Beautiful Ballerina

Beautiful Ballerina

• All of your women bear resemblance to one woman, who is this woman who inspires you…I mean, don’t they have the same visage?
Women have always been central subjects in my artistic research of ideal beauty. There are some recurring details because I think they are most representative of my inner truth (what I intimately believe in) about feminine beauty, regarding both inner values and exterior aesthetic parameters. Face features, postures, all the exterior characteristics are the media to transmit what I recognize as beauty and, as you noticed, in most of my paintings they are connected to a particular model I used in the first nineties, who I am still very fond of. Grace, tenderness, kindness, strength, the ability of waiting, the acceptance of life, the respect of natural life cycles, the care and knowledge of the body are the aspects I tried to convey. The eyes and the glance of my models are the parts witch I feel like most important: they are usually brilliant, vivid, penetrating, full of life and self-confidence, either when they are in a pensive mood, they never seem lost, they always reflect ‘presence in time’. I realize the importance I give to the eyes even in everyday life: I always make up my eyes and often that is the only make up I have!

 What is the theme of this new exhibition of yours?   How is it different from the others?

The general theme of my latest exhibition is “romantic realism” which I think is the leading and general theme of all my paintings but in my latest works there’s something new. The subject choices are moving a little from my usual carnet of women and flowers. The aim of my artistic research is now to find a different way of representing the human figure by means of different representative contexts. My first attempt is to make my subjects more contemporary and to clean them up from the nostalgia of memories. I want to open my horizons up without betraying my personality and my personal aspirations. I made only few steps towards this new direction and , as a matter of fact, just few paintings are actually different from the others, such as the “fighters” which is an experiment of a totally different new expressive context. I have always chosen my subjects following my heart, so even the football match represents one of my never-fulfilled-wishes. It gave me the opportunity to analyze a human characteristic I’ve never dealt with before: a male context where strength and competition are melted together with friendship, respect and team spirit. However this is only the beginning of a new artistic path, I hope, so we shall wait and see where it leads!

Have you changed your colour schemes in the new works?

Of course! Changing the usual context of my paintings and the process of artistic research itself implied a change in my usual colour schemes. As a matter of fact the colour contrasts are more vivid and I’m experiencing some new colour playing but, on the whole, I am still faithful to myself.

How do you represent life as an artist…in an optimistic or pessimistic way?

I always have a positive attitude towards life. The subjects of my paintings are related to memories but it doesn’t imply that I avoid the present. On the contrary! I choose them following my heart, I am satisfied of my life and I am trustful for the future, so I allow myself to look at my past memories and consider them as a treasure I want to share with others.

What are the important values for you as you grow older and become more experienced?

My scale of values haven’t changed much during my life and now it is more or less the same. At the first place there is love, particularly the love for the people who surround me everyday, who are the most important part of my everyday life. Immediately after, at the second place I’d put ideals, which means that I give maximum importance to what inspires right actions and guides you in life. At the third place I’d put the personal research of a way in life to achieve the essence of spirituality. Fourthly I’d put the research of “man” that’s to say every attribute and feature that makes a human being the highest expression of itself.
Therefore there is a difference between my youth and now. When I was young I had to fight to find my own way in life. My parents initially decided a different course of study for me and my brother. As a matter of fact they addressed us towards scientific subjects, but despite my good school performances and my parents strong opposition, I decided to follow my brother’s footsteps: I left both school and my parents’ house and I moved to Venice to fulfil my artistic aspirations. It was a very difficult step to take, also because my father had a different attitude towards my brother and me, and I think this is because I am a woman.
After this initial breakdown with my father’s decisions concerning my future, I have been completely free to decide my own path in life and the choices I made since then have always been a mixture of heart and rationality.

Meena Narayan
from Gulf Connoisseur