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ABOUT BULA BARUA
Bula Barua is an Assamese-American visual artist and a published author and poet. She was raised in the USA by immigrant parents from Assam, India. Bula primarily works with acrylics and oils on canvas, paper, and aluminum. Her works are included in many private and public collections around the world.
Bula spent many of her childhood summers in Assam, sauntering through tea gardens, journaling, and leading servant revolts against her family. As a young adult, Bula divided her time between performing in plays and musicals, as well as sketching, acrylic painting, writing, and listening to pop music. Her influences, which range from Prince, Tori Amos, Sarah McLaughlan, and Michael Jackson… to the Indian traditions of Lata Mangeshkar, Parveen Sultana, and Ravi Shankar… to the paintings of Van Gogh, Renoir, and Picasso… to 19th Century English literature and popular teenage fiction… to Immigrant Culture, Greek Mythology and Astronomy… eventually inspired her to create a style distinctly her own.
In the early part of her artistic career, Bula spent much time experimenting with new painting techniques, in an effort to gain mass, volume, unity and form. She began to contour her figures with a long brushstroke that followed but did not emphasize the outlines. Today, Bula is particularly noted as a modern artist for her ability to express an idea with a minimum of effort and economy of touch. Her subject matter is often the intimate world of a sensitive woman who discovered poetry in the simplest acts and gestures, and her delicate, subtle works have been constantly shown with those of the other surrealists, as well as at many official Salons.
In June of 2011, Bula wrote her first book of short stories, poems, unsent letters, and confessions, within a 24-hour time span. She titled the book, “Sand Nigga” after the lead story, created in memory of a prophetic teenage experience where she was inaccurately labeled as “Arab” and then expected to uphold the same superficial traditions of hatred towards others. As an Assamese woman, to boldly speak out about her own cultural experiences, and stand up against the idea that we are merely bodies to judge, was monumental. Thus, the book sold many copies worldwide and garnered much attention and admiration from readers and critics alike. “Sand Nigga” also contains renditions of Bula’s paintings from her first exhibit “Wo.Man,” named after the first poem in her book.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My paintings are infused with my thoughts and wishes for our beautiful tomorrow. If I could describe my art in one sentence, it would be: My purpose is to inspire, uplift and awaken the human soul and remind us all of something we often quite easily forget...that we are inherently perfect, just as we are.
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