“Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.” – Leo Tolstoy
“Art has the power to transform, to illuminate, to educate, inspire and motivate.” – Harvey Fierstein
“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” – Aristotle
“Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.” -Salvador Dali
My current collection is a summary of a combination, made from the past and the now. Our destiny of living between two worlds, finding our space and voice.
Coming from a generation where half of our soul is rooted in the shore from where our parents sailed, the other half on the shore where they landed. Raising us children with the values, culture and tradition that they brought with them. Learning to navigate constantly between two different worlds is often uncomfortable and confusing. Not knowing acceptance. That is “us”.
As an artist, I explore the two worlds, merge them together to bring fluency and unity on each canvas. I combined the vividly colored, highly stylized and richly detailed elements of a traditional miniature paintings with monotone, carefree, bold lines of street art and design. Going beyond familiar East-West comparisons, my work shows the audience a very rich and infinite exploration of visual vocabulary.
The tears, the deterioration of the miniature paintings, the layers, the collaging and the empty space, speaks of the world that is slowly disappearing as we the children of immigrants lose our tradition in this new world. Simultaneously, the act of replacing, combining, embraces the change and depicts our society and the world we live in today, where we are creating our “own” traditons.
Using techniques such as gold leafing, transferring images, layering clippings from the New York Times, along with intricate design painted on the canvas, I evoke the stories of many like me. The ones that ADAPT.
ABOUT ME
I was born in the United States but raised in India by my grandparents. It was my grandmother that taught me to draw before I could write. It was then, when I began my journey as an artist. My passion for the arts continued to grow over the years leading me to pursue a Fine Arts Photography degree at University of South Florida and continued my education in Communication Design at Rocky Mountain College of Arts and Design.
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Through my work I want to evoke a visual and tactile childhood memory with the use of color and textures that I try to create with different mediums, such as paper, clay, mirrors, etc. My exposure to traditional art forms is the inspiration behind the intricate detail designs that frame my work. My artwork also has a heavy influence of Pop and Street Art. I want my viewers to experience the emergence of the two cultures that are instilled in me, where the east meets west.
“Creativity takes courage.” -Henri Matisse
