I am Mahua Ray from India ( Kolkata) in 1963. My educational qualification is M.A. in education and BEd from Calcutta university. I am a self taught artist.My journey began many many years ago when I would play an improvised game called “cloud faces”. I would look at the clouds and my imagination would soar high into the sky imagining each cloud as faces and hence imaginary characters. I would stare at them and talk to them imagining them to be human . Often I would capture them on my drawing book with the stroke of my brush dipped in various colours.
As time passed and I grew in age and enriched with experience I started seeing the “cloud faces” in real life amongst the people I met. My everyday interactions and experiences became my subject of art. The unique persona of each individual fascinated me and fired my imagination and drew me closer to the canvas and brush. I started capturing my experiences through my paintings , which were simple yet mature.
Meeting Debiprasad Roychoudhury as a child when I received the 1st prize for my work on art encouraged me to move further.
My childhood days in Kolkata exposed me to idol making during festivities. I would stare in awe at how the sculptors would turn a lump of clay into fascinating idols. My free spirit and exploring nature made me venture into sculpture….which by then had become an art form close to my heart. The imaginary figures which were so far captured in my paintings now started taking shape in bronze. I gave them form and expression with heart and love.
My encounter with eminent personalities like Sahuddin, Jogen Choudhury,Harsh Goenka, Samir Mondal, Ashok Bhowmic and Mr. Mafatlal was a great boost to my journey .
I am now a faculty member of visual arts in Singapore International IB School in charge of the pottery and ceramic department. I train young minds to see things from a different perspective and help them to realize and give shape to their imagination.
To me art is a combination of logic and emotion. On one hand logic helps to give shape to creation and on the other hand there is no creation without emotion. Interpretation of art comes from our personal experiences in life.
As a facilitator of art, I truly believe in holistic learning, ie, not just scoring marks but helping chidren to be more human and imaginative. Art according to me is a poetry – the more time we spend with it, the more meaningful it will be to the world. Then only will we learn to read art and connect art to our feelings.
