Abstract kitsch inspired mixed media collages done on paper. I have always sketched and doodled and collaged on pieces of paper! I love to collage... and i love to hoard scraps of paper, cloth, ribbons and other bits and bobs coz I just know that I will end up finding a place for it somewhere in my collages.
I didn't realize that there was an art form dedicated to this kind of work until I came across the work of that incredibly talented and incredibly generous artist Teesha Moore. Her website is a plethora of information, how to videos and much much more. I wish I could have done a workshop with her but thats a little hard sitting on the other side of the world! :) Some day I hope I do!!! Many thanks Teesha for all your help!
Needless to say I fell head over heels in love with the style of work and haven't looked back since! I started journaling on a daily basis and it never fails to kickstart my creativity.
This painting below is called Ganesha - the protector.. Any good event in hindu culture in India, starts with a prayer and a request for a blessing from Ganesha.
Mitesh, my husband is Hindu, a marwadi from rajasthan and I am a syrian christian from kerala... our lives are a integration of two cultures, two faiths and we both enjoy it very much.
This painting is something that I did for myself. I believe Archangel Micheal has helped me a lot. He has truly protected me. I turned to him at a point when I was feeling very negative and worried about the energies around me, and he just made it all go away. My empath nature has made me more susceptible than most to the energies of people and things around me and I had reached a point where I really needed his help.This painting hangs in my studio and protects me.
The paintings below are part of series that I have been working on recently titled " songs of the heart".
I have tried to portray the contemporary Indian woman in all her many avatars today.
"The perfect Indian bride.
Well brought up, cosmopolitan, educated, financially independent.
Adept at managing (micro managing) home, children and husband.
Well turned out ( designer brand stamped), fit or anorexically thin, manicured and saloned.
The perfect wife, perfect mother, perfect hostess, perfect businesswoman!
it’s a 24 hr job…and one should be able to do it all blindfolded! "
The idea of the blind folded bride is taken from the the Mahabharata and is the story of Queen Gandhari, the wife of the king Dhritarashtra, who when she realised her furture husband was blind from birth and couldnt see, wore a blindfold over her eyes for the rest of her life. She had decided that if her husband could not see, she too would not see.
There is of course a huge conflict in the minds of many Indian women today, caught between the various expectations and commitments they have both taken on and been given. It is difficult. They are many who make it look effortless, balancing everything with precision. But there are many like me :) who struggle to balance the few balls we have thrown up in the air!
At the end of the day, these are all situations we create ourselves.. in conservative families I suppose it still is a huge issue, but in most contemporary homes its a choice we, the women make. Most of us secretly crave to be that perfect, mythical domestic yet professional and cosmopolitan goddess, whose husbands worship at their feet, mother in laws praise endlessly, colleagues and coworkers look up to, and other women envy!
These paintings are embellished with sequins, metal pieces, silk flowers, ribbon and more...
They have a jewel like intensity to them!
