Personal Statement ( Delna Dastur)

Over the years as I developed as an artist, I came to the realization that the process of making a piece of art intrigues me as much as its subject matter. I am never satisfied with using one medium exclusively and always attempt to combine several.

I embraced charcoal as my primary medium for several years, using a variety of improvised tools such as ear syringes, brushes, charcoal powder, and many different types of erasers to manipulate it. I occasionally added ink and pastel to further increase the complexity of the drawings.

Wooden panels became the supports for my paintings for a while and currently I am combining acrylics with charcoal and pastel on large canvases, transforming their smooth surfaces into fields of texture by applying any number of pastes, gels and clear gessoes raked through with hardware implements to create peaks and dips.

Random strong lines drawn emphatically at the start of a piece guide the direction it will take, and I permit myself to follow their lead, readily yielding any preconceived notion I may have had. I allow the subject matter to navigate itself, to rise from the medley of emerging shapes. As the images reveal themselves I layer them one upon the other, paying great attention to minute detail and the creation of transparencies. I want there to be a sense of elusiveness, of the possibility of different ways of interpretation. Intuition is my favorite tool and I embrace it mightily.

Subconsciously I am drawn to the brilliance of the colours I was surrounded by during my childhood in India. As a result my body of work on the one hand consists of black and white drawings and on the other canvases saturated with colour.

I endeavour to transport the viewer beyond the obvious lure of colour and subject matter, however, and want him to consider the complexities of the work and to feel the intensity of my commitment.

Delna Dastur