Today we’d like to introduce you to Shyama Golden.
Shyama, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I grew up in Clear Lake, taking pictures of neighborhood cats and entering Rodeo Art competitions every year in grade school. At Texas Tech I studied graphic design and had a career in that field for 10 years until I had a realization that my passion was more in figurative art and illustration. My parents were both scientists (My father at NASA and my mother at UTMB) and without meaning to, they influenced my work a lot. I still often make use of botanical and space related imagery. These days my personal work is figurative and narrative, and I do illustration work for clients only when I feel it lines up with the work I do on my own.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I create oil and iPad paintings, animations, and patterns. I’m interested in the underrated and overlooked. I’m interested in places and things that are beautiful but haunting or sad. I’m interested in representations of women who are complex characters like the real women I know. I’m inspired my scientist parents as much as I am the great painters who I admired growing up: Kahlo’s storytelling, Hockney’s color and design sensibility, Hopper’s light and loneliness, Klimpt’s energy and pattern, Alice Neel’s ability to capture an inclusive and real view of humanity. There are many more influences but they change all the time as my work evolves. I hope my work inspires a conversation and invites people to step out of their routine, and I hope they can discover something new with each viewing.
Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
Artists today have to find their own way to reach an audience. Instagram and social media do help with that in a way that can be very direct and rewarding. Finding well trafficked and inspiring physical spaces to show work can be the challenging part. Cities can help by creating spaces for art so that artists can more easily become a part of the community.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
People can see my work at my website shyamagolden.com and they can follow along with my process and find out about openings and exhibitions
on Instagram and twitter: @shyamagolden
and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shynanigans/
Contact Info:
- Website: shyamagolden.com
- Instagram: @shyamagolden
- Facebook: facebook.com/shynanigans/
- Twitter: @shyamagolden
Image Credit:
Shyama Golden
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