Our Community Manager Lena Thaler interviewed artist Radha Mehta to discuss her extraordinary series “I Am Love”; a womxn empowerment series that incorporates the love language of words of affirmation as a form of healing. They discussed creativity, fertility, what it means to nurture, and how being a woman of color shaped her experience with art. Both originals and prints from the series “I Am Love” are on display at Blue Ova. They are also available for purchase at our office or at the I Am Love website.
To start, will you share a bit about your background as an artist and person?
I’m into making multimedia art including films, music, and paintings. I started out as a singer/songwriter for many years and thought that’s all I wanted to do. After giving birth to my first child, I had to turn to a creative outlet that was rather quiet for when my son napped. That’s when I turned to painting, abstract at first but eventually into abstract surrealism & portraiture styles.
Throughout that time though, I’ve always enjoyed making films, specifically documentaries, that evoked joy & beauty somehow. It is only recently that I decided to combine all my different forms of art-making into a narrative storytelling format via film where I get to compose my own music, make art, and tell stories through a moving visual medium, all at once! I’m currently a Directing Fellow at American Film Institute (AFI) where I hope to expand those outlets. As for me, I’m a mother of 2 -- my son Leonardo is 5 and my daughter Lakshmi is 2. They’re my reason for making “art” as a living, as they give me tremendous purpose in life.
What do you hope people will gain from the "I am Love" series?
I hope at the very least by saying the phrases in each of the paintings aloud, they’d feel some sense of empowerment. I truly believe in the various love languages in the way people communicate and give & receive love. One of the love languages that resonates most with me is the love language of affirmations. “I am love” has a double meaning-- it means “I am loved” and “I am loving”. At our core, we should all believe we are worthy, we are enough, and we are love. Just that alone can empower us and our journeys to live out our maximum potential.
Many of our patients are on long journeys to become pregnant, to nurture themselves, their families, and new life. What does nurturing mean to you? And how do you practice nurturing?
Nurturing means many things to me. I once had fertility challenges in trying to bring forth to life a soul here on earth, and into my family. That is now our son, Leonardo. He is a miracle baby in my eyes, not because of any complications at birth, but more because he’s the miracle I envisioned and requested the universe to gift me with, and I feel incredibly blessed in life because of him. Nurturing means being able to listen. I actually have the disability of being hard of hearing, something I’d struggled with emotionally and physically all my life. Despite my challenges in “hearing,” it enhances my ability to “listen” by giving and receiving intention. As in, what is this person really saying or meaning by that? The challenge has forced me to dig deep. I try to actively listen to my kids even when they don’t seem to make sense on the surface. They’re beautiful balls of energy and feelings, and I try nurturing those elements simply by listening. Nurturing also means being present. Yes, of course I care for them and love them with all my heart, but being present with them somehow invokes joy in them as if they feel valued and prioritized in MY world despite the many things I may have on my mind or may be busy with. Being present with them somehow makes me feel more alive, and I’m deeply in gratitude to them for that feeling!
How has being a woman of color shaped your experience creating art and sharing it?
I feel it informs much of my art in rather subtle ways. I think as women, we often are made to feel less than in the way society and various environments treat us, especially in traditionally patriarchal settings. Similarly, being a person of color, we are also made to feel less than, at least here in the US. Something about color is assumed to be inferior, and that feels incredibly frustrating. We have to overcome many more obstacles in life to be seen or heard or to matter in order to simply exist.
Then, combining the two as a woman of color, what often feels as the lowest on the line up of “mattering.” We have to overcome hurdle upon hurdle. It’s exhausting, yet, we still persist. I believe my “I am Love” series is very much a series about self-identity in how I, and maybe others too, wish to be viewed. And the phrases there are “reminders” for myself to at least simply believe in myself. Because, if I don’t believe in myself, then who will?
What is your creative process like and how would you encourage others to tap into their creativity?
I love searching through beautiful art on Pinterest, and often use that as my mood board when I have a certain idea I want to express. Then I visualize a montage that makes a gold statement, sketch it out, and go into the finer details of painting them via watercolor. I highly encourage anyone to find something visual that they’re drawn to, and then ask “why” does that speak to you? How does it make you feel? If you have a desire to make anything, whether it be a painting, a song, film, or stitch a piece of fabric, yet feel you don’t have the skills, I highly recommend you take the first step of writing all about your feelings on that. I believe one thing leads to another…so after you’ve journaled about feelings around something you wish to do, you’ll find your way to a Skillshare course or something that will teach you the basic skills to make that “thing” you want to make. Then comes practice. Start small, and do small bits at a time. Most importantly, enjoy the process of practicing. Let yourself just be one with it, almost as if you’re in a state of meditation when doing it. That “practice” then serves you as a form of therapy and healing and, I promise, can bring you joy if you allow it to!
Bonus info! Sign up for Radha’s mailing list as she will be releasing new smaller originals where subscribers-only can pay what they want within 24 hours of its release.
