Samiddha Singh and Her Mercurial Canvas
Artist name: Samiddha Singh
Area of art: Acrylic Painting, Soap Carving
Title of Work: Lost Girl, Dandelions, The Taj
Most people, when agitated, would kick a chair. Some would fret and fume around, not really transforming their energy into anything productive. On the other hand, when calm and composed, most people would relax. Maybe even recline on their beds and do nothing at all. I think that is how most of us manifest our energy and emotions. Yet, that is definitely not how Samiddha Singh of Grade 11 does it.
She picks up a canvas, some paint and paintbrushes, and oozes that pain (or pleasure) out with every bit of the tips of her fingers. She does not even let herself think about it. The paints just randomly melt away on the paper. Everything is random. The spilling of the paint, the tissues, the thoughts. Yet, the only thing that remains accurate is the depiction of her mental, and sometimes even spiritual state on that one piece of canvas and that wild yet beautiful mess of warm-hued paint.
If she's stressed, it shows in her work. If she's calm, it shows in her work. She considers herself to be a generally calm person. Yet sometimes, some of the most collected and cool-headed people can be all over the place. This happens to Samiddha too, but she uses the most magnificent way to find herself again. Her work titled Lost Girl actually took inspiration from a time in her life when she felt astray, as you can tell by the title.
It is evident that her mood plays a big role in what her painting is turning out to be like. She ponders over what her position and placement in life is at the current moment, and leaks that onto the canvas. My words may seem very philosophical and figurative at the moment, but I do mean them quite literally as well. By that I mean that she takes whichever physical place she is into consideration, takes into account what it makes her feel and converts that into a piece of art.
For example, she recalls herself standing in a field in Switzerland, just a few months back. She remembers looking at the dandelions and thinking of painting them immediately. Then she remembers Agra, and the Taj. That inspires her to make something completely different from what she has ever done - she makes a collage and a triangle painting out of it. She likes trying out new things, and she is very adventurous with what she uses to create her art. To add to her many explorations, there is the medium of 'soap carving' as well.
By now it is clear that mood and memories play a very important role in shaping what Samiddha's art eventually becomes, even if it starts with thinking of nothing at all. We can see that nature and scenery is also something that is present in most of her work.
Taken that her mood is the inspiration of her work, what is the inspiration of her mood? What helps in evoking it?
Samiddha Singh is known to have a dramatic flair to herself. She likes to watch old Indian films. She quotes several of the lines from them in class (having occasionally jumped up on a desk and shouted them out in her previous school) and gets nicknamed after one of the characters by her friends. Maybe its those films that make her so dramatic as a person, and give that golden touch to her work. Her immense ability to be so histrionic yet so tranquil in her work is what, in my opinion, makes her artistic ability so distinct and so special.
Lastly, why does she think this is 'art'?
Her definition of art is that it is something that is creative. She does not believe that art is copying from something. To her, in art, nothing compares with something coming from the inside and imprinting itself onto her canvas. She believes that whatever feeling art may give you while you are creating it, be it pain, stress, serenity, anger, anxiety or euphoria, the final outcome should be that it should give you pleasure. That should be the eventual feeling.
If you want more from Samiddha, keep an eye out for a blog/website she might create personally for herself. She wishes to display her own work in the blog and talk about it. Encourage Samiddha and several other artists in your community (and beyond) who wish to display their work because it takes a lot of effort for them to create their work, but a greater amount of courage to be able to go out and show it to the world.
