Survivor’s strokes of life

[1]

Works by artist Usha Hooda

Artist Usha Hooda is simply aware of the beauty that surrounds her life. And her work is a way of appreciating the same. For her ongoing show, “Through My Eyes”, at the India Habitat Centre, the 56-year-old cancer survivor seeks inspiration from life and nature as she creates a range of works textured in mediums like oils, charcoal and pastels.

But the artist don’t intend to leave any “deep meaningful message” through her works. “These are just things in life as I see them,” she says. Also, the impact of nature is quite obvious in her paintings. “I just end up making trees every time I pick up a pen or brush. I get drawn to the natural sort, the kids that I see tending goats and cattle on the wayside as I trek past or stop to share a tale or two,” explains the travel enthusiast.
The artist is an appreciator of skills, be it a cobbler’s, a dancer’s. “I see art in un-arty and unexpected places and situations. Also, in the most ordinary stuff,” she says.
But how has coping up with the disease shaped her personality? “Cancer surely wakes you up. Till it puts you to sleep,” smiles the artist. “I don’t suffer from any depressing thoughts or regrets as people supposedly do after a bout of cancer. Neither am I surging with any grand spiritual thoughts. After the initial shock, you suddenly realise how clear life becomes. Suddenly you are free,” she says.
“So, it’s okay if you are not reading newspaper regularly. Anyways, reading newspapers is not refreshing anymore. They are flooded with news of rapes and murders, which isn’t going to change and isn’t going to make you feel good about waking up either. Go for a run instead and make someone’s day special by doing something constructive. By all means read the paper if it will inspire you to change some of that bad news by reading it. And do whatever you like as long as you aren’t hurting or harming anyone,” says the full-of-life artist.
Usha says, “Luckily for creative people, life has its own colours, its own dimensions and a delightful intensity in everything,” she says.