ABOUT

Indira Govindan is a retired academic administrator/faculty with a long successful career in higher education with several degrees (from India and USA) including a doctorate in religious studies. She obtained her post graduate degrees in history from India’s premier universities steeped in Marxist academic traditions. This early training in critical examination of capitalism and imperialism and their deleterious effects on the colonies has been particularly influential in shaping her collage art.

 

Art had always been a lifelong passion for her and since retirement she has immersed herself in becoming a full time artist. She has no formal degree in art, but she has learned from well known artists and at prestigious institutions, including  advanced level courses in botanical illustration at NYBG and Cornell University and a year-long course with collagist Randel Plowman.

 

Indira enjoys learning new skills through classes and workshops and is constantly expanding her skill set which now include bookmaking, printing, jewelry making, botanical painting, papercut art and wood burning. Her art career started with painting in oils and watercolors and over time has shifted to mixed media and collage.

 

Indira had a long association with the mixed-media magazine Cloth Paper Scissors which had published several of her articles and artwork. Her artwork had also appeared in the Uppercase magazine. She had won several prizes, including two first place finishes, in mixed-media category at the the New Jersey Senior Art Show. Her mixed-media art ‘Civil While Disobedient’ was accepted into Monmouth University’s curated Artivism exhibition. She had also participated in several group exhibitions in New Jersey. Many of her paintings and handmade books now reside in private homes all over the world.

 

She donates the proceeds from the sale of her arts and crafts to support physically challenged children in India. She also financially supports art related activities through her non-profit organization.

 

Govindan was a member of the Selection Committee for Member Shows at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey for a two-year term.

 

In 2021, she was selected to participate in the Kolaj Institute’s virtual residency where she along with several other artists illustrated Eleanor Porter’s novel on capitalism and its philanthropic manifestation,  ‘Oh, Money, Money’. In 2022, she was selected to participate in Phototrouvee Magazine’s 9-weeks long virtual residency. In 2023, she was selected to participate in Kolaj Institute’s Folklore and Collage virtual residency.

 

She is a committed naturalist with particular interest in tree preservation and is a certified master gardener from Rutgers University, New Jersey.

Indira loves reading fiction and non-fiction.

 

After living in the US for four decades, she now divides her time between Chennai and the US.