We recently connected with Priya N. Green and have shared our conversation below.

Priya, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

This question has multiple answers for me. I think most artists can recall a time when they fell in love with art. And for me that happened as a kid. I always loved art and people recognized my talent early on. When I was in high school, even though I had many interests, art was the one thing that not only stuck around, but evolved the most for me. It was in high school I made the decision to pursue art as a career. However, at that time I didn’t really know what pursuing it as a career meant. I knew that there were jobs in the field and I knew that I would be making art. But beyond that, there was no blueprint or road map for what it meant to pursue art as a career. I think as artists, we all have to find out what that means for us individually. We have to push past the stage of caring about talent and into sheer work ethic and drive. After art school, and being exposed to the art world, I went through many phases and seasons of being gung ho and very hungry to questioning the viability of my choices. I reached a point where experience mattered more than talent. I gravitated to the people who were hungry for art, and began to see the possibilities in pursuing it. I don’t think any artist or creative worth their salt would not have those existential crises of wondering “why am I doing this” or “what value does this have”? My husband, a fellow artist Andrae Green, encouraged me to go to art school for my MFA and continue what I had started. I knew that once I made that decision, I would not look back. Now I am in a place where no matter what my life circumstance will be, I understand my purpose as an artist and what it means to put in the work.

Priya, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a painter working primarily in oils. I am currently working on two series entitled “Hyperbole” and “Smoke and Mirrors” using images found in the news and media of the 2020 riots that took place both in the U.S. and in India. I was struck by the synchronicity of these events and the phenomenon of experiencing them through a screen. I portray the dilemma of witnessing these events through second or third hand experience as a condition of the 21st century. My paintings make reference to the interruptions and distance felt through abstracted silhouettes of thick paint which block the viewer from seeing the whole image.

I have always been fascinated by found imagery and the influence of film and TV on culture as a whole. The relationship between photographic imagery and painting is something that I am drawn to as an artist, both conceptually and historically. I’m fascinated by the dilemma of our time of being caught between analog and digital worlds. In many ways, we are grasping in the dark to understand our place as humans in this ever-evolving world. As a response to this, it is my personal mission in life to rest in the unknown. I think painting is a great place to do that. So much of painting can be enigmatic. And the further I delve into painting, the less there is of a road map. For me, this is where the joy is. The discovery of the unknown. It is not uncharted territory; there have been other travelers. But it is uncharted for me.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

I know NFTs are a controversial topic for artists. And because my work deals with thinking about the relationship between the analog and the digital, this topic fascinates me. One thing I learned about NFTs is that it does give artists more rights to their work in terms of being compensated. So much of the art world has relied on tertiary markets; money that the artist may never see for their work. However, for any new medium I think it takes time for it to develop to produce its own purpose and place within “Art”. I have not seen many NFTs that I actually liked, but I don’t have a problem with its existence. At this time, I don’t see myself making any NFTs. But who knows, that could change…

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

As a young artist, I had many expectations of the romantic studio life of living as a full time artist. I think that having dreams and ideals are really important, especially as an artist. But if your life does not resemble the ideal that you have in your head, you are not a failure. That is something that I had to learn. What does it mean to fail as an artist? I once had a teacher who said “an artist is only defined by someone who creates work.” There is no other criteria to define oneself as an artist. It doesn’t matter how often you do it, what kind of work you make, whether it goes seen, noticed, or sold, or even how many hours you clock into the studio. This freed my mind in terms of what is possible as an artist. But, as I got older I realized that it’s not really about “being an artist” but rather it’s about making art. Clocking in and holding myself accountable was the only way to create discipline that allowed for the making of art. That trajectory of discipline and discovery was much more important to me than taking a snapshot of my current status within my artistic career. Life is full of seasons: highs and lows. I’ve learned to use this ebb and flow to my advantage, to add to my insight as an artist, rather than see it as a burden. I try to lean into the seasons of life. After all, my work is a direct result of my life’s perspective. Without the ebbs and flows of life, what would I be making work about?

Contact Info:

• Website: www.priyanadkarni.com
• Instagram: @priyangreen
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/priyanadkarnigreen

Image Credits
Picture of artist in her studio: photo by Isabella Dellolio