1999 (The 9 Years, Part 7)

As we are now in 2009, we can expect to see a great many articles trumpeting the 70th anniversary of the fabled "Best Movie Year," 1939. This is tradition, dating back probably to every 9 year of every movie-oriented decade. But is 1939 really the best year for movies? I don't know about that. It was great, but after the watershed year 1979, I started having my doubts. In 1989, I started

Aishwarya Rai Filmography

Aishwarya Rai Movie Career
Aishwarya Rai debuted in Mani Ratnam's critically acclaimed Tamil language film, Iruvar with Mohanlal and Tabu. She played a dual role in the film. She was introduced to Bollywood by Rahul Rawail in the film, Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya; the film was a poor performer at the box office. However, her third project, a Tamil-language film, Jeans by S.Shankar was a critical success. She then appeared in popular films Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and Mohabbatein (2000). In 2002, Rai appeared with Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit in the lavishly produced Devdas, which was a major box-office success. The film attracted overseas attention as well, receiving a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival and garnering international attention.

In 2003, Rai was a member of the jury at Cannes. In 2004, she was chosen by TIME Magazine's Asian Edition as one of Asia's "100 Most Influential People." She was the subject of a 60 Minutes profile on January 2, 2005 - "The Most Beautiful Face in the World." A month later she appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, and on April 25, 2005, she was featured on Oprah's "Women Across the Globe" segment. A wax figure of Rai is on display in London's Madame Tussaud's wax museum.

In the past, Indian actors and actresses were celebrities in South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East, but mostly unknown to the rest of the world. Aishwarya is one of the few Indian actresses to have attempted to step into Western territory. Although frequently the subject of gossip column speculation about an imminent Hollywood career, it was only in 2004 that Rai finally acted in a foreign film, when British director Gurinder Chadha hired her to play the heroine in Bride and Prejudice, a Hollywood-funded but Bollywood-influenced version of Jane Austen's classic novel, Pride and Prejudice. She later acted in another English film, Mistress of Spices from the novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and directed by Berges, was released in the U.K. in April 2006. Her recent English film to be released was "Provoked" which got her critical acclaim as an actress. She has some more overseas projects up her sleeve like "The Last Legion" to be released in 2007, "Chaos" and "Singularity" in 2008.

Her recent Bollywood releases Dhoom 2 and Guru (opposite husband Abhishek Bachchan) have been extremely successful in the box office and the year 2007 proved to be lucky for the beautiful actress.

Actress Aishwarya Rai

Name : Aishwarya Rai
Birth name : Aishwarya Krishnaraj Rai
Birthdate : November 1, 1973 (1973-11-01)
Birth location : Mangalore, Karnataka, India
Height : 5 ft 7 in (1.7 m)
Sex : Female
Profession : Actress
Education :
Arya Vidar Mandir in Santa Cruz, Bombay, India
DG Ruparel College, Matunga, Bombay, India
Raheja College Architecture in Bandra, Bombay, India
Husband : Abhishek Bachchan, Actor. Married on April 20, 2007
Brother : Aditya Rai
Father : Krishnaraj Rai
Mother : Vrinda Rai
Eye color : Green/Blue
Hair color : Brown
Ethnicity : Indian
Claim To Fame : Miss World 1994

The Monstrosities of the Femme Fatale

Jellyfish: "Flesh & Bones"
Spider: "Death & Trust"
Snake: "Love & Lies"
Plant: "Meat & Poison"
Octopus: "Blood & Water"





Artist Statement
The first thing I want to capture is the moment when these monster women grasp their prey through understated violence.
The second thing I want to capture is the contrast of cold silence and gentle movement.
Different moods and themes were used to convey each of the women's personal monstrosity. My intention is to keep the concept subtle with only a few clues dropped in to suggest their animal nature. It is my hope that the viewer shape his or her own story for these women based only on the paintings and their titles.

A cover redesign, I chose to paint 'An Improper Aristocrat' by Deb Marlowe.
I've never read the book, so I had to use my imagination for the cover.

My take on 'Scorpion and Isaki Fish with Root Ginger' by Hiroshige.
You can see the original print by the master here.
Hiroshige was influenced by Western still-life with his fish series, so I thought I'd take it further and make the fishes a little more realistic.

My apologies to whoever who can read Japanese: I know those scribbles make absolutely no sense! I was blindly copying the original calligraphy :D

1989 (The 9 Years, Part 6)

As we are now in 2009, we can expect to see a great many articles trumpeting the 70th anniversary of the fabled "Best Movie Year," 1939. This is tradition, dating back probably to every 9 year of every movie-oriented decade. But is 1939 really the best year for movies? I don't know about that. It was great, but after the watershed year 1979, I started having my doubts. In 1989, I started

1979 (The 9 Years, Part 5)

As we are now in 2009, we can expect to see a great many articles trumpeting the 70th anniversary of the fabled "Best Movie Year," 1939. This is tradition, dating back probably to every 9 year of every movie-oriented decade. But is 1939 really the best year for movies? I don't know about that. It was great, but after the watershed year 1979, I started having my doubts. In 1989, I started

1969 (The 9 Years, Part 4)

As we are now in 2009, we can expect to see a great many articles trumpeting the 70th anniversary of the fabled "Best Movie Year," 1939. This is tradition, dating back probably to every 9 year of every movie-oriented decade. But is 1939 really the best year for movies? I don't know about that. It was a superb time for movies, but after the watershed year 1979, I started having my doubts about

Tarot card design

For game design, I chose to paint the Death card.
The box mockup was actually very fun to make!

1959 (The 9 Years, Part 3)

As we are now in 2009, we can expect to see a great many articles trumpeting the 70th anniversary of the fabled "Best Movie Year," 1939. This is tradition, dating back probably to every 9 year of every decade. But is 1939 really the best year for movies? I don't know about that. It was great, but after the watershed year 1979, I started having my doubts. In 1989, I started noticing a trend.

1949 (The 9 Years, Part 2)

As we are now in 2009, we can expect to see a great many articles trumpeting the 70th anniversary of the fabled "Best Movie Year," 1939. This is tradition, dating back probably to every 9 year of every movie-oriented decade. But is 1939 really the best year for movies? I don't know about that. It was great, but after the watershed year 1979, I started having my doubts. In 1989, I started

1939 (The 9 Years, Part 1)

As we are now in 2009, we can expect to see a great many articles trumpeting the 70th anniversary of the fabled "Best Movie Year," 1939. This is tradition, dating back probably to every 9 year of every movie-oriented decade. But is 1939 really the best year for movies? I don't know about that. It was undeniably magnificent, but after the watershed year 1979, I started having my doubts. In

The 9 Years (Intro teaser)

As we are now in 2009, we can expect to see a great many articles trumpeting the 70th anniversary of the fabled "Best Movie Year," 1939. This is tradition, dating back probably to every 9 year of every decade. But is 1939 really the best year for movies? I don't know about that. It was great, but after the watershed year 1979, I started having my doubts. In 1989, I started noticing a trend.

Film #122: The China Syndrome

This whole notion of life imitating art--it really doesn't happen too often. But it certainly happened in 1979, and in an unlikely, timely manner. On March 16th of that year, writer/director James Bridges (at that point most notable for giving us 1974's law school drama The Paper Chase), unleashed The China Syndrome upon American audiences. This taut, expertly-produced thriller imparted the