Meeting with an Inspiring Artist...Meire Bari

I just returned from a month's vacation in USA .. and there are quite a lot of posts due..but I decided to start from the last and a really amazing piece of good luck that I had..

As any of this Blog's followers would know, I do post about artists who inspire me and there are quite a few of those... when it comes to Cold Porcelain, Meire Bari was a strong favourite... her work just made me drool.. here are a few of her creations

I have been following her work for quite a few years, and when I knew that I would be visiting USA, I decided to try my luck and asked if I could meet with her..and she readily agreed....

It was during the last but one day of my return too India, that I finally got the opportunity to meet her... Our first intro was definitely one of a kind... !!


She was just so warm and welcoming from the first instance..that I was just glad that I overcame my natural reserve and decided to get in touch with her.. But the best was yet to come...!

I was hoping that she would share some instances of her creative journey with me and maybe let me see a few of her works... what happened was much beyond all of my wildest imaginations..!

Withing minutes of meeting me, she invited me to her work space and asked me to just feel at home and go through all her work. !As I was admiring a beautiful piece modeled like a patchwork doll, she just casually gifted it to me, and she also gifted my sister and brother-in-law, who had accompanied me, two more of her lovely and unique creations.

And while we were just standing , struck by her generosity, she was offering me a lesson in sculpting, absolutely free.. !! We had already made some plans for the day, so I had to decline..and I was flying the next evening... 

But I just could not let this chance of a life-time go..so asked her if there was any way she could spare a few hours of her valuable time to give me a lesson the next morning.. she readily agreed, and I spent a couple of  the best hours of my creative time with her. 

She did a completely new sculpt, just to give me a lesson... and then did a step by step demo. Then she gave me a lot of invaluable tips to improve the quality of my work.. not only that, once I had finished my own piece, with all the materials and tools provided by her, she gifted me the one she made too , and had it safely packed for transport to India. !!

Then she also gave me a whole lot of tools , some of which I had never even come across, and a bunch of magazines that she had collected, with step by step instructions on sculpting...
The piece below is what I made... and I am pleased as punch about it !!

Her generosity knows no bounds..and the most valuable of all to me, was her friendship!! So free and unconditional.. once one reaches adulthood, it is not easy to find such unfettered offers of friendship... We had similar thoughts on a lot of things, not just our creative sensibilities...

All her pieces are unique and abound in fun and really showcases her talents.

A Brazilian and Indian, we met in USA... !! I guess it was meant !!



Some day, I hope to pay this generosity forward in much the same spirit. For now, I would be happy to just come half-way close to her talents...