JOGGINS – The Joggins Fossil Institute presented Inspirations by Indu Varma at the Joggins Fossil Centre on Earth Day.
The multi-media exhibition of paintings, prints and sculpture opened to the public on Sunday, April 22 with Varma providing an artist tour-and-talk of her work that afternoon.
For Varma, creating art is a personal journey of giving expression to her deepest emotions. It is also a process of problem solving, figuring out how best to express what touches her deeply. Varma loves to explore, experiment and learn new techniques. For her, the beauty of creating art is in being spontaneous and in letting the inner spirit speak through the visual language of art.
Born and raised in India, Varma immigrated to Canada in 1969. Though she has lived in Canada for nearly five decades, her Indian heritage and culture are very much a part of her Indo-Canadian identity while her Indian roots are reflected in practically every