1973 - 81, Ph.D., The Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California
1971 - 72, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana
1970, DPA Tribhuven University, Kathmandu, Nepal
1965 - 69, St.Joseph's College, Darjeeling, India

Digital Drawings
These digital drawings are visual metaphors of nature and spirit expressed in abstract symbols and colors. For the past twenty years, my paintings and sculptures have integrated the language of early modern abstraction with Buddhist and Hindu imagery from my native Nepali culture. The computer has enabled me to unify these diverse ideas into a new format. Digital drawing expands the possibility of experiencing different visual forms linked by similar aesthetic values.

The digital drawings presented here are part of an installation, AKASH-HIMAL, featured in the exhibition Divine Carriers: New Art from India and Nepal. Akash Himal // Sky Mountain is an interactive installation of abstract artworks that are both traditional and electronic. It explores the similarities and differences between these two approaches with regards to how art is created, stored, transported, exhibited and owned. Digital artworks are juxtaposed with mixed-media drawings on hand-made Nepali paper to show similarities of geometric composition. Sculptures and a line drawing with pigments also provoke comparisons between the traditional and electronic materials and methods of art-making.

This installation also reflects the spirituality of nature expressed in the form of abstract symbols. The colors and iconography of Hindu and Buddhist rituals of Nepal have influenced this art. It is a synthesis of many other traditions, including Native American spirituality, theosophy, and early modern abstract art. The process of creating art is a form of personal ritual that energizes the spirit. The studio is a sacred space where one can retreat and meditate. This installation provides the possibility of experiencing different forms of art united by similar spiritual aspirations.

Four series of digital drawings - based on the circle, square, triangle and synthesis of all three shapes - show the evolution of the electronic drawing process. The computer offers the potential for making complex images. First a basic drawing is created and then abstracted using the techniques of cutting, pasting, layering, duplicating, reversing, tilting and stretching the image with MS Windows 3.1 Paintbrush program. Working on a laptop, intricate compositions can be created in a small working space and short amount of time.

During the exhibition, new digital artworks will be created and added to this Web page which can be accessed in the gallery or at home. The Internet's World Wide Web provides a unique opportunity to show the latest works to a large audience by transcending the traditional means of exhibiting art. The gallery visitor's interaction with the art can continue in his or her own time and space.

In contrast to traditional art materials which are physically tangible, computer-generated art, until it is displayed on a monitor or printed in hard copy, exists only in the form of invisible, electronic information. It is stored as magnetic impulses in a disk or in computer memory, making the storage of artwork comparatively easy. The various stages of drawing can be saved at different points during the formation of an image. Each of these saved compositions are individual artworks which also function as part of a series.

Akash Himal //Sky Mountain synthesizes the vocabulary of Nepali and American cultures. Sky - Akash in Nepali - is a metaphor for electronic art, which is often imperceptible yet present in space. Himal, or Mountain, gives feature to the landscape as traditional artworks provide texture to this installation. The abstract aspect of the sky is reflected in the imagery of the drawings. And as the mountain embodies nature's solidity, the materials of the sculptures reveal stability. Like the mythic Mount Meru, believed to hold the earth together, traditional art forms the foundation for experiments in the new medium of electronic art.

1993 - The Myth of the Nagas and the Kathmandu Valley Watershed: An Ecological Artwork, Kathmandu, Nepal
1990 - The Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California
1988 - Environmental Sculpture Installation, Joshua Tree National Park, California
1986 - DA Gallery, Pomona, California
1985 - West Gallery, The Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California
1984 - Hinshaw Gallery, Pitzer College, Claremont, California
1981 - Honnold Library Gallery, Claremont Colleges, Claremont, California
1979 - East Studio Gallery, Pitzer College, Claremont, California
1978 - Salathe Gallery, Pitzer College, Claremont, California

1998 - Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California
1997 - City Gallery of Contemporary Art, Raleigh, North Carolina
1997 - Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina
1994 - Nepal Association of Fine Arts Gallery, Kathmandu, Nepal
1994 - Siddhartha Art Gallery, Kathmandu, Nepal
1994 - Madison Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin
1994 - De Cordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts
1994 - Miami Art Museum, Florida
1994 - Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California
1993 - San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California
1993 - Salt Lake Art Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
1993 - La Defense, Paris, France
1993 - Hunter College, New York, New York
1992 - The Queens Museum of Art, New York, New York
1992 - Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, Washington
1992 - The Earth Summit Environmental Exhibition, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1989 - California State University Art Gallery, San Bernardino, California
1989 - Fringe of the Fringe Art Festival, Claremont, California
1988 - Fringe of the Fringe Art Festival, Pomona, California
1987 - Los Angeles Fringe Festival, Pomona, California

1993 - The Myth of the Nagas and the Kathmandu Valley Watershed, 30 minutes. Funded by the Asian Development Bank
1992 - Fragile Ecologies: Artists' Interpretations and Solutions, 20 minutes. The Queens Museum Of Art, New York, New York. Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, and The New York State Council on the Arts
1992 - Leonhardt Lagoon: An Ecological Artwork by Patricia Johanson, 5 minutes. The Queens Museum Of Art, New York. Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, and The New York State Council on the Arts
1992 - Studio, 3 minutes
1985 - Transformations: The Reforestation of Nepal, 30 minutes. Produced by the World Neighbors, USA
1984 - Sunrise on a Planetary Dream, 20 minutes

Los Angeles Times, California, February 7, 1998
The Kathmandu Post, Kathmandu, Nepal, October and December, 1994
Kantipur, Kathmandu, Nepal, December, 1994
Art and Design, Profile No. 36, London, United Kingdom, 1994
Salt Lake City Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah, October, 1993
Village Voice, New York, New York, September, 1992
Collage, Claremont, California, 1984
The Rising Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal, February, 1982
Malini, Los Angeles, California, Vol. 1, No. 5, 1982

1995 - "Sculpture for the People of Nepal," The Kathmandu Post, October
"Himalayan Pilgrimage to the Hindu Shrine at Muktinath, Nepal: Cultural Meaning and Social Process," 1980 - National Geographic Society Research Report
"Hindu Pilgrimage in Nepal Himalaya," Current Anthropology, Vol. 22, 571-72

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jduwadi@bellsouth.net