When I was a teenager, if someone had told me that one day I would be writing about people from places like Brussels, Sri Lanka and Suriname, I would have laughed. I was never that interested in the world as a young person. All these places were far away and the world was a big place. My own world was huge in my mind and what it represented in my life took all my energy. The world out there had no place in the picture. In fact, there was no space on my canvas for any other world.
Today, the world for all of us is definitely smaller and a large majority of us folks know about what the culture is like in another part of the world. We can eat what someone eats in Paris while sitting in Mumbai and vice versa. We know what events happen even in the smallest of places somewhere else. This reduction of the world with people travelling and the arrival of the internet and social media has resulted in a beautiful mixing of cultures, languages and traditions.
On another note, people migrating to different places can also bring fascinating perspectives about culture & art. The shifting of physical residence can bring a sort of freedom and getting out of the box of the reputation & experience that one has created in one’s own country. Artist Audra Brazauskaite came to live in Mumbai in 2020. Since 2020, she has been able to concentrate on becoming an artist again. Before that, she lived in Vilnius, Lithuania and was spending most of her time as a lecturer of Art Therapy at the Vilnius University and working as an art therapist. I got to know her by chance and since I'm the curious sort, I contacted her to know more.
Audra was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, and had a good and peaceful childhood. She has a sister, 8 years older than her, and a brother, just a year younger. She says that even when she was little, her parents noticed that she loved to draw and paint, and gave her everything she needed to continue what later became her talent, passion, helped her to find a job and was an integral part of her well-being. People started responding to her art from kindergarten. She very quickly realized that if she drew well, she would get a reaction, and even a positive reaction from the adults around her. She started attending art school from the 5th grade. This art school, which is part of the education system, is a serious and well-established structure in Lithuania, guiding the student through a 4-year cycle. She continued art school until she finished compulsory secondary school and was able to enroll in the Vilnius Academy of Arts. It is understandable that after all these years, Audra always wanted to be just an “artist”. No other thought ever crossed her mind. She studied at the Vilnius Academy of Arts and began creating stage design for concerts and music festivals. However, she quickly realized that she preferred working alone to collaborating and leading people in a team.
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| Audra & her husband Sudipto Acharyya |
I ask her how she became interested in drawing. Today, looking back, she realizes that perhaps because her little brother was just one year younger and naturally took all the attention away from her mother, she craved this attention. She saw that when she drew something, she got what she wanted from everyone, but most importantly, from her mother. Ultimately, an artist draws inspiration from the attention of the audience. Today, with her uniqueness and creativity, she feels the expectation of receiving appreciation from a curator or an art lover. This feeling of happiness is closely related to what she felt as a child, showing her painting to her parents.
Today, in her works of art, she uses the metaphors of knots, weaving and embroidery. She uses the word “today”, but says that this symbolism, interpretation or expression probably began a long time ago, when she was still a student. She remembers how she went through a difficult period in her youth and, being emotional, created art unconsciously or without any active thought process. these pieces were shown in a student exhibition and attracted interest. Since then, she has realized that the metaphors of weaving and knots are very important in her work.
Later, Audra obtained a doctorate in art therapy in her country, becoming a pioneer in this field. She was regularly invited to conferences to give presentations and lead art therapy workshops. After one conference, she was asked to write an article about her art therapy workshop on knots. In order to write relevant texts, Audra researched literature and related sources. She discovered that knots symbolize something very anthropological and ancient. She points out that even the Indian poet Kabir was a weaver. He wrote poems about weaving. Weaving symbolizes connection. This connection can be related to experiences and rituals.
Recently, Audra attended a Buddhist retreat at Dharamsala. In Buddhism, she says that knots represent a spiritual & emotional code. You can read more about this in these interesting links here
https://portlandbuddhistpriory.org or about
Endless knots on Wikipedia here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endless_knot
Audra today stitches on her canvas and as we discuss her migration and coming to settle in Mumbai after Covid, she finds this transition in her Art to stitching may symbolise correction & creation & recreation. I find this talk fascinating as when she speaks, I see how my own life played out. Having shifted to Europe more than twenty years ago and having lived a life of fusion, her words heightened my understanding of self and evolution using time as the canvas on which a unique ever ongoing masterpiece is being painted. So, I can hear about her travels & life changes and evolution and understand what she means by recreation and correction. We all finally are creating something and even if we don't move from one place to another, we create and correct and recreate through the many experiences life places on our paths.
Married to an Indian, Audra lives a unique life. She still teaches at the Vilnius University (thanks to remote working) and her generous management to allow her that. She then has time to create and finds that she creates much more now that she's settled in Mumbai. People back home haven't had time to see her be more than an Art Therapist or an Art Therapy teacher. She has found an audience in India comprising Indians, Americans and Lithuanians and thinks that her appeal is because she offers something new, original & different. For sure, it's tough to find your space in a foreign land but what she concentrates on is that she does what she loves and finally has time to do what she wanted to take time to do: create, paint and deepen her creativity.
Her move to India was unplanned and accelerated due to COVID, but since she has her husband and her art in India, she doesn’t feel really out of place. She has some qualms and feels challenged sometimes about not being able to communicate in Hindi. But living in this new culture and surrounded by new traditions has made her open her mind even more. It helped her become interested in Buddhist philosophy and psychology. As she reflects on her own experiences, she hopes to develop more skills and keep learning.
I end my interview by asking her how she starts her work when faced with a blank, white canvas. Audra replies she draws on her intuition and starts with moving her gaze trusting the path it’ll take on this journey on the empty slate. There are a lot of studies on the Theory of gaze and neurosciences about what we see with not just our eyes. We're talking about what one's psyche sees. She follows her inner light and allows creation to happen, is how I understand it with my non painter brain.
You can find a lot of information on Gaze on Wikipedia related to several different topics and genres. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaze
Audra has already held an exhibition titled “I wave your name on the loom of my mind” last year at the prestigious Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai. Her upcoming exhibition is planned to be at Bajaj Art Gallery, in Mumbai from the 5th to 17th of October 2026.
Some photos from her past.
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| early days |
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| dancing with her father at a wedding |
You can connect with Audra through her website or Instagram, see links
https://www.instagram.com/audr.aart?utm_source=qr&igsh=YzR4dnFkZ3l1aDR0
#abstractart #audrabrazauskaite #artist #jehangirartgallery #arttherapy
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