Long gone are the days when art merely hung from the walls of conventional gallery spaces or homes. Gen-next artists like 23-year-old Maadhurya Ramaswamy are taking art beyond its traditional form and exploring collaborations with music, or as a form of therapy.
Now, a project with A R Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory is in the pipeline for this young artist — where she’ll be seen adding a visual treat through her live painting to a musical rendition! Maadhurya has also been taking art to special children in the city, is a dance instructor and the creative head for an event management company.
“Hailing from a family that patronised music, I always believed in art transcending what it is seen as. I think colours and music can come together to say a lot. Currently, I’m working on a music video with Chintan R. Trivedi, who is the piano faculty at KMMC on a project where he’ll be playing a new instrument — a Seaboard — while I’ll be live painting the nine devis! We have planned to release the video on the occasion of Navratri,” Maadhurya elaborates.
Chintan has shared the stage with A R Rahman for many concerts, and Maadhurya hopes she gets her turn to meet him sometime soon!
Born and brought up in Mysuru, art has always been dear to this multitasker. “I was not very connected to education when I was young. I had a creative look at everything around me, I could never sit down to read and my head always revolved around colours! My mom thought that was a problem, but they continued supporting me anyway. I professionally took up painting in 2010, and could not sit in an art class either! I started off exploring on my own,” she chuckles.
Having studied psychology, the artist says she is also drawn towards taking art to children with special needs as a form of therapy. “Colours and art are something that special children can relate to. So, I put up a wall-sized canvas for these kids and give them all the colours and instruments, and let them paint or make whatever they wish to. I can see a lot of kids whose mental structure is improving a lot through art. I also teach children in regular schools, but with children with special needs, my way of expressing things is quite different and I enjoy that,” Maadhurya says.
And she has a very interesting way of painting — not the run-of-the-mill style duplication of other artists’ works — instead, she jots down anything that comes to mind! “I write down my thoughts before I paint anything. Whatever is a part of my thought process is first written down, and then translated into colours,” she explains.
With her mother being a professional dancer for quite a while, Maadhurya also loves to sway to the tunes of any music — Bollywood, western or contemporary. “Anything that has something to do with art moves me. I hope with all these projects, I can explore a space where I can help children through art and paintings,” she signs off.
