M
ost artists strive to evolve and grow in artistic
expression as their art matures over the years.
Morgan Hill abstract oil painter Sanjay Batra’s
artistic expression naturally evolves as he
accommodates his ongoing loss of vision due to myopic
degeneration. A condition caused by extreme near-sightedness,
this regressive malady forces him to relearn techniques and
reimagine the world around him as his vision changes
year to year.
“I choose to call it myopic inspiration,” Batra said, as he
deftly prepared coffee in his kitchen. “I always say, ‘that period
was back then,’ right? Now I’m moving on to a new period.
Not better or worse, just new. I don’t really have a choice.”
Beginning as nearsightedness, Batra experienced gradual
vision loss, worsening in graduate school in his late
twenties. He describes how he now sees as “viewing an
impressionistic painting that shakes violently.” Though it isn’t
expected that he will completely lose his vision, it is unknown
how it will change in the future.
Batra was five years old when his family moved from New
Delhi to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1967. Not allowed to have
action figures as a child, he began drawing comic book art
and has drawn ever since. In 1998, he earned his PhD in
engineering from the University of Nebraska and went on to
work for Motorola Mobility in Chicago. He said working with
designers inspired him to take night drawing classes at the
School of Art Institute. In 2002, he transitioned to painting
when his instructor told him he “draws like a painter.”
In 2005, Batra met Kulvinder Arora on a South Asian
dating site. Also born in New Delhi, Arora was living in
New Jersey where she had lived since her family migrated to
American in 1975. They were married in 2006 and adopted
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
a daughter, Anjali, in 2013. In 2016, they moved to
Morgan Hill when Batra accepted a job as the head hard-
ware researcher with Google where he leads a team of
design engineers.
He lauds Google for its policy of acceptance and
inclusion for people with disabilities, not viewing a person’s
limitations as a disability, rather embracing them as simply
different. A YouTube video, titled “Myopic Inspiration,” was
produced for National Disability Week at Google featuring
Batra in the process of painting and describing him as a
“differently-abled artist”. The video can be viewed online by
searching “Sanjay Batra’s Myopic Inspiration.”
Painting outside in his back yard for maximum lighting,
Batra literally gets his hands in the paint and says he applies
his oils with squeegee, pallet knife
and, at times, kitchen utensils.
He freely applies layer upon
layer in thick colorful strokes,
capturing a multi-dimensional
depth. His shadowy self-portraits
eerily appear amidst a fore-
ground of bright and colorful
shapes and forms. One can see
similarities to one of his favorite
artists, prolific Dresden-born
artist Gerhard Richter, known for
painting abstract art over actual
photographs.
It is with great anticipation we
wait to see what the unknown
journey of this gifted artist has in
store for us.
february/march 2019
gmhtoday.com
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