San Francisco based artist Eshita Trivedi moved to the Bay Area from India to pursue her love of painting.  Ms. Trivedi is currently finishing her final semester for a Masters in Fine Art from the Academy of Art University.  Yatra – My Journey is currently on display at 625 Gallery, and will be open for viewing through March 29, 2012.

When did you decide that you wanted to practice art?

ET: During my school exams, instead of preparing for the exams, I used to sketch, which made me realize that I wanted to practice art for rest of my life.

Could you talk a little about Mandala and how it relates to your art?

ET: Mandala in Indian aesthetics is Center of Energy, and I have used the circle/center form to show the energy sharing. We meet different people in [our] daily life and we share different energies and different relationships, and these energies and relationships affect [my] surrounding, making me who I am today.

You talk about your art being the intersection of the external world and the internal world.  How do you see the two coming together in your work?

ET: [The] layers of paints, brushstrokes, collage and colors in my works are about my subconscious mind, which represent the internal world.  While reaching to the finishing layers in my work, it is about my current lifestyle and how it has changed me as a person.  It’s a combination of my past and current life where I can look through the layers but at same time keep them hidden.

Could you discuss your physical interaction with the canvas?

I work on paper installations, which allows me to paint without any control.  When I use brushstrokes, it allows me to have control over my emotions and express [them] through energy or anger in gestural movements.  While drips are [the] expression of free feeling, [you] still sometimes control [them] on the paper.

So for me brushstrokes are physical interaction while drippings are emotional interaction on paper.

Finally, is there any one particular person, artist or otherwise, who you think has most influenced you as an artist?

ET: My paintings are very personal and they are related to my childhood memories and my culture.  There is not one particular person who influences my art but my work is surely related to my family.

To see more pictures from the opening of Yatra – My Journey, please visit our facebook page.

To contact Eshita Trivedi, please contact Selina Gaitan at sgaitan@academyart.edu