I First met Manmeet Kaur in London in 2006. A mural, painted by her hand, adorned the wall of the room in which I was staying. Each morning as I meditated I had the delight of seeing her painting of the Kanda in the Lotus (which I began mentally calling "Shakti and Shanti") right above the altar in Harpreet Singh's bedroom which he had so graciously loaned me for the duration of my stay. Now she has made much of her strikingly beautiful artwork and photography available online in her virtual gallery at minusgreen.com
Here is Manmeet Kaur's description of her work in her own words:
"Through my journey through my faith,
experiences and feelings that have accompanied me through this journey
have been the foundation of my art work. These experiences have led me
to continue to explore and delve deeper into my relationship with my
faith; and the medium of silk screen printing has been the most
expressive method of representing and tracing this relationship.
My work intertwines text and mark-making and looks at how these forms work together. Working on a large scale has not only enabled me to analyse my work with a depth previously unknown to me, but it has also allowed me to incorporate a combination of different elements all within one piece of work, as well as heighten the experience and the feeling of the work which consequently heightens the meaning and the sense of my work. This combination consists of text, graphics, mark making including found objects, original sketches and other complete images all within one final piece. This ultimately enables me to express and convey everything I wish to represent in one single piece of work. I am able to satisfy my creative ambition by raising my work to more expansive reaches and the use of screen printing allows me to build up my work with the use of sombre colours and placement, to create very subtle illusions within the large scale work.
The use of text from scriptures in a variety of languages including English translations, Punjabi and Persian is often included within my work. This use of different text, along with an intrigue in found objects or things that many would regard as junk or may not necessarily notice, has led me to begin collecting torn pieces of paper, and paint marks for example, to use them in my work or as inspiration which helps me reach the final image.
My current work has led me in a direction that admittedly was a surprise. Although, I always have a loose idea of the final piece of what I want to achieve or create, I often let the work lead me to a finished stage, rather than direct the work and force it to fit a pre-determined version or plan - I feel quite often that this stunts the creativity and the beauty of the work lies in the difference between the conceived idea and how the piece has grown of its own accord and flourished into it's final element.
The work I have created has enabled me to experience different aspects of my faith through the process of creating art. My relationship between my art and my faith has begun to work strongly alongside one another and have become a source of support and stimulation for each other."
I invite you to visit her gallery on the Web at minusgreen.com
.....Guruka Singh Khalsa