THE BABY KRISHNA
Material: Canvas
Colour: Black
Size: 16”x 11”
Medium: Acrylic and Ink
Style: Gond Art
June 2020
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Shilpa Mridul is a painter, a garment designer, an interior designer and a theatre artist. She has worked on reviving traditional and vernacular designs by deftly weaving ethnicity in modern clothes. Through this, she has enlisted numerous traditional craftsmen and women, providing them employment.
She has been the president of the Inner Wheel Club of Jodhpur and has worked on several social projects, empowering underprivileged communities by training them to build their own solar lamps and making them self-sufficient. She has also been an ambassador of green architecture and initiated projects for the revival and cleaning of centuries-old step-wells in India. While dabbling in different art and design disciplines, she often painted as a hobby.
However, during the lockdown, she was deeply moved by everything she saw around her that triggered a prolificity of paintings expressing her angst, her hope, and her vision of how the world ought to be. While working with craftswomen, she got interested in folk art, using traditional patterns and organic colors. Through her paintings, she has emerged as an immaculate storyteller, amalgamating traditional Indian art forms with the modern day-to-day life. Her style is distinctive, elegant, and socially relevant.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My paintings are a synergy of the endless stimuli from the surrounding world and a myriad of my own thoughts and emotions. The abundance of information, the constant fluxes in the environment, the uncertainty of the future and the nostalgia of the past serve as an overwhelming influence for my art. I have painted several series with contemporary environmental and social subjects that I care about deeply.
During the Covid-19 lockdown (March 2020, India), while in the confines of my home, I encountered stories and news coverage that shocked me and moved me profoundly. Every day, I continue to read about migrants and daily wage workers stranded on the streets with little money and nowhere to go. The socio-economic disparity in India became extremely apparent and all the more real. I felt an urgent need to respond. And with my paintings, I have found a release and a vocabulary.
The language and style of my work is inspired by the Gond art of Madhya Pradesh, India. With the dots and dashes that adorn the paintings, I connect the numerous, scattered thoughts in my head. Gradually, I have created my own style. I paint everything that catches my attention, from the present, the past and the future. Having worked with artisans, my association with the vernacular has been strong. I like to use organic and natural colors in my paintings. I pick colors that are bright and vibrant, sometimes juxtaposing the grim subjects of my paintings and sometimes creating new imaginary worlds. With this, I am able to build hope for myself and others. Hope, the only thing we can all continue to hold on to.
