A dive into Akshita Monga’s creative thought process
1. Why do you make the artwork you make?
So, I make art that has some kind of intensity to it, any subject, be it a person, an object, a design, anything, I feel like I want to capture a certain ‘real-ness’ of the character, but with hints of play and surreal traits.. something that pushes the boundaries of reality but maintaining the truth about it.
I believe faces, eyes, humans, are what most artists are naturally drawn to, because those who don’t understand humans for who they are, try to capture them in words or images, an attempt to understand our kind. So naturally, I don’t completely get humans but can see what a vulnerable, beautiful, stupid, ingeneous kind of animal we are and I find many aspects of that completely mesmerizing, and I want to capture that in some ways, so I absolutely love painting portraits!
I am also a HUGE nature bhakt (disciple), and many days of wandering about in forests and gardens, just awestruck at how she does what she does, I am completely fascinated by trees. I want to paint them and understand them and respect them and just understand the deep deeep deeeeep connections that humas and nature share, and use that in my art.
The natural elegance and rhtyms that exists in nature, the way it vibrates with art and strokes and textures, I am literally just trying to mimic that in my work. Learning from the best artist!
2. What does your artwork represent?
A certain will to show the beauty of the oppressed, the forgotten ones, the soul of the earth that we dismiss on a daily basis. The subjects for these are largely women and trees (and other species of life ofcourse). I want to represent South-East-West Asian & African people, mostly women – that I feel don’t have enough representation, that I feel face certain realities we cannot even fathom to imagine and are exisiting in silence and pressure, to be a certain way, to think a certain way, to live according to the norms created in order to control and define the soul and character of these beautiful beings.
Being a South-asian woman of colour, brought up in a middle class family, ruled by a patriarchal grand mother, I totally lived in fear. A fear of myself, a fear of saying ANYTHING, a fear of not being polite or respectful at any given time and a fear of men being the superior beings.
Along with that, a thousand physical discomforts that come along with being a brown girl and how Indians themselves will form racist comments and judgements if you are not of a certain ‘fair’ skinned level. Tired of that shit, I want to show the beauty that exists in being, well, us.
Another deep aspect like I mentioned before, is the way I feel about the total, un-altered destruction of our forests. I cry as I type this, because it pains me physically to see how we, the humans have made ourselves the worst kind of monsters, that literally kill ourselves slowly and painfully, by disconnecting ourselves from this earth and all the gifts that it has given to us.
I feel angry and agitated at our stupidity! An attempt to capture their blessings and beauty and grace upon us, I want to paint trees! Majestic trees!
Foof!
3. What inspires you?
Daily struggles, the pain that comes along with being a human, the allure of imperfection, the allure of natural rhythms and elements, they all merge and take from each other and give to each other. Well, it’s a broad question to be honest, one day I feel I am a colourful punky illustrator and the next I feel like a soulful earth chid devouring each brush stroke on the canvas, you know what I mean? A lot inspires me, but what stands out are the aspects I previously mentioned, but also colour, truth, unexplored territories of the sub-conscious..to name a few.
On the other hand, fantastical, larger than life, other-worldly concepts also speak to me. I feel its a balance my mind and heart have, where one side gets too real, so the other tries to balance with some escapism.
Also, learning and looking at artists that inspire me, for example – John Singer Sargent, Amrita Sher-Gil, Alba Fabre Sacristian, Suchitra Bhosle, Isabel Garmon, Colleen Barry, Scott Burdick, Susan Lyon, Sorrolla, Van Dyck, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, to name a few..
4. How do you make it?
In the past 5 years, I have been drawn like a moth to the light, to oil painting. I studied it for the first time, for almost 4 years at the Atelier – Barcelona Academy of Art and have absolutely fallen in love with this medium.
Before that, I was mostly calling myself a digital artist and illustrator. Now I am both, and more! (teacher, animator, care-giver)
I love both these mediums immensely because oil is just, well, yummy to paint..and digital is more freeing and forgiving. So I use both to help each other and the zone the fuck out (:
5. What does your art mean to you?
My art means being honest to myself. I am not just a drafts-person, only focused on technique. I really want to say something with my work. And I want to be able to reach people who get it.
I try to ask myself, is this to impress the peope or feel a certain connection to them and myself.
It is a spiritual experience for me, however cliché that sounds. I am trying to be in this madness, by creating things that speak to me. I am trying to find my language and find others who speak it.
I suck at expressing myself, loaded with inhibitions..i think making my art, I feel my voice, through brush strokes and colours and shapes. It’s a great language, you should try it!
