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

Kavita was born in India, raised in the US, and lives in South Carolina.

(Fun Fact: During her life, Kavita has driven cross country three times & has 6 states left to experience.)

"Bali is the kind of artist whose passion for artistic integrity and the creative process is unbounded and infectious." -- India West magazine, (March 2002)

Designer, Visual Poet and Filmmaker Kavita Bali has enjoyed the experience of discovery as she created artwork for The Children's Museum of the Upstate ‘I Can Be Anything’ exhibit with it's Grand Opening Gala on Thursday, July 23, 2009. The Museum will be open to the public on Friday, July 31, 2009. Bali selected her two local heroes ‘Pink Anderson’ and ‘Jane Robelot’ based on the warmth of their smiles.

In an effort to learn all she could about the person behind the legend, Bali went with her gut instinct trying to imagine what type of life they led and which emotions guided their hearts. When it was time to paint, Bali put the Piedmont Bluesman Pink Anderson’s music on and sat in front of her easel with the colors she felt would bring the two spirits to life. She wanted to honor her two heroes the best she could through the language she knew best, painting with her emotions.

Bali was drawn to the story of Pink Anderson that he used to go into the woods to learn the chords for a song. In Ann Wicker’s book ‘Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas’, Bali was inspired by Peter Cooper when he compared Mississippi bluesmen to Carolina blues. Cooper stated “Mississippi bluesmen… knew how to draw a tear from a listener, but Anderson and his kind knew how to draw a chuckle. A tear was good for nothing in Pink’s world; a laugh was often good for a thrown quarter.” Bali states, “This painting is a tribute to Pink Anderson, a man who represented optimism in the name of adversity, and relished the simple pleasures in life.”

Bali states, “It is Jane’s smile and caring eyes which capture your attention. She exudes a warmth of generosity. I feel she really cares about people and strives to help the community around her. I look forward to learning more of her future adventures.“

Kavita's Artistic Journey:

Kavita Bali moved to the United States 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 enjoys learning and sharing stories which touch people’s emotions.

Bali’s paintings are part of private collections and have been exhibited locally at the Upstate Visual Arts; the d.p. fong Gallery and WORKS Gallery in San Jose, where she was an Artist Resident in 2003; SOMARTS Gallery, CBS MarketWatch and various venues in San Francisco, California.

Throughout her life, Bali has served as an Indian-American pioneer in the arts for her generation, creating art and films dealing with cultural identity issues as early as 1987 with her Thesis ‘Passages‘, a Semiotic Exploration of East/ West Cultures. Her short films include: Birth of a Butterfly (1993), Distant Souls (1993), Namaste Papaji (1997), and To Serve One's Country (1992) an animatic film based on a montaged visual book.

In the San Francisco region, Bali was featured and shared her films at multiple venues including 'Birth of a Butterfly' at the World Affairs Council in honor of International Women’s Day in 2002, ‘Women’s Work Series’ presented by Footloose at Venue 9, 'Girls on Film' Series at Artist Television Access, SOMARTS Gallery, Kearny Street Workshop’s APAture, LOCUS 1640 Post and Mango Mic at PUSOD in Oakland.

On a wider scale, she has lectured/ screened her films at The University of California Berkeley, Seattle’s Northwest Asian American Film Festival, The University of California in Los Angeles, Theater Off Jackson at the Oseao Studios in Seattle, Washington, The Everest Theater in Dallas, Texas and at The University of Nebraska at Lincoln, where she was honored as a Guest Artist Resident in 2002. Here, in addition to sharing her films, art and poetry, Kavita also spoke to graduate business students about integrating design practices into the product development cycle based on her career insights.

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 was fortunate to attend a Study Abroad program at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland allowing her the opportunity to explore the museums of Paris, France and Florence, Italy. Bali later spent two years in the M.F.A Film Program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts (1993-1995). Drawn to the cutting edge environment of the Internet, she left film school to design navigational journeys and user experiences which would simplify access to technology for people online.

Today, she continues along this path as a Design Consultant working as a User Experience Architect specializing in Information and Navigation Design as her primary form of sustenance, relishing the intellectually collaborative environment and innovative challenges associated with such a pioneering terrain.

Bali 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."

Having recently relocated to the Upstate, Bali is thankful to the good folks at the Metropolitan Arts Council, Brains on Fire and The Children’s Museum of the Upstate for the opportunity to be involved with a beautiful project which enabled her to learn about some local history, while helping to share her creativity with others.

To learn more about Kavita Bali and her art, please visit : UrbanPeacock.com

Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful day.

(Updated: August 1, 2009)

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