Moni Basu Doesn’t Care What You Think of Her Art
One year into paint smears and newspaper clippings, the accomplished writer reflects on her venture into visuals. The audience? Not important.
Details from Basu’s 2020 mixed media painting created in the wake of civil unrest in America.
Moni Basu’s dining table was set for months—but not for dinner, and certainly not for guests. Broken-down Amazon boxes were laminated by a vinyl tablecloth. Wine glasses were traded for water glasses. Canvas replaced placemats. In a scene that would have been unrecognizable just a month before, the sophisticated dining space became a perfectly uncouth art station. Here, Basu began painting long into the night: “It made the time go away.”
Basu never planned to become an artist (and if you asked her, she still wouldn’t accept the title). As an author, award-winning journalist and current Michael and Linda Connelly Lecturer for Narrative Nonfiction in the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications, she has long nurtured her passion for storytelling with words. “I have always been driven by fostering a different understanding of our world,” she says, with the CV to prove it. Telling and teaching story was all in a day’s work.
Then the pandemic hit.
I liked it, I enjoyed it, it relaxed me.”
Basu’s first foray into art-making came as an attempt at wellness after leaving campus on March 11, 2020. She cut back on assignments to best accommodate her students as the uncertainty and hardship of COVID-19 took hold. Like many who found themselves with both the time and mental need for hobbies, Basu picked up some cheap acrylics to make an attempt at painting. Unconstrained by the expectation that accompanies writing, she leaned into the experiment with each goopy, unsuspecting brushstroke, each clipping of collage materials, creating a solo, meditative practice. “I painted for hours. I lost all track of time,” she recalls. “I became addicted to it. Putting paint on the canvas soothes my soul—it was a salve for me.”
To contend with being a novice in any pursuit is a lesson in patience and liberation. “I’m not skilled at it,” says Basu of her artistry. “I am willing to work really hard. I have a certain sense of things—I have a sense of colors and perspectives—but I don’t have the actual skills. I have this vision in my head but I can’t execute it.” There is an equal freedom and frustration that comes with this territory. It’s less tug-of-war and more fluid-but-fickle coexistence, like oil and water. And some days, maybe something between the two
But Basu is no stranger to being ‘“in-between.” In fact, it’s kind of her thing.
“I am neither here nor there. I am everywhere—but especially in the middle.”
Born in India, Basu has formed an identity of global proportions. Her father, a professor, never accepted tenured positions because he enjoyed traveling, taking Basu with him starting at just one year old. “I grew up with a big worldview,” she acknowledges. “I understand the world is so complex because I’ve been to so many places.” This has long been a fuel for Basu’s writing, an approach that she now wants to apply to her artistic endeavors. At the core, Basu’s practice has evolved into visual journalism.
Having an interest in multiple mediums—painting and collage—have well-stacked her creative toolkit. “I am deathly scared of painting faces,” she says, laughing. “That’s why I find collage liberating. You are piecing together things from a whole.”
“Labels don’t get you anywhere.”
Collage is a lot like finding one’s identity as a new artist. Combining pieces, drawn from the complexities, individual identities and experiences held by each person, provides meaningful substance to art-making that cannot be learned like technical skills. Dismissing potential due to fear of judgment is not only a personal disservice, but a missed opportunity. “You can do anything as long as you don't become your worst critic. The bar was low for me. In writing the bar is high,” says Basu. “If you want to paint, no one is going to judge you. Who is going to judge you?”
One year of judgment-free creative work has been transformative for Basu, who plans to take art classes once they are available in-person again. “With painting last year I felt like a flower bud that had been on the plant for a long time, and finally it was the right spring for it to bloom.”
Follow Basu’s work on Facebook. Inquire directly with interest to purchase.