Brushstrokes in B’desh (SAISA Art 2024)

Two weeks ago I traveled with the OSC team to Bangladesh to participate in SAISA Art. SAISA Art is quite different from all the other athletic SAISA’s, where instead of competing we do workshops and learn about the diverse art scene in the host country we are in. This year a few workshops took place such as; rickshaw art, watercolor, folk painting (p something), photography and embroidery. This year I chose to do rickshaw art which is a very distinct art style used on rickshaws with bright colors, definitely not my usual art style but I was very excited to try it out. 

On our first day of the workshops we were staying in the school learning about our workshops. In my rickshaw art workshop we were able to get a demonstration by a local artist which was absolutely amazing to see his talent. Then we were given the opportunity to make our own pieces. On the second day we went out in Dhaka, we first went to old Dhaka and saw a Rickshaw art work space, mosque and then the Arminian Church. Afterwards we went to a Gallery to look at some amazing art, eat lunch and do a printing workshop. It was really nice to see the city itself and I learned a lot about Dhaka’s history from this outing. The last day we were in school finishing up our pieces for the exhibition. This was definitely the most chill day and I just focused on finishing my pieces with some final details. At the end of the day we had all of our pieces hung up and we were able to do a nice gallery walk appreciating everyone’s work. 

Overall this trip was a great experience, I learned a lot and I have gotten a lot of inspiration for feature pieces I may make down the line in my DP experience.