BRAHMI SARDAR-WARICH is a self-taught emerging visual artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Brahmi was born and raised in a logging camp on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Her original professional aspiration was to become an exponent of the art of dance wherein she moved to San Francisco to join the Mahadeva (East Indian) Dance Company while she concurrently performed with a traveling ballet company.
Subsequently, Brahmi began learning and performing Spanish flamenco dance with the dynamic “Los Flamencos de la Bodega”at the landmark Ye Olde Spaghetti Factory in San Francisco’s historic North Beach.
(Photo of Brahmi below from the star attractions wall)
Following her years in the performing arts, a further desire to create in the area of visual arts evolved and Brahmi began experimentation in the fields of painting and sculpture. Veteran art patrons have noted the unique qualities of Brahmi’s artworks and their complete freedom from the constraints of the formally trained artist. Though Brahmi is of East Indian descent, her work is diverse and redolent of cross-cultural traditions and symbolism derived from her various international travels and explorations of world cultures.
In past years, Brahmi has been repeatedly invited to participate in the world famous Absolut Chalk Italian Street Painting Festival in Pasadena, CA. By taking her artwork from canvas directly onto the surface of the streets,Brahmi's work has shown its ability to attract great interest from veteran art patrons and connoisseurs.
Brahmi’s approach to art has found wide resonance among audiences of different ethnicities, provoking thoughtful insight and introspection among people. Upon seeing the artworks, it is not uncommon for complete strangers of diverse backgrounds to stand before the pieces and engage in spontaneous conversations regarding their own personal insights gleaned from exposure to the works. This quality alone is perhaps the highest fulfillment of Brahmi’s art.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
MY EARLIEST RECOLLECTIONS OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION were as a child growing up in a logging camp on Vancouver Island. I was fortunate to be able to watch the First Nation Canadian Master Totem Pole carver Mungo Martin at work on his artistic creations. Though I was too young to know of Mr. Martin’s esteemed place in the world of native and cultural art, I was still always fascinated by the visions of mythical beings emerging from what I knew to be simply tree trunks and logs. In seeing this ubiquitous form of artwork around the island, I believe that even as a child, I intuited the fact that these totemic forms marked Time, Space and Place yet still pointed to other mythical/mystical realms.
Indeed, living on an island perhaps increased my sense of the mythic realms of the world, as the world was something that was still “out there” to be explored. Since then, I have been fortunate to travel to many different countries and experience firsthand their cultures, art, music, histories and philosophies.
As an artist it is often challenging for me to put into words what I hope viewers to “get” from seeing my works, so I will have to ally myself with the model of the Mystic Poet. It has been said that Philosophers remain in the time/space continuum of place and culture, speculating and making conjectural thoughts regarding all the varied realms of consciousness. In contrast to this, the Mystic Poet will delve beyond time and space into a fluidic realm of consciousness, where past and future commingle in the present moment free of limiting cultural contexts. It is not uncommon for these mystical visions to be beyond description, so often they will be veiled in poetry or artwork. The inspiration for my artworks seems to come from this realm of unified space/time as my creative process is often punctuated by periods of meditative silence which are followed by intense bursts of creativity.
In reflecting further on my process, I realize this is much like the silent spaces between the notes in a piece of music. Music makes a linear progression from start to finish and is punctuated with many “unheard” silent moments. Though we do not consciously hear these “voids”, they do exist making a musical piece complete. However, the listener cannot hear a piece of music in its entirety in a single moment; they must take the journey from start to finish and gain insight and experience along the way. It is the exploration of these voids that I find most intriguing. Today’s world fusion music also alludes to the transcendence and flux of space time by echoing both ancient and futuristic sounds and melding beyond specific cultures.
I often hesitate to give names to my artworks of even to confine them in frames. Titles are often a concession made to assist the viewer in establishing a reference point and rapport with the work.
I have been told that my works are often best seen in the way that a Japanese Zen “koan” is presented to the logical mind. If one is asked “what is the sound of one hand clapping”, immediately the logical mind will begin to tackle the problem in the mediums of time and space. However, there may come and instant when logic fails and time suspends and flashes of truth and insight prevail.
After hearing many different interpretations of my artworks from many viewers, I am pleased to know that the works can inspire varied insights, unlike a photograph which takes a moment of time and simply freezes it. In other words, it is often best to approach the works without preconceptions, not even looking at the information card that says the work is; “this many inches by that many inches, done in this medium, entitled this”… instead, simply be drawn by the art. The works are imbued with the fluid consciousness of the universe which created them and I invite and welcome the viewers to look, be inspired and let the journey take them where it will.
~ Brahmi Sardar-Warich ▪ Artist
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