A Visitor's Reflection

I was so happy to hear that my photography teacher recently visited my exhibition at White Bear Center for the Arts. It is always special when someone who has been part of your learning journey takes the time to visit and appreciate your work.

He especially liked this wire artwork from my collection. I am sharing his own words about the exhibition, which mean so much to me.

Thank you for visiting and for your thoughtful appreciation!

"I was excited and honored when my former student Shakuntala Maheshwari invited me to see her latest exhibition, “Ways of Life: Rooted in Tradition,” at the White Bear Center for the Arts recently. Because I had been her photography instructor, I had no preconceived expectations of what I would see. What I saw astonished me by the enormous variety of each of her pieces inspired by the cultures of her homeland India.

When I first viewed the gallery walls, I thought this was a group show. Although each piece is distinctly different, I quickly realized that it was all her work, exemplifying her expansive imagination and technical skills.

As a former instructor I was aware of her skills in painting and photography. The exhibition opens her use of a much broader inclusion of different, sometimes unexpected mediums. For example, her use of very thin slivers of hand crafted sola wood to create intricate pencil-like white lines building both representational and soft abstracts on black fabric was superb.

In other pieces, she uses this same idea with a thin, thread-like wire, on a black background. This stunning result reminded me of scratchboard-a unique subtractive fine art medium, but in reverse, as she added the wire to a black background instead of scratching a background to create a white illusion.

I left, visually and intellectually satisfied. The exhibition was a lively, colorful and educational journey through different parts of India-each with its own language, culture and distinct artistic/craft identity expressed in traditional folk and tribal art. Shakun’s accompanying note with each piece explains from which region and culture it is drawn from.

The diversity of India, an ancient culture over 7,000 years old, is given fresh life and breathe through the eyes of Shakuntala Maheshwari, a 21st century artist, with her use of multi-mediums to represent each local of India with her own voice." Will Agar