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Fabric Collage Art
Mihira Karra
USA
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“I am an artist because I want to express myself and tell stories pictorially.”
Mihira, the ‘cultural explorer’ and one of the contemporary expert collage artists has traversed different cities. Born in Kolkata, India, as a child, Mihira traveled across the Indian peninsula because of her father’s profession as an officer in the Indian Railways. India is recognized for its diversity, with 22 languages containing different scripts. Having been exposed to various languages and cultures, her field of vision was magnificently widened.
South Indian lady | Other
$1,800
20 X 16
Fabric on canvas. It is a fine fabric collage that brings out the richness of the woman's face as well as her attire. The background is reminiscent of the artist's great grand mother's house.
During her formative years, Mihira was swayed by West Bengal’s rich cultural heritage and Delhi's Moghul architecture. Her vision was rooted in the ancient classical East and the historical empires of the North, hence, she tapped into art to express her diverse experience. Mihira’s moving around the country turned into an enriching journey. Mihira needed a stable educational environment for her teen years, something that her father’s professional transfers could not guarantee.
Sculpture series 2 | Other
$1,200
15 X 11
Fine fabric collage on paper. Effect created by the various patterns evokes a stone sculpture.
Mihira moved in with her grandmother, who was esteemed as the first South-Asian woman to graduate as an electrical engineer in 1943, as her professional career. She mentored Mihira wonderfully to make her grow and develop. Besides, she also bought Mihira her first set of oil pastels, a step that transformed the artist’s creative impulses and encouraged her to create more. Mihira drew inspiration from her cousin’s artwork and that is when she started trying her hand at art, culminating in fabric collage art later.
“The beauty in the world and the complex stories of individuals drive me to produce art.”
An older woman dampened seven-year-old Mihira's hope by telling her she would never become an artist. However, she emerged stronger by listening to her inner voice telling her not to lose confidence. Always ready with a pencil Mihira sketched everything she could lay her hands on. During childhood, she discovered her ability to create attractive posters for school projects. Her talent was a distinct boost to her popularity among schoolmates, as accorded by her friend. Therefore, the older woman’s dismal prophecy was laid to rest! Mihira began portraiture in earnest, inspired by “The World’s Best Photographs,” a leather-bound tome she had acquired from her great-grandparent’s home in Chennai. She reproduced many of these faces. However, she wasn’t content with those, hence she started seeking her subjects in her family. Further subjects were her maternal grandmother and maternal great-aunt, serving as the source of encouragement and support.
Sculpture series 3 | Other
$1,200
15 X 11
Fine fabric collage on paper. Fabric patterns are cleverly used to create a stone sculptural effect. The splash of red just highlights the face.
Multiple layers of paper, paint, pastels etc. give the piece a unique texture and highlight her face from different angles. A portrait of the young poet laureate Amanda Gorman. main face is in pastels while other angle of the face is merged in background.
Gorman | Mixed Media
$2,000
20 X 16
Mihira’s pastel portrait of an aunt won her a prize in the National Railways Art competition. Her childhood and adolescence were filled with artistic visions, it seemed predestined that Mihira would resort to art school. However, her grandmother convinced her that a career in the sciences would help her to be economically independent. Grandma’s words carried a lot of weight. Mihira remembered the hardships her grandmother had to endure. She lost her husband during her late teens and was left with a girl child to take care of. The future seemed unsettling. However, Mihira’s great-grandfather fought against preconceived notions about women being incapable of careers in a male-dominated world and got her grandmother admitted to the local engineering college. It primarily aggrandized how attaining financial independence as a woman engineer which seemed like a Herculean task, wasn’t one!
“More recently, I reverted to my first loves, pencil, and crayon, and added other media - acrylic, tea, swaths of cloth – to enrich my art.”
“I was initially fascinated by the potential of fabrics as a substitute for the marble and ceramic that the ancient Greeks used to create mosaics, thanks to an inspiring workshop under the tutelage of the renowned fabric artist Laura Breitman.”
