Meet Season 41 Visual Artist Dipti Irla
San Mateo-based collage artist Dipti Irla created a fresh, original work to represent Music at Kohl Mansion’s 41st annual season of chamber music concerts. Titled HARMONY IN PINK, it explodes with exuberant joy and whimsical patterns that evoke the dazzling variety of this season’s musical offerings. Here is the artist’s statement:
My abstract collages, playful and at times calming, are my way of sharing the beauty in simple things in nature and the culture around us that often go unnoticed. As another way of turning the mundane into something beautiful, I reuse and upcycle junk mail and old paper.
The interplay of simple shapes, dots and lines in my artworks creates a whimsical look.
I love arranging colors and textures to create a lively movement across the piece. Be it the pops of color or an ombre effect, it guides the viewer’s eyes to experience a joyous moment and create a sense of wonder in their minds
Creating art has always been a relaxing and rejuvenating experience for me since childhood and I came back to it during my postpartum and pandemic for the same reasons. These feelings often show up in the pieces I create.
My love for cutting paper for collages comes from my days of playing with paper patterns during my days as a fashion designer. I work in the form of collections – another practice that follows me from the world of fashion. However, each piece has its own meaning and inspiration. I start out with the common theme and imbue it with another inspiration. The pieces of paper that I start out with and the colors and textures in them guide me along the process. This way the magic of surprise still exists throughout the process of creation.