Chandrika Marla

Lives and works in Palo Alto, CA, USA

Artist statement

My work explores the feminine and is inspired by women, their relationships with others, and with their own selves. I paint the soft curves of a woman’s body in simple shapes and in the vibrant colors of my native country, India. These reductive abstractions of the female form dwell upon the emotional and psychological nature of memory and color. I want to talk about the parts of us that are missing. How does one find completion? How does one become whole? What has been lost along the way? As I paint, I recall events, conversations and emotions to compare relationships between people, the outer and inner self, the individual and society. Do the colors on my canvas feel peaceful together? Are they agitated? How do they make me feel? I apply flat layers of acrylic paint on the canvas using a paint roller, alternating between opaque layers and translucent glazes, to create a surface that eventually looks deep and luminous. Each painting has up to 15 layers of paint and as they build up, a stippled, multicolored line appears where the past color fields meet. This area of merging, of togetherness, is the most attractive part of the work for me, a small part that dominates these large color fields. I have always been inspired by Rothko and find myself dwelling on his words, “We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.”

Artwork