**[Ishita Banerjee](https://www.cohart.com/soulcurryart/profile)** is a Montreal-based modern Cubist and abstract expressionist artist working under the brand _Soul Curry_. Her art is deeply personal, reflecting her life experiences and her relationship with impatience and impulsivity. Merging imagination and memory, Banerjee creates vivid and bold abstract works, including people, faces, and non-traditional portraiture, rendered with striking colors, intricate motifs, and rich details. Through her art, Banerjee strives to give tangible forms to complex emotions such as love, longing, and loss, creating pieces that resonate on a deeply human level.

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##### Can you describe your artistic process? What materials and techniques do you typically use?

Typically, my artistic process involves the use of traditional media on canvas. I use inks, acrylic paints, and a variety of pens and pastels to create texture and movement. I also love working with layered collages for depth of tone, using vintage paper, typography, and photographs to create the emotion and mood of my pieces. 

##### What emotions do you experience when creating your art, and how do they influence the final piece?

Moods, feelings and emotions are the primary drivers of my work. Seeking to depict the overlaps of human relationships and the ways in which we look inwards and outwards, my pieces are derived from personal memory, experiences, and observations.

##### What is your approach to experimenting with new techniques or styles?

I love pushing the boundaries of my creative style, to grow as an artist. Whether it is through embracing new techniques, new media, tools or technology, experimenting with new styles expands my creative mind, adds agility to my process and keeps the feelings fresh. I love looking back at my body of work and finding these significant shifts in experimentation and play.

##### Can you describe a turning point in your artistic career that significantly impacted your work?

A significant moment was during my years studying for my MFA degree, where my final year dissertation was on the Cubist movement. Finding parallels on how Cubism is relevant in current culture and developing my style around it was pivotal in my artistic journey. 

##### How do you balance personal expression with audience expectations in your work?

I create primarily for myself, my personal observations and explorations. My audience resonates with my work when I stay true to my trajectory. 

##### What do you think is the most important quality for an artist to possess?

I think being open to learning and growth, both personally and professionally are important qualities for an artist. Complacency leads to stagnation, while learning leads to experimentation. That is when the magic of the process becomes defined. 

##### Has your cultural background influenced your artistic practice?

My cultural roots have played a big role in the way I approach and present with color. My South Asian roots have helped me express color in all its potency in the pieces I make. 

##### Do you have any rituals or routines that help you get into a creative mindset?

I’m never in a hurry to “finish” a piece. I like to sit with my paintings, and letting myself feel them at different points in time, even beyond the moment I can declare them to have been created. 

##### How do you perceive the relationship between art and mental health?

The beauty of creating art is that the focus is entirely centred on the creation. It allows you to prioritize the now and take away all other distractions. It is a powerful healer & an equally powerful communicator. As a cancer warrior myself, I know firsthand how my creative and artistic practice have helped me through some of the toughest times of my life. 

##### How do you see the role of art in today's digital age?

I think of technology as a medium or tool that is available for the artists to explore and play with. It is up to the artist to make it as banal or as unique as they choose. With new technologies, new mindsets, and new audiences, new ways of expressing are opening up. While technology is a big part of our lives, I do however believe that the magic of the creative process is the serendipity of the moment of creation, no matter what the tool or media may be. From decisions made from the heart, the healing from the mind, to brushstrokes & marks made with the hand, the journey of the artist is never linear. Its beauty is ever-evolving. 

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Ishita Banerjee creates emotive art with collages, acrylics, and inks, exploring human relationships and South Asian cultural expression.

Spotlight: Ishita Banerjee on Art’s Power to Heal and Communicate the Human Experience

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