The Soul Curry Art Story

 

Hi, Welcome to the Soul Curry Art story. 

My name is Ishita Banerjee and I created Soul Curry Art to tell vividly colorful stories of human overlaps. 

From my early childhood days growing up in New Delhi, India, I have been a practicing artist for over 30 years and my journey brought me from Asia to Canada, where I weave stories of my observations into bold, colorful paintings.

"Through my art, I strive to give tangible forms to complex emotions like grief, longing, loss, love, suffering. The interplay of human relationships, whether with one’s own self or with others is a recurrent theme in the pieces I make"

Artist, dreamer, abstract and color addict, I trained as a classical, fine artist, with a Bachelors in Fine Arts (BFA) degree in Applied Arts and an Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) in Communication Design. My art is an assimilation of my life experiences, merging imagination and memory to create vivid and bold abstracts, people, faces and non traditional portraiture, rendered in strong color, motifs and details.

Human interactions, emotions, moods, and feelings inspire my work. I love abstracting these feelings and associations. Depicting people and nature in their tempestuous forms, plays a big role in my work. Actively seeking out gnarled, broken, rocky, cyclic, layered, and the nuanced relationships of emotion, I try to find meaning between the positive and negative spaces, between the obvious and the unexplained.

In 2017, my life was split into two: into a before and after. A shock cancer diagnosis left me facing one of my life's  biggest challenges. I nearly lost my life, and raged with one of the darkest years of my life. Art was the only thing that pulled me out of that challenging time. I struggled with learning to speak again. Art was my voice when I couldn't speak, color was my language when life was foggy and dark.

I struggled to make sense of it and started observing life in acute detail. Art took me by my hand in those tough times, allowing me to lose myself in drawing. One line, one brushstroke at a time, I took steps to force my way through the fog. The power and potential of creativity is what fuelled my recovery.

I love observing the passage of time, the nuances of human relationships. I like to read between the lines, hear sounds in silence, dream in color.

Threading lines, textures and markings in my work tell the story of the passage of time, the inter-connections of forms, both tangible and abstract.

I am deeply inspired by the Cubist style of art, unconstrained, outside the lines, breaking free of traditional rules, and the role of interpretational abstracts that are as transient as our feelings. I was drawn to Cubism from my early days as an art student. Looking at things from alternate perspectives, finding planar geometry in organic forms, and expressing them in vivid color.

Working in the mixed media techniques, I use acrylics, inks, water color, pens, markers as well as digital textures and paintings. Straddling surfaces of paper, canvas, illustration boards and drawing on the iPad with an Apple pencil, I like to blend traditional methods of drawing with digital paintings.

My style has developed over the past 3 decades, is often described as Mad Men Modern. I am inspired by simple shapes, unusual color schemes, whimsical lines and pop art. Both the retro and modern styles of art inspire me as I try to find ways to juxtapose the unexpected with the expected.

Soul Curry Art was my way of bringing fine art into every day living. I want homes to feel like walking into a Parisian gallery. I want my art to evoke emotion, move you, question you, inspire you and fill you with joy. As people go through their life's journey, I want my art to take on new meanings in their stories. I also want art to be approachable, affordable and that is why I offer a wide range of prints along with my original paintings. 

I live, love, create and work in Montreal, Canada, using locally sourced materials, Canadian made products, eco-friendly printing techniques, while consciously trying to reduce my carbon footprint by eliminating wasteful packaging and synthetic materials. I'm also very a successful NFT artist, bridging my traditional art practice with web3 and I lead from the front with my art, my voice and onboard artists like myself in the NFT space.

When not making art, I'm a keen observer of people, of nature, of life in general. I love books, writing, a good cup of coffee, mindfulness and teaching. I am a wife, a mother to my beautiful daughter and I strive to move forward with intention and purpose to inspire my daughter and everyone like her, who listen to the creative pull of their hearts.

Thank You for being a part of the Soul Curry Story!