We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Madhuri Shukla a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Madhuri, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?

I don’t know about the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me – I’d have to credit my parents for that superlative. But in the last couple years, it is by far being trusted to do a small mural in my local bookstore.
At the time, I had been neglecting my art practice and was primarily focused on working for a local politician. So one day, I’m walking my dog with my partner, when the dog forced an introduction with a new neighbor, Andrew. Turns out he was opening an independent bookstore a block from our apartment. My partner referred to me as an artist and Andrew said he needed someone to paint a mural in the store and it should be me. I tried to give him several outs– “well, hold on, let’s see what you think after you’ve seen my website.” When I followed up in writing that evening, I reiterated “no worries if it’s not a good fit.” His response floored me–it was beyond generous, a fellow artist, a poet, being unabashedly excited, a stark contrast to the NYC art world. He didn’t ask for a detailed plan, budget, or my qualifications. He entrusted me with the wall because he loved my work, and I had the opportunity to shape how folks in my community experience a local bookstore.

A couple days later I finished several colorful characters above the shelves of Taylor & Co. Books, the best bookstore in Brooklyn.

Madhuri, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a visual artist, I mostly draw, paint, and do paper cutouts. My style is impulsive, there’s rarely outlining before I start cutting/painting/drawing. My practice is pretty evenly split between self portraits to process things for myself, and making visuals that can support folks doing meaningful work to improve public life.

My background in urban studies informs a lot of my practice. I look at daily life experience as embedded in larger social and spatial systems. That usually means asking: What does x say about how xyz works? And going from there. Metropolis by Fritz Lang is an old favorite– I’ve got bones to pick with the movie but I think the whole zone of putting a little heart between what needs to be done in the city and what folks physically do– is where I’d like to operate.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Nothing beats when my art can support work that is meaningful to me. The mural in the local Black owned bookstore. The cutouts for the Undocumented Women’s Fund. The posters for the global anti-imperialist struggle organized by Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. The book covers for the New Delhi-based publishing house LeftWord Books– yes it’s a dream come true to do a book cover period– but the rewarding part is that the image may bring people to the ideas inside that mean so much to me.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

While I’d love to say something broad about the role of the artist in society and how things should be, Arundhati Roy’s statement about writers and artists being no different from plumbers and carpenters comes to mind: “Some service the fascists. Some service the others. It’s not that writers are in any way politically better people.” But given that– there is still an endless list of potential programs that can be thoughtfully set up to support artists in meeting local cultural needs. For example, cities could have public libraries administer grants that pair local artists with local elders to create projects designed to preserve the history of a place as it changes over time, and ideally make it more difficult to displace those roots.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.madhuri.co
• Instagram: @mannafish

Image Credits
Artist portrait photo by Mia Newell