me to change in order to fit into society.

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Pablo Picasso, Femme au miroir, Oil on Canvas, 1963

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During art class, I was listening to Hindi music I grew up listening to. Ava wanted to listen, and I felt embarrassed to play it for her, so I switched to American pop music. This instance inspired this piece by reminding me of the importance of music in my identity.

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1) Violin and Newspaper - Georges Braque 1913
2) Horn and Piano Duet - Joseph Catanzaro
3) Piano meets cubism - Victor Keys 2011

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This initial composition felt 'flat' so I decided to scrap the whole thing and start over to create a more dynamic piece.

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Purple/Gold symbolizes royalty; traditional
Red/Green symbolizes Christmas, a holiday we traditionally didn't celebrate

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My idea was to show myself, then the current societal pressures that force changes on me to make me fit in. Acrylic paint worked out very well for this idea because it was bold, and shading wasn't required to convey this idea. Overall, I think this is my strongest piece so far, because it labels the specific changes the outside forces are projecting on me. After hearing other people's feedback and interpretation of this piece, the one major change I would make is changing the layout of the objects around the face to make it clearer that the needle goes into the character's nose and the makeup wipe is taking off the lipstick. I am proud of the color plan and composition of this piece and I see it as a huge improvement from the last piece in terms of story and process.

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This project had the longest process. My idea wasn't finalized when I began, and it developed over weeks. I still believe I can expand upon the idea and relate it back to the original inspiration more on a personal level than how vague this piece turned out. Watercolor worked out well, but I believe the thickness of acrylic paint would've worked better. Some revisions for this piece could be to make the sheet music more apparent, since that is the focus of the piece, and reorganize the composition to have more of an individual feeling. This piece feels very different from the first two in style and color palette, so for revision, I plan to incorporate the cubism style more and darken the colors.

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Natasha Patel, Acrylic Paint, 2-11-22, 8x8

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This is the last piece in my candle series, where the wax has melted from the candle. I incorporated a gel transfer of our religions symbol in the wax to show that even though the candle, which initially represented my religion, has melted, that it can be changed into another form; still the same religion but now with a new meaning. This represents how my idea of our religion is different than my ancestors' ideas.

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Natasha Patel, Acrylic Paint, 12-9-21, 10x8

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On Persian New Year, the tradition is chant a prayer for health and luck while jumping over a fire. This year's celebration inspired me to reflect on how earlier, I desired to be accepted by God and the people of my culture/religion. However, now I wish for validation from people at school, on social media, etc. Later I decided to redo the piece with a more dynamic composition, where I used only micron pen.

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Natasha Patel, Oil Pastel & Watercolor, 1-21-22, 18x24

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I continued to use a warm color palette. Over the yellow background are red "flames."

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I drew 4 combinations of lines over my reference picture to feel the mood of each.

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Natasha Patel, Mixed Media (Acrylic on Canvas, Thread, Stamp), 4-3-22, 12x12

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photo credit: me :)

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New Media: Oil
Practice with blending with similar shades

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Sandra Yagi suggested tracing onto canvas

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Natasha Patel, Oil Pastel, 4-17-22, 12x16

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The style references history through the 'stained glass' feel, yet it illustrates a modern reenactment of a historical story. 'Sugar in the Milk' is a Parsi story, which encompasses the Zoroastrians escaped to Gujarat from religious persecution. The king held an urn full of milk, but the Parsis added sugar to the urn, symbolizing that they will assimilate and sweeten the culture. My version of the story shows milk (American culture) drowning out the sweetness of my culture.