A R T I S T ....S T A T E M E N T

Designer, Visual Poet and Filmmaker, Kavita Bali moved to the US as a child from Allahabad, India in 1971, with an insatiable appetite for creativity, knowledge and exploration. She defines herself as an intermedia artist working in film, design, visual arts, experimental performance and poetry. She's been involved in the creation of art for over 20 years and is the embodiment of inner strength, elegance and compassion. She is an infintely youthful spirit with an exuberance for life and a respectful reverance for innocence and wisdom.

Bali is a modern day woman, who through the years has defined her own independence and power. Her's is a journey embracing creativity as a vehicle to traverse the nuances and flucuations of life's experiences. Her steadfast optimism, forthrightness, loyalty, authenticity and perseverance inspire those she encounters along her life. Never one to back down without just cause, never one to dilute her creativity, never one to allow others to define her, she continually excells at every creative adventure she sets her mind to.

Preferring poetic simplicity over digital noise, she leads a quiet lifestyle and is at peace with pen and paper. That is, when she's not consulting on complex, navigational user interface design system projects for her high tech clientele. Her passion and unbridled energy reveal themselves through her artistic voice and lately her poetry. Her paintings and writings are spontaneous adventures, occuring when the intense need to express can not be held back. Her poems tend to run on the lengthy side (7 - 17 pages at one sitting), so publishing in magazines has not been an option. She is presently working on a manuscript of poetry and essays.

Bali was raised in a culturally rich and intellectually stimulating environment from the very beginning, surrounded by a loving, talented family and equally spirited friends debating the latest current affairs, societal equilibriums and just good old fashioned what's important in life stories. An idealist at heart, she embraces traditional values and modern thinking equally and celebrates life with families of all ancestry enjoying the richness of multi-generational settings. She views her dual heritage as a precious gift as it has given her a respect for perspective and the ability to easily slide into another's shoes. To this day she is drawn to people and events which challenge conventional thinking preferring multi-perspective analysis and down to earth dialogue to further understanding, equality and diplomacy near and far.

Classically trained in Design with a heavy bauhaus influence, Bali received her B.F.A. in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1987. In 1986, she attended a wintersession at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland during which time she and her classmates also explored the museums of Paris, Florence and trekked along the outskirts of Germany. Bali later spent two years in the M.F.A Film Program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts (1993-1995) before jumping out into the wild west of the Internet over a decade ago, where she started to create navigational journeys for users. Today, she continues along this path as her primary form of sustenance, relishing the intellectually collaborative environment and innovative challenges associated with such a pioneering terrain.

Bali's earlier works, dealt with universal themes of freedom and later cultural identity issues which galvanizing into her RISD thesis, a silkscreened accordion bound book titled 'Passages'. This singular work of art was her signature piece. It showcased her conceptual dexterity in distilling abstraction and complexity down to it's core essence and in a form which powerfully communicated to a diverse audience. Kavita has taken this piece on the road, and is genuinely touched when it speaks to an audience she never anticipated, such as young male freshman students at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, when she was a Guest Artist and lectured in Novemeber 2002. In the late 1990's some commented that the thesis reflected an innocent manifestion of an early User Interface Design in theory. In the late 1980's/ early 90's, folks from the Los Angeles film scene suggested it represented a filmic storyboard, and encouraged Bali's film aspirations. Since 1988, folks have asked her to get this piece published. When the time is right, it shall happen.

'Passages' was a montaged piece created in 1987, prior to Photoshop utilizing the stat camera. It was also conceived of at a time when few Indian-Americans, Bali's generation, pursued the arts as a professional vocation. Her other works include powerful short films: 'Birth of a Butterfly' (1993) , 'Distant Souls' (1993), 'Namaste Papaji' (1997), and To Serve One's Country (1992). Since 2002, her work has taken on a different direction all together, guiding her beyond the early stages of cultural self reflection into a world she is defining with her powerful imagination in the form of writing.

Kavita will be in New York City in mid-July to support her musically talented sister. Vandana takes her 'Power of Love" Cabaret Show to NYC's popular 'Don't Tell Mama' venue on Sunday, July 9, 2006 at 7:00 PM. So, if you're anywhere in the vicinity, come on by and say hi to the Bali Sisters. It should be a great evening of Jazz, Broadway and Power Ballads blessed with our dearest old and new friends alike.

Today, Bali is focusing her efforts on her writings, UI design consulting business (UrbanPeacock.com) and realizing her dreams of creating a virtual united nations based on a foundation of humanly authentic relation building (CulturalDiscovery.org)

She creates under the philosophy that there are no limits to what one can achieve, that limits are artificial. "If you can imagine an idea," she says, "you can make it happen. Getting to the point where you can imagine the idea comes through observation, analysis and interpretation. And that comes from the number of ways that you can see. The only true limit is how far your perseverance will take you." --Kavita, 1998  

Inquiries, please contact me at : kavita (at) urbanpeacock (dot) com

Thank you for visiting and check back again as I am in the process of moving all my art to this site.

(Updated: June 26, 2006)

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