Skip to content

References: Art, Architecture, and Craft

  1. Significance of Kolam in Tamil Culture - Sahapedia - A clear introduction to kolam as a daily women's art in Tamil Nadu: rice flour, the grid of dots (pulli), how the lines are drawn, why the designs are meant to disappear, and the names of related floor arts in other regions.

  2. Array Grammars and Kolam - Gift Siromoney, Rani Siromoney and Kamala Krithivasan, Computer Graphics and Image Processing 3 (1974): 63-82 - The paper that described kolam patterns with formal drawing rules a computer can follow. Advanced reading, but a good example of art and computer science coming together.

  3. Rickshaws and rickshaw painting in Dhaka - UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage - Describes the painted rickshaws of Dhaka, how the craft is taught in workshops, and why it was added to UNESCO's Representative List in 2023.

  4. Masterpieces to Go: The Trucks of Pakistan - AramcoWorld (2005) - A magazine feature on Karachi's truck painters: what they paint, how the decorations are made, and how a Pakistani truck ended up in the Smithsonian.

  5. Painted Truck (The Silk Road, 2002) - Smithsonian Folklife Festival - Photos and notes from 2002, when Karachi artists Haider Ali and Jamil Uddin decorated a truck on the National Mall.

  6. Tibetan Thangka Painting (Sacred Pictures) - Asian Art Museum of San Francisco - A teacher-friendly guide to what thangkas are, how they are made and used, and what their images mean.

  7. The Politics of Mithila Painting - David L. Szanton, ORIAS, University of California, Berkeley - A short scholarly essay on how women's wall paintings in Mithila moved onto paper during the drought of the late 1960s and became an art known worldwide.

  8. Temporary Tattoos, Henna/Mehndi, and "Black Henna": Fact Sheet - US Food and Drug Administration - Explains the difference between natural henna and "black henna," and why PPD in black henna can cause serious skin reactions.

  9. Mughal painting - Wikipedia - An overview of Mughal miniature painting from Humayun to Shah Jahan, including the Hamzanama, court workshops and famous artists, with links to museum collections.

  10. Hindu temple architecture - Wikipedia - Explains the parts of a Hindu temple (sanctum, tower, hall, gateways) and the differences between the Nagara and Dravida styles, with many examples.