A timely art debut

Senior artist Manohar Chiluveru, who is best known for his sculptures, credits his mother for his first creation. “My first ever sculpture of a female form was in fact a collaboration with my mother. She helped me with material from the kitchen and it was an ingenious idea,” he says.

It was this sensibility that he saw in her that moved him to inspire his mother Lingamma to take up art. This was during her phase of depression after losing her husband. “At that age, when my siblings and I saw her going through depression, we realised that she needed to put her mind into something. If older people, especially women, are given an opportunity they can rediscover creativity and that will help them live in peace,” the artist adds.

Now, at 74, Lingamma’s artwork on the Telangana goddess Yellamma has gone on display at the State Art Gallery as part of the show called Bonalu. Although it can be seen as a timely event, with Bonalu becoming an official state holiday of Telangana, her 65 art works were a product of at least five years of toil. Lingamma sketched the life story of Yellamma, a daughter of Shiva and mother of Parushuram, from her imagination.

“As a child, we would sit by the snake hill at our native village and listen to the story of Yellamma. It’s from those memories that I was able to sketch,” says Lingamma, who is gearing up for a solo show and a book on Yellamma by the end of 2014.

Lingamma’s efforts are significant considering that most of Telangana culture had an oral tradition, and is now waiting to be documented. Although her works look like basic illustrations, the 74-year-old has developed a unique style over the past decade. “At first I started painting what I saw around me or the village life. Then I felt that I needed to focus on one subject. So I picked Yellamma, who is the goddess I turn to when in trouble,” she says.

Besides the Telangana context, as much as the troubled life of Yellamma was a story on women’s empowerment, so is Lingamma’s. Her son, Manohar says, “Indian women especially are put into the roles of wives, mothers, sisters etc. at a very young age. I believe they aren’t given enough time to explore their creative or artistic sides. This was the rationale behind putting her attention towards art,” says Manohar.