Well, actually it progressed very slowly. In 1975, I had discovered this new way of painting. After painting the first painting, I also realized that it was not as simple as it seemed. Towards the end of the year I was sent into an emotional vacuum after receiving the sad news of my mother’s passing away, in India. To fill up the vacuum I decided to paint something that would at least keep me wrapped in her memories. I had just finished my MBA in marketing and I should have been looking for a good permanent job. Instead I wanted to spend some time indulging in her memories. The cost of living was not that high in New Mexico and I could take the time to paint some paintings. I decided to paint the white flowers that bloomed only early in the dawn on the tree that my mother had planted in the atrium back home. I remembered looking at those flowers, when I was a child, with sleepy eyes in the early morning and it still being dark outside I could see only the flowers in an abstract pattern and not really seeing the tree or the leaves in the background. Just like my mother who always stayed in the background but flowers and fruits of her love for everyone were always abundant. I could see and feel her love like a constant abstract pattern unfolding in my life. With that painting I embarked on a series of paintings as homage to her.

This culminated into a series of 16 “White Flowers On White” paintings for a year and 1/2 later. This was a time period when I felt so lonely being away from my family and not able to travel back to India, that my paintings (and my life) had lost all the color. While painting these white flower paintings I felt as if my mother’s hand was on my shoulder. That is what brought me out of the deep grief I was feeling. During this time linearism was put aside. Then I moved to New York City in 1977. The colors started to come back and the cityscape reminded me of linear style. I decided to try the linearism again. East River with the U.N. building was the first linear painting I completed in New York. To my surprise it was sold almost immediately. That spurred me on to the linear painting path faster than anything else did.