Issue 14 contributor Meena Matai creates vibrant, playful art through a meditative process.
How does Issue 14’s theme “vivid” relate to your work?
The main message in my art is one of building a supportive community. Hopefully when people look at my art they see that I can’t create art alone, that it’s made possible with support from them, my friends and family. I hope that the vibrant and vivid colors in my art inspire them to be positive, to collaborate, nurture and support. We, as humans, are more alike than we are different. Just as colors come together to form beautiful art so do people to form a supportive community. It takes a village to raise a child or to bring about monumental change. My vivid colors play a small part in building our community.
“I can’t create art alone, it’s made possible with support from my friends and family.”
My abstracts are inspired by nature’s elements, making them uniquely relatable for each individual. They are created with alcohol inks on yupo paper or canvas.
For my sculptural abstract work, I start off creating my alcohol ink abstracts on yupo paper. I then hand carve shapes by burning and melting the yupo paper using a soldering iron. I arrange these pieces to form exquisite patterns using pins, play with light and shadow to convey messages of community and collaboration through my art.
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