Equilibrium

18 year old takes on the art world
Maaria Sayed, the 18 year old granddaughter of former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr A.R Antulay forays into the art world with her painting exhibition titled "A Raw Teenage Retina." With 46 canvasses to be displayed, she has worked on her paintings over a period of three years.
Medium of choice: oil, acrylic and charcoal.
Maaria drew inspiration for her paintings through the life she leads as a teenager and hence the title of her exhibition. Her theme for her paintings is her need to attain equilibrium as a person. She says the strong influence of religion and her firm belief in it has helped her find a certain balance which translates into her art, a few of which features writings in arabic.
Her paintings have been worked around five themes which include teenage dreams, women empowerment, standardisation of society, the environment and spirituality. Her paintings explore themes of ethnocentrism and xenocentrism through the usage of many colours and heavy texturing. What is unique about the young artists' paintings are the usage of wooden frames, each one of them different from the other indicative of certain obstruction that the artist had to face due to 'our cocktail culture.' She describes her work as 'raw, rugged and unfinished' and rightly so with uneven usage of heavy and dark wooden frames. "I believe that the painting is the soul and the frame the body," she adds. Each one of her rugged frames are uniquely designed in tune with the mood of her paintings. As the artist says, "My paintings would be incomplete without the frames."
This strong, idealistic youth first published her book "My thoughts at sixteen" when she was just seventeen years old with a grand launch by none other than Shobha De. "A Raw Teenage Retina" will be unveiled by the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh at Blue Sea, Worli seaface, Mumbai on the 12th of April.
Speaking of her themes, Maaria talks about how teenagers should be allowed to dream and dream big without any restriction and be given the complete freedom to persue what they want. The need to confirm to ideals laid out by society only leads to standardisation 'due to which we crave our sense of identity' which brings us to her second theme. The 'cocktail culture' that she finely mouths leaves us lingering between the explorer and the curious side and the valued and stubborn side, according to her. "Diversity in unity...that's what we have now.." When it comes to her theme of women empowerment, she describes how women need to be looked beyond just being beautiful objects and women empowerment and expression in its truer sense rather than just the thought of it. Interestingly, her theme on the environment talks about how when we destroy the earth, we destroy ourselves and this creation of negative energy needs to be rid of. Harmony with the environment can only cause us to radiate the individuality that we all possess. for her spirituality is religion and it is with religion that spirituality lies. Her faith brings her closer to her roots adds she.
When asked if she had ever been trained or taken art classes, she says all that she creates are her vent to express herself which puts a strong inclination on all her work. Maaria says shes always been a performer and she won't do anything unless convinced of it. She's never studied anybody else's art which she adds can only limit ones ability. her entire work is her expression of extreme emotions, "i can't be running down the streets telling people what i feel...so i translate that energy into whatever i'm working on."
She's a normal teenager. that is if normal is being published at 17, galka paintings at 18, teaching spech and drama at Trinity (for which she is qualified!) and still manages time for her English Literature classes at one of the country's premier colleges.
Maaria's self confidence and warm nature is really infectious. I wonder why she has an extra 'a' to her name? well i'll just have to wait and find out on the 12th because 'lil ol' me has been specially invited to her opening!