The Painted Verse
Preeta Chandran and Pankaj Kumar Saxena are fusion experts based out of New Delhi, India. Preeta is a writer/poet, who has been published in several International and Indian anthologies and is the author of 'The Painted Verse', a fusion of poetry and painting. Pankaj is an artist and painter who has been featured in several International and Indian exhibitions and is co-author of 'The Painted Verse'. We have conducted an interview with them.
What are your backgrounds? Tell us a little bit about yourselves.
Preeta: I live in New Delhi, India and work as an Assistant Vice President with a reputed global organization. I have dabbled in multiple things, graduating with Honours in Chemistry, studying Management for post-graduation, and am currently doing a Ph.D in Management. Writing is a passion that I discovered as a little kid, at the age of nine. It is my way of expressing myself, as well my hobby. I write poetry, micropoetry like haiku, and stories. I have been featured and published in a large number of International and Indian anthologies by prestigious organizations like The Poetry Society of India, Hidden Brook Press of Canada, Cultural Centre of Vijaywada, Guntur Poetry Festival, AuthorsPress, Galerie MP Tresart (Canada), and various national newspapers. I have won awards from popular literary journals and in contests by leading national newspapers, and been featured in fusion exhibitions in international galleries like Galerie MP Tresart (Canada).
Pankaj: I live in New Delhi, India. I work as an Assistant Vice President with a renowned global corporation. I am a Bachelor of Sciences and an IIM Calcutta alumnus. I grew up in a house full of artists; my father and mother are both artists. My uncle dedicated his entire life to art and painting. While our friends played with toys, we siblings were playing with paint brushes and colors. My work has been displayed in exhibitions at Emmaus Gallery (Milan, Italy), Galerie MP Tresart (Canada), Lokayakta Art Gallery (Hauz Khas Village), India Habitat Centre, Habitat World, Canvas Art Gallery (Nehru Place), Academy of Art and Design (New Delhi) and Uttar Pradesh Kala Academy (Bareilly), I have designed numerous book covers for eminent authors. My work has won several awards and has been featured in various national newspapers and my solo exhibition ‘fused-unfused’ held at AIFACS New Delhi, was recently aired on national television.
How did you both complement each other in authoring of your book?
We created joint compositions. Sometimes, the poetry came first, and inspired by it, the painting. At other times, it was the reverse. And there were times when common thoughts or discussion topics were jointly worked upon. When we started off, we hadn’t thought of a book. We were just creating art. When we had done about 12 or more such joint compositions, the idea of the book ‘The Painted Verse’ took shape.
How did you both first discover about the blending of 'Creativity and Sublimity'?
It is difficult to say if there was that one Eureka moment! We would say it was a gradual process. Love of art in all its forms is deeply rooted in the human psyche. And when two forms of art are combined tastefully, the result is both creative and sublime. Fusion of writing and painting has been at the heart of Chinese art. For centuries, artists like Picasso have experimented with it. And such fusion has immense power to bring sublime joy to the beholders and the creators.
Who or where do you get your inspirations?
As for inspiration, everything about life is our inspiration. The beauty and the mystery of mother nature, the wholesomeness of the Universe, joys and sorrows, love, our families, lives of people around us, and even the seemingly mundane aspects of our day to day lives…they are all part of our art. We also travel a lot, and whenever we find something new and interesting, there is a new composition on the way!
What is this book about? Who do you want to reach?
“Poetry is painting without form, painting is poetry with form” said Kuo Hsi, Northern Sung Landscape Painter. ‘The Painted Verse’, as the name suggests, is an amalgamation of poetry and painting. There are 50 compositions, each composition a combination of poetry and painting that complement each other. This collection is a conglomeration of creativity, artistry, spirituality and poetry. It can be enjoyed by a wide range of readers and art and poetry lovers across age groups, as well as upcoming and established writers and artists.
How long did you both work on 'The Painted Verse' as fusion experts?
We worked on it for about a year. This was our first fusion work. After the success of this one and the rave reviews from the art and literature fraternity, as well as readers, we worked on several other fusion projects and they have been displayed in literature and art fests, International books, as well as exhibitions, for example by Galerie MP Tresart (Canada) and AIFACS India.
