Ambika Thiagarajan

Acrylic, Oil, Mixed Media

Raised in Chennai, India, one thing school convinced me was that science and math just wasn't my forte. I knew instantly that my ability instead sat in creative pursuits where I was not conformed by too many restrictions. Where I could have my own style and notion of color and dig deep into this world freely. After a few years of taking an Art elective in school, I decide to chase it full-time in college and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Stella Maris College, Chennai, India. Choosing to push out of my safe and secure comfort zone at home, I decided to move out to the US to broaden my horizons both personally and professionally and embrace life with an open mind. I moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where I received a Post Baccalaureate in Fine Art after an intense year of thinking out of the box and experimentation of new mediums. I am now a full-time Contemporary Artist/Painter living in San Diego, California, chasing my dream everyday.

Free Expression

by

Ambika Thiagarajan

Free Expression

by

Ambika Thiagarajan

Three questions on inspiration with

Ambika Thiagarajan

Describe an object that has inspired you
I have always had a fascination towards winding stairways. I started randomly including it during my final years of undergrad and decided to explore it further when I got to Baltimore for Art School. Something about the unpredictable and infinite nature of stairways is very appealing to me and I constantly think and dream about it and sometimes include it in my work subtly.
Describe a place that has inspired you
I can definitely say that my entry into the wild world of Abstraction began during my year in Baltimore at the Maryland Institute College of the Art. My creativity was let loose and uninhabited in ways I could have never imagined. A class that really opened my eyes to shifting my perspective on the primary medium I was using, paint, was one called Collage and Assemblage. The simple notion of ripping apart pieces of paper and other random elements and sticking it onto a surface gave me fresh ideas for color combinations, relationships of different forms, and opened up my style to something entirely new. I started painting in a way I had never before, it was more twisted and free....just more abstract than ever.
Describe a person that has inspired you
Wassily Kandinsky played a huge role in my work. My style is not similar to his, but just the way he portrays dancing shapes and builds rhythm in his work has inspired me to think about composition, movement and flow within the lengths of my canvas.
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