The Game of Life

Acrylic on Canvas, 36" X 36"

Comments from Viewers, in response to the VTS question "what is going on the image"

Juli Norwood >> I think the painting is making a commentary on the green house gases and global warming? Let me expand on that... It looks like it may be asking us to decide upon whether Global Warming is real or not! On one hand you have the serious face with the dark sky looking so bleak... yet on the other hand the 2 layers of checkered board below could be saying that this is a game or an illusion! Or perhaps it is simply saying we are playing games with our very lives? April 14 at 9:38am · Like

Radheyshyam Tewari>> a lovely face suffused with innocence and like a deer lost in jungle cautiously looking at every thing April 14 at 9:12pm via · Like · 1 person

Radheyshyam Tewari >> a lovely face suffused with innocence and like a deer lost in jungle cautiously looking at every thing April 14 at 9:14pm via · Like

Rajani Penukonda>> the comments r thinkable in a new way............ April 15 at 12:21am · Like · 1 person

Sujata Tibrewala >> thanks Juli, Abeer and Meenakshi for liking this discussion :) @Juli the serious face with a bleak background and the smoke, juxtaposed with the checkerboard pattern, makes you feel may be we are playing games with our lives, may be green house gases will kill us, or may be not... @Radheshyam ji the face look inoccent to you, and seems it is lost in a jungle, and is looking very carefully at everything.. @Rajani the comments make you think in a very different way... April 15 at 11:27am · Like

Sujata Tibrewala>> I hope I got everyone's views right on the painting..If not feel free to correct me. Do you want to add on something you see in the image that makes you say what you did? What more can we find is going on in the image? April 15 at 11:29am · Like

Juli Norwood>> This painting is very complex! Much of this painting depends upon whom the woman represents!

Is she Mother Nature? And looking somber because of how we abuse her!

Is she a Mother whom is sad and without hope for a future for her child and grandchildren because of violence, or pollution?

On the left there appears to be a fetus amongst the wisps of smoke and faces of people as well... and on the right a skull appears amongst wisps of smoke...

It could be saying so many different things. It could be saying the only thing certain in life is birth and death everything else is just an illusion maybe!

I can't wait to hear from you what your intent or message was for this painting!

April 15 at 2:08pm · Like

Sujata Tibrewala >> Hi julie, I am glad you can find so many details. .. you see skull, people and featus in smoke. ..hence you are forced to think of life and death, the abuse of nature, the precarious situation of humanity. .. you feel the painting is like a multilevelled riddle and cannot wait to get the answers. ..trust me as an artist this is a great complement to me...but alas I cannot share any of my intent here, since that will close the discussion. ....I want you to keep looking....what more can you find :) April 18 at 2:06pm · Like

Sujata Tibrewala >> Thanks suresh for liking this...

What Sujata had in mind when she painted

Life is but a stage and the people are like puppets. It is upto us whether we want to be a puppet in the hands of circumstances or be out of it by being aware.

Symbols used : Self portrait: A larger than life self portrait overlooking a fortune telling crystal like globe showing people playing out the game of life. The chess board signifies the game and the smoky skull against the self portrait signifies the ephemeral nature of life... I am overlooking the scene with a sense of helplessness and detachment not knowing what to do....