Alarmed by grandma’s cautionary words “An artist will have no future, child!” Mihira decided to change her path from the predestined course. She did her undergraduate and graduate work in the sciences in the U.S. Mihira got married and was blessed with two baby boys. Marriage, job, and childbirth pulled her away from her artistic trajectory. However, she tried and squeezed in a few hurriedly executed sketches in her busy life. Mihira seemed to be content with her life until she was diagnosed with cancer, in the year 2012. It was a wake-up call for one of the finest collage artists of recent times.
Lady with the Blue sari | Acrylic
$1,800
24 X 20
Acrylic on canvas. Even with a single medium depth and effect are brought out using different techniques such as palette knife painting combined with brush painting.
Fighting like a warrior, Mihira recovered from the life-threatening event. Upon being hit by the realization, her new life started as she decided to revive her dreams of creating works of fabric collage art. As the first step, she attended a college workshop and drew a portrait of her elder son, which won her the prize money from the Tokyo Art Olympiad! Her artistic genes began to work furiously. Mihira’s commitment to her work in International Development revealed the hidden lives of women, men, and children from various backgrounds across the globe. These incredibly contributed to shaping her artistic ideas and creating a widespread canvas for collage art.
Woman with Sitar | Other
$1,800
24 X 18
Fine fabric collage on paper. Homage to Raja Ravi Verma. Took an image form one of his famous paintings and interpreted it in fabric with high texture and pattern.
Mihira sought inspiration from the ancient Greek mosaic, which included marble and ceramics. Furthermore, she returned to the tools that helped her discover her artistic soul. Mihira began attending workshops for large mixed media collage and works of charcoal, encouraged by a close friend to break out of previous limitations and to expand her artistic horizon. The subjects she employed for her artworks mirrored her social consciousness about racial, sexual, and class-based inequities. She believed that art holds the power to shape the way people think and continued searching for more innovative ways to expand her artistic horizon.
Fabric collage on canvas . Small pieces of fabric put together give the impression of the vastness and colors of the desert and of the richness of the colors in the sarees and salwar kameezes of the women.
Rajasthani women | Other
$3,000
24 X 36
“I am now using highly patterned fabrics to create sculptural effects.”
Blowing the Conch | Mixed Media
$1,200
18 X 24
Unique mix of multiple layers of paper, paint markers, and fabric give the piece a lot of depth and texture. a typical rural household scene in India.
Mihira’s Fabric collage art has been represented by Zenith Gallery in Washington, D.C., and by the Contemporary Fine Art Gallery, TERAVARNA. She participated in multiple juried shows along the East Coast of the United States, including the prestigious American Craft Show in Baltimore (several years), Connecticut, Washington D.C., and New Jersey, to name a few. Over the years, she further secured features in the Zenith Gallery’s specialty shows. Mihira was a prize winner in the first International Art Olympiad in Tokyo, Japan.
Unique mixture of multiple layers of paper, paint, markers give depth and texture to this piece. The theme of blowing the conch in praise of the Goddess Durga is my signature piece. I have explored this theme multiple times in fabric alone, in color and in black and white.
Women with pots | Mixed Media
$1,800
40 X 30
Mihira’s works are maintained as private collections in India, the Middle East, and the US, including the collection of Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser. Her Fabric collage creations were presented in several newspapers, including the Washington Post in 2019, as part of a specialty show at one of the most prestigious Zenith Gallery. With a house-cum-gallery full of art, much of it political, Zenith Gallery proprietor Margery Goldberg is prepared for just about any ideological tempest. Mihira’s current show, “Artists Doing the Right Thing!” includes the works of collage on canvas, portraits of Michelle Obama and Colin Kaepernick.
Dancing Couple 2 |Mixed Media
$3,000
40 X 30
Layers of paint, tissue paper and markers. A typical waltzing couple. Based on a photograph of the artist's close friend- a competitive ballroom dancer.
“I was terrified of the limitations that the paintbrush forced on me!”
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