The New Nation - Internet Edition

Sheikh Arif Bulbon

"Shako, an organisation of women artists, in now four years old. We have been making steady progress in our activities all this while. At the very inception we had pledged to foster contacts among artists, and by now we have succeeded in establishing an extensive network. Therefore, Shako encourages its members to pursue their artistic endeavour with steadfastness. Shako has brought a new dynamism to its other organizational activities. It has been proactive in promoting discussions, meetings and personal contacts among artists, and thereby it has facilitated healthy exchange of ides," Nasreen Begum, Secretary of Shako, Women Artists Association of Bangladesh, and Associate Professor of Oriental Art of Fine Arts Institute of Dhaka University, said this at its exhibition titled 'Shades of Life' held at Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts in the capital.

The exhibition was inaugurated on October 17 which was inaugurated by Geetiara Safiya Choudhury, Industries, Jute and Textiles and Women and Children Affairs Adviser. Ingebjorg Stofring, Ambassador of Norway, Imran Rahman, Managing Director of BRAC Bank Ltd, Subir Chowdhury, Director of Bengal Gallery, among others, were present on the occasion. The exhibition was sponsored by BRAC Bank Ltd.

At every exhibition organised by Shako a few artists other than its members are invited to participate. They may include trainees as well as veterans, foreign artists and physically challenged Bangladeshi artists. This practice has added diversity to the events and greatly enriched them by facilitating the exchange of ides between members and invited artists. This year three invited artists - Rokeya Sultana, Sarkar Naheed Niazi Nipu and Denise Hudson - are participating in the exhibition.

Nasreen Begum said, "Our modest exhibitions always have a serious purpose behind them. The bulk of the money realised from the sale of artworks is donated to a charitable organisation or a needy individual. It always gives us great pleasure to be able to use art to contribute a little towards social welfare. This year's exhibition is in support of the 'Apon Drug Rehabilitation Centre,' which has been trying to help drug-abusers get a new lease of life. The proposal for this show came from Sayeda Sarwat Abed."

In the exhibition the participants are Fareha Zeba, Farida Zaman, Farzana Islam Milky, Kanak Chanpa Chakma, Kuhu, Naima Haque, Nasreen Begum, Rebeka Sultana Moly, Rokeya Sultana, Sarkar Nahid Niazi Nipu, Sulekha Chaudhury and Denise Hudson.

In the 'Autumn,' acrylic on canvas by Farida Zaman was undoubtedly an excellent painting. She superbly presented water lilies dancing in the water. The lilies were buttercup yellow with twirling roots and they were juxtaposed with the pitch-black river below and the natural background of trees with delicate dots, done in emerald green and black.

In the 'Girl with a melon' by Rokeya Sultana in shades of brown, grey, flamingo pink presented the simple image of a woman with bobbed hair, biting into a fruit. Balanced images of more watermelon form the setting for the portrait.

The Chittagong Hill Tracts life had been defined with the brilliance by Kanak Chanpa Chakma. Heavy jewellery at the neck, ears, wrists and hair, plus a yellow flower deck the young woman in 'Nilmai Nirongona,' an acrylic on canvas. The cobalt blue sky and 'Snowy River' were included in the portrait too.

The pristine acrylic on canvas, 'Busy Path' by Nasreen Begum, brought in nature and man with superb subtlety and vivid imagination. Lush green meadow was balanced with narrow white flowing streams and more dotted meadows that were balanced in a parallel manner. Miniscule figures of rural people, going about their everyday life, were placed above the depiction of nature.

Kuhu, who excels in portrait in crayon, and who delighted the local and overseas viewers with her dynamic pictures has an untitled charcoal on paper. Here one found that a woman in a white sari with a faded red border, with simple black and white bangles on the wrists and a flowing mane of jet-black hair. The doe like eyes and pouting lips speak of anger and resentment.

In Fareha Zeba's work titled 'Nature,' acrylic on ply-board, one found two meditative images of a couple appearing to pray in silence and despair. The figures were done in royal blue of different shades. Shady trees, riverside bushes and the sky, the main subject being nature, were brought in with the powerful strokes.

The untitled mixed media by Naima Haque had a small owl suspended on what appears to be a rock or the head of a man. The work was in stripes, lines and scratches to lend interest in the texture work. Framing the figures was the sky in variations of gentle blue and white. Dots, doodles and more scratches were included in the backdrop.

The 'Unknown love,' acrylic on canvas by Rebeka Sultana Moly presented flexible young women in printed salwar-kameez and almost transparent 'dupatta.' The angular faces remind one of portraits was done by the Italian Renaissance masters. The sparkling colours on the clothes were offset by more flamboyant reds and yellows of the background.

The exhibition will end on October 26.

The thought of making a life change can be so intimidating that even though you want to be the master of your own destiny you'll end up doing nothing or settling for less than you deserve simply because you are so afraid of that change. Here are the 6 main reasons you can end up paralyzed with fear and what you can do about them:

1. Fear of the Unknown

We've all heard of the old proverb, "The Devil you know is better than the one you don't". This great fear of the unknown causes people not to take chances and to stay in situations where they're not very happy. As soon as people think about change they start playing the "what if?" game.

l What if I make a mistake?

l What if it's worse than what I have now?

l What if I fail?

You tell yourself the "grass is greener" and bury any thoughts of changing your situation for the better. You think you should stay where you are, just in case. You don't have a crystal ball to predict the future so you can't tell for sure what the consequences of your actions will be. You do know what you have now and you tell yourself that if you think about it, it's really not that bad. Right? The fear of the unknown is what stops most people from ever making positive changes in their lives.

If you let it, your imagination can dream up a never-ending supply of terrible things that could happen. But let's think about it. You have the ability to imagine the absolute worst thing that could happen so that means you also have the skill to use your energy to imagine the absolute best thing that could happen. It's a matter of focus. Why do you waste so much time imagining the worst when there's just as much of a chance of the best outcome happening? In Susan Jeffers book, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, she says that whatever option you choose will provide you with new opportunities and surprises that you may never have imagined happening.

"I can't lose - regardless of the outcome of the decision I make. The world is a place for opportunity, and I look forward to the opportunities for learning and growing that either pathway gives me." - Susan Jeffers

As she says, there is no wrong decision, there's just different opportunities. It makes it far easier to face the unknown if you think of all your options as exciting and worthwhile. You just need to decide which one you want to do right now. There is no wrong choice. Doesn't that make you feel better when you think of it that way?

2. Doubt Yourself

When you are contemplating making a life change you will usually begin to doubt whether you are up for the challenge. Things can also seem a lot bigger and harder than they really are. The task seems overwhelming when we look at it in the big picture. We'll ask ourselves, "who do we think we are thinking we can do that?" "I can't do that. That's too much."

If you want to achieve great things or even just achieve inner peace, sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone and try something totally new. At least you will have tried. You will not have to live with the regret that you'll never know what you could have been if you'd been able to just take that one step forwards. Also, you will learn so much by trying different things. Even if you only end up learning that you don't like it, you have learnt more about yourself and where you want to go in your life. You will have new knowledge with which to use as stepping stones for the future. Usually afterwards as well, we realize, "it wasn't anywhere near as bad as we thought it would be." You have also increased your self confidence in having another situation under your belt that you were able to handle successfully.

3. Isolate Yourself and Agonize Over Decisions

Sometimes when you are going through challenging times you tend to feel isolated like you are the only person in the world going through this decision. You feel you need outside reassurance that you're doing the right thing. You'll ask everyone for their opinion so that you don't have to take responsibility for making the decision. I can tell you from personal experience that the absolute hardest part of making a huge decision is during the time when I'm agonizing over it. I will make myself sick with worry and wondering if it's the "right" thing to do. I'll be on the fence for such a long time sometimes deciding to make that big leap of faith and other times telling myself to "be sensible" and to work with what I have. I slowly drive myself and everyone around me completely insane. But the moment that I finally take the step that makes my decision official, I'll suddenly feel like a huge weight has been lifted from me. I'll then feel quite liberated and excited about my choice. It's the agonizing part that can stop you in your tracks though. It's the hardest part of making a big decision. It's much easier if you can make the decision and then move forwards as soon as you can.

4. Forget That You Always Have Options

Sometimes when you're trying to make a big decision, you think you only have one choice if you don't want to accept the current situation. For example, you can stay in a job you hate or you can quit and be unemployed. And if you're like me you'll add things like "unemployed and starving to death and I'll never be able to find another job." I'll mentally paint myself into a corner (motivated by fear or uncertainty) and feel there is no way out. I'll feel like I have to stay in the situation because there is no other option. The truth is there is always another option. Sometimes it can take a little brainstorming to come up with a list of possible solutions but rarely are you truly ever without any choices.

5. Focus on the External World

Another problem people face when contemplating change is that we tend to focus on external things to define our identity and worth (what kind of job we do, what kind of possessions we have, how much we make). We put an emotional weight on stuff like this. If we don't have the latest t.v. system, we feel like a failure. We can't take the risk of losing all our possessions. It's who we are. People always ask us, "what do you do?". When we answer, our job is a huge part of our identity.

A much more important thing we should focus on is the value of all the relationships we have and how we can help others - it's really a wonderful symbiotic relationship. When you help someone (and see their appreciation or know that you are helping them) you feel good yourself - and it's a more genuine feeling of contentment than buying the latest gadget. It provides us with a much greater sense of self worth.

Also, being able to live the life you truly want if far more important than feeling trapped in a job you hate because you have to pay the credit cards for all the stuff you've bought. I think I can also guarantee, before we take our final sleep (which I'm sure will be when we're 105) we will be thinking about the people that have touched our lives, and not the corner office we had, nor the car we drove.

6. Handcuff Yourself to Stuff

Along with focusing on the external world comes the fact that we cling to certain possessions, statuses, and perks we've been given along the way as some sort of safety net. People will "handcuff" themselves to jobs they hate with thoughts like "I'll stay until I use up all my vacation days" or "I'll stay until I've got my pension". It's the "I'll stay until…" mentality. There's a lot of people who won't leave a job because of the promises of holidays, pension and severance pay. "If I leave I won't get 3 weeks of vacation anymore." Think about it. When you're 80 years old, are you going to be happy that you wasted your life for a few weeks of vacation? Also, it's limiting thoughts like these that keep us trapped in situations we don't want to be in. Turn it around and if something like vacation really is important to you, you can bring it up in any interviews you go to. At least you won't be letting a crutch stop you from facing the fear of change. It's far better to keep the big picture in mind of what do you really want out of life? You need to keep moving towards that and not getting caught in the mental safety nets along the way.

You Don't Have To Settle For Whatever Happens

The worst part about being afraid of change is that you can end up settling for whatever happens. It seems less scary that way. The truth is that this is a far more frightening way to live because you don't have the feeling of being in control of what happens to you and you live in fear of what might happen. Having the confidence to take action in the face of fear not only provides you with a sense of control, ultimately it will also provide you with a life full of purpose and joy. And isn't that really what we're all trying to achieve?

Claudine Canetti

The Musée du Louvre has launched a rich and unique collaboration with the United States, offering to showcase American artists - almost totally absent from its collections - and initiating an unprecedented series of loans which, for a three-year period, will bring hundreds of the Louvre's most precious works (selected from its various Departments) to the United States for several months. Another highlight of this Franco-American "artistic campaign" is the deal reached with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, featuring eight exhibits of key works on loan from the Louvre that will charter the museum's history from its founding in 1793 through the present. These works will be housed in one of the two new wings of the Atlanta museum recently completed by Italian architect Renzo Piano (one of two architects who designed the Pompidou Centre in Paris), covering 700 square metres and two levels. American art patrons will finance the entire project and will help fund the renovation of the Louvre's 18th century French furniture galleries, currently closed to the public.

At a news conference in Paris presenting this collaboration, Louvre director Henri Loyrette evoked the museum's well-established relations with American artists, as well as "the new artistic map of the United States". Moving beyond its usual partnerships with major museums on the East Coast, from D.C. and Boston to New York, the Louvre has turned to Atlanta, the ninth largest metropolitan area in the United States. The recently established High Museum of Art distinguishes itself from other large American museums through its history and its collections. It is currently viewed as the most important museum of the American Southeast, "demonstrating remarkable vitality".

One in every seven visitors to the Louvre is American, accounting for some one million Americans in 2005, added M. Loyrette, regretting the total absence of American art from the museum apart from three paintings. Operation America will be launched in mid-June with the opening in Paris of the exhibit "American Artists and the Louvre". Featuring some 30 pieces from the 18th century to the 1940s, the exhibit will show how the Louvre was a source of inspiration for Americans artists, welcoming them from the onset. On display, among other works, a large-scale painting by Samuel Morse, inventor of the electric telegraph and the Morse code but also a talented painter. Painted in 1831 and depicting the Louvre's Salon Carré and the Grande Galerie in perspective, this work was previously presented several years ago at the American Museum of Art in Giverny, near the home and garden of Claude Monet that gave this little village on the outskirts of Paris its claim to fame. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre has been hung in the same Salon Carré so that visitors can compare the gallery's current aspect with its appearance some 175 years ago.

Mid-October will see the opening in Atlanta of the first of eight exhibits organised over a three-year period. Each year will feature a major 11-month exhibit supported by themed exhibits lasting three to six months. For this unprecedented partnership, devoted to "Kings as Collectors" (15 paintings and 17 sculptures and objets d'art), the Louvre has selected the perfect ambassador, accepting to temporarily part with a masterpiece from its permanent collection, Raphael's Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, a loan so exceptional that this treasure of the Italian Renaissance will "only" remain in the United States for three months - so as not to deprive Louvre visitors for too long! L'Infante Marie Marguerite by Velasquez, Murillo's The Young Beggar, Rembrandt's Saint Matthew and the Angel and other masterpieces will return to Paris eleven months later, while Poussin's The Arcadian Shepherds of Acadia will remain in Atlanta for seven months.

Two other exhibits will be presented during the first year of the Louvre Atlanta partnership, which will feature some 142 works in 2006-2007. "The King's Drawings" provides an overview of the collection of royal drawings amassed by the kings of France, while "Decorative Arts of the Kings" showcases one of French royalty's favourite collections. In 2007-2008, Americans will discover the history of the Louvre's major archaeological collections and its Egyptian, Oriental, Greek, Etruscan and Roman antiquities, as well as Empress Josephine's personal collection of antiquities and works by sculptor Houdon, including the famous busts of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. The third year, entitled "The Louvre, Today and Tomorrow", will bring the collections up to the present, with the museum's new department of Islamic Arts, the introduction of contemporary art pieces and the new Louvre-Lens museum in northern France.