Folk art inspirations
By Gillian Valladares Castellino
Some paintings grab you by the throat and force you to return to them again and again. For me the painting by Mirza Mohamed (below) provoked that kind of visceral reaction. I used it as a screen saver and tried to rationalize where its hypnotic appeal lay. Sure, it reminded me of work by Marc Chagall, but the profusion/confusion of colour and movement was distinctly sub-continental (Mirza Mohamed is an artist of Pakistani origin). No amount of analysis could dispel a growing feeling that I should perhaps use it as a starting point to interrogate my own feelings about my country of origin.
Here is the painting by Mirza Mohamed: