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I find making art is a dynamic process: from one moment to the next, one context to the next, one milieu to another, one medium to another. Shifting, changing, making the new, and developing a personal language with a sense of grace. I like the end result to be multifaceted and encompass more than one way to reason.
My works are not generally very available for compartmentalization. Some of them are abstract depictions. Some originate in fragments of my memory. Many or most originate in the unconscious. Some of them represent only their own form, emerging as 'poetics' of art-making. In musical metaphor, then: geometry is a gesture, movement is rhythm, harmony is the resolution of dissonance and color is voice or instrument. Mood and emotions generated are joy, tension, ebullience, anger, rage, sadness, blissful and more.
A good painting is a conversation where emotions, time, space, process, and the raw materials collide with the medium's illusionist possibilities. I believe it has less to do with just managing the dialogue between materials and images.
My early art influences are my father introducing to the Ravi Varma painting in the Mysore Palace collection, “Woman with Oil Lamp”; the Vijayanagara/ Mysore School/ Tanjore school of paintings as well. There were framed prints of Picasso and Matisse hung in my great grandfather’s house. And, of course, I grew up around the amazingly graceful stone sculptures of Hampi, Halebidu, Beluru, fantasizing.
I have studied under master artists to learn different techniques. I have traveled extensively exploring arts of other cultures, visiting museums, studying contemporary and pop art as well as performance arts.
I straddle different worlds, born in the East and living in the West as well as worlds of science and arts. My art reflects this amalgamation and my personal relationships. It also reflects a life humbled by the trust of my patients and their life stories and the joy of treating them to health as their physician.
The painting above is one of an ongoing series of abstract works on paper titled “Kailasa”. It is inspired by memories of travels and exploration of the arts of significant ancient cultures. Eastern influence is inescapable, very much like the influence of accents learned early while learning spoken languages. It comes together through progressive mark-making and drawing with long-handled brushes, layering with multiple cohesive colors of paints applied in washes, and more layers with hake brushes to create depth. I added a touch of collage with horizontal lines to create structure and intrigue. I try and maintain freshness in the painting while adding an element of timelessness. All these elements make the painting attractive from a distance and encourage the viewer to get closer to explore for a richer experience.
We as humans will continue to inhabit interiors and paintings will continue to grace our walls as extraordinarily efficient communication modalities. At present, we are much divided, limited in our ability to influence events and their effect on our own as well as the expanded, globalized world. All this is occurring while we are seemingly at the height of connectedness through digitization, the internet and social media, and more. My art-making offers me a physical record of my psychic impulses, binding them intimately and enduringly. It offers me a sense of integrity and completeness in this complex and fragmented post-modern society.