Drawing Inspiration: A Conversation With Visual Artist Chitra Ganesh
Chitra Ganesh is a South Asian American visual artist who has earned accolades and awards and exhibited her bold and inventive work all over the world. She’s also one of my oldest friends. Not only did we share many common experiences of a desi upbringing in New York City, our mothers were also high school classmates in Calcutta.
Kavita Das: We both grew up in New York City. you in Brooklyn, I in Queens. When I think back on memories or my Indian American childhood, some indelible images come to mind..: celebrating childhood birthday parties at home with Carvel Ice cream cake, dressing up in pattu sllk pavades for cultural events like Tamil Sangarn and Pongal reading Amar Chitra Kathas whlle shuffling between Bharatanatyam dance. Carnatic singing and violin lessons. celebrating religious holidays at the Hindu Temple in Flushing, playing silly games. not in green parks but on sidewalks and concrete school yards. What about you? What images conjure up your Indian American childhood in New York City?
Chitra Ganesh: Your memories conjure many of my own: Bengali Thanksgiving In Sheepshead Bay (Brooklyn) with tomato chutney & boondi raita, being the chubby, uncoordinated one dancing off rhythm at the back of our Bharatanatyam classes. Holing up In the Flushing and Jamaica Public llbraries, Durga Puja In Jersey City, Carnatic music concerts arranged In the basements of family friends' homes, the ubiquitous styrofoam cup from which we sipped room temperature Coke. Using a Iota at home, lots of scraped knees from rough sidewalk play, and, of course. coming to play at your house in Bayside (Queens). It's a highly charged list that could go on forever.