Vasanthi Victor

Accomplished writer of short stories (see entry in Literature/Fiction Writers) but also a visual artist. She can be contacted at vasanthi_victor@hotmail.com

Artist Statement

I have been painting mainly South Asian women -oil on canvases, figurative work so to speak. They leap at times from a rural landscape and (or perhaps merely South Asian) into a global world, evolving with each canvas to an idealized figure. Their cultural roots or identity is indicated by the folds of color that clothes them in the form of a saree or a drape to cover their heads. In some, the nature of the folds cascade to envelop the figures entirely. However, it is not modesty that is intended but an inherent nature from which they draw strength; while escaping the boundaries of region.

Colour is an important tool in forming the figure as does the adoption of the curvature line. In other words, it dictates form and I am vastly interested in arranging it on canvas within these curves. And the colours I use, largely ochre and sienna interspersed with blue or red, green, convey distinct earth tones. The earth tones representing an essential brownness of face and feature. While in a broader sense, it hints at the idea of the tropics, heat and dust-in essence the geography of their being.

Colour and form combine to reveal not idealized beauties rather a, an idealized South Asian figure coming into play in the diaspora. The drape of a saree is important, the gesture of a veil significant.

Resume

A member of SAVAC (South Asian Visual Artist Collective) in Canada. An online gallery on Sulekha.com carries a few of my paintings. http://www.sulekha.com/expressions/artinalbum.asp?aid=2480
with “Woman and Child’ carried weekly in their Bay Area mailer.
Most recently 2 of my canvasses were exhibited at the Indus Women Leader’s Conference, Boston, for auction and sale. http://www.induswomenleaders.org/Default.aspx?tabid=892