About the Artist

Hi. My name is Sonya Basanti Kumar. I am a fine artist and also a wildlife conservation biologist. Some of my most favorite subjects are birds, who bend the will of the air to their wings. I also write poetry which is more and more becoming incorporated into my visual work. The medium I work in is primarily oil paint, as well as drawing. I enjoy ceramic sculpture when I have access to a facility as well. Music is extremely important to my work, almost driving it in fact. Sometimes the music I am working with will change the painting entirely from the concept I started with.

My newest work seems to be going in the direction of movement and the visual association and experience of music, as well as the artistic interpretation of my emotional reaction to a concern for the natural environment. Having grown up in the era of air pollution, the ozone hole, global warming and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the concern about the welfare of our environment and especially endangered species is quite influential in my work. Rather than focus on static images of wildlife and landscapes, I am increasingly interested in the fact that these are constantly moving and changing.  Music is an inherently mobile art and my experience with music is having an especially strong effect on my art.

I hope you enjoy looking at these images.