Nostalgic Expressions
Born and brought up in a progressive middle-class family of Punjab, Alka was confronted with a great contrast of cultures. After completing BFA in Painting from College of Arts Chandigarh, she had to go to Banaras for pursuing a Master’ s Degree and Ph. D. The immense pressure of a conservative and conventional society of Varanasi exposed her to myriad aspects of Hindu religion. It added positive charm to her personality, which became a perfect blend of conventions and modernism and this condensation of sensations started getting imprinted in her paintings.
Whether for sunrise or sunsets, walk to the Ghats, the essence of tea in Kuladhs, multifaceted religion, the chakra of life and death- brought Alka more close to reality and nature and enhanced the sensitivity as an artist. She started writing poetry and gradually her paintings became an intense concoction of words and images. All this paved a way out to carve her name on‘ Art’-scape as a painter, poet, and researcher and form her own signature not only in U. P but also Punjab –‘ 2 states’ of which she is made of!!
Alka’ s believes in Paul Cezanne’ s saying:“ A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.” Her thoughts are impregnated with the colored profundity of space enriched with feelings. Her life has been a journey of explorations and realizations, where the theme of‘ Pages of my diary’ played a role of her confidante and her creative reflections on every page. She enjoys a rendezvous with herself. In her paintings, one can come across journeys, imprints of Varanasi, reminiscences, nostalgia and misprints. Misprints are the symbolic representation of numerous failures which add to one’ s success as a learning process. That’ s how the concept of‘ Something or nothing’ came forward in her paintings. The present series of painting is on‘ WE’... it is Alka’ s post marriage series and reflects the experiences of a new phase of life. Alka’ s papers have been published in various national and international journals and she has many exhibitions, seminars, and workshop to her credit.
41