Color Vision – Tania Sen

Color Vision I, acrylic on canvas, 30 inches diameter

Color Vision II, acrylic on canvas, 30 inches diameter — Color Vision I, acrylic on canvas, 30 inches diameter

More of the same” – always a safe bet – familiar and predictable. So deep is the dependence on the “familiar and safe”, that the choice by default is always that which has been previously experienced – “true and tried” – a popular justifications! The consciousness however is forever expanding and morphing…it seeks new insights and new ways of being…even though the love of “typecast” makes one conform to accepted codes of decorum for fear of rejection. Need for validation curbs the capacity to love the self and others. These works, “I’m a lot like You”, “Tiger Tiger” and “Dusk” are mixed media paintings…all of them done on reclaimed canvases, depicting a changed perspective simply from being rendered over an existing image – an existing story that no longer holds…

On another level, these works actually use type as a visual tool. The Arabic script of the title of “Quran”, the Islamic holy text, words resonating William Blake’s poem – “The Tiger” and words hidden in the negative space inside a shape depicting the national flag. Liberation and tolerance, “untypecast” is the common string in these works.

“See Me
Feel Me
Touch Me
Heal Me
Listening to you, I get the music
Gazing at you, I get the heat
Following you, I climb the mountain
I get excitement at your feet
Right behind you, I see the millions
On you, I see the glory
From you, I get opinion
From you, I get the story”

Color Vision at the Umass Art Center — Color Vision at the Umass Fine Art Museum

Mixed Media on reclaimed canvas, 36x36 inches — Color Vision at the Umass Fine Art Museum

Having begun my journey in the arts from age four, misdiagnosed with diphtheria and confined to a hospital bed in remote small town Bihar, India, it was my dream to make art. When I lost my father in my teens, it was up to me to support my family. With a very young brother and a stay at home mother I worked as a publicity personnel writing press releases, for the Indian Railways. And completed undergraduate studies from Calcutta University with Honors in English.

I qualified for an academic scholarship at New York Institute of Technology. When things stabilized a bit at home, I took a leap of faith and joined graduate school in NYC. After graduation I joined the ad industry for twenty some years. Then turned to teaching and art therapy since 2001. I taught Advertising Design at the College of St. Elizabeth, Morristown, NJ and practiced Art therapy with autistic children at the Morris Union Jointure Commission, Warren, NJ. For more on international exhibitions click here.

For my art, I embraced a contemporary narrative here in the US far from my birth city of Kolkata, India. Experimenting with form and media, I found many an accomplished mentor who shared their expertise with me in realizing my artistic goals. Essentially self-taught, my works exhibited at the Newark Museum (NJ),
The Royal Scottish Academy, Tate (UK) Mumbai Museum (India) Contemporary Art Museum S. Korea, Torpedo Art Factory, Monmouth Museum (NJ) Haggin Museum (CA), Lalit Kala Academy h (India), Feminist Art Project, Goggleworks, Prince Street Gallery, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, NYC etc.

A founder member of SIPMA Contemporary, I curated a number of exhibits with an emphasis on inter-disciplinary art. I collaborated in experimental dance/art at Swarthmore College and performance art at the Soho 20 gallery, NYC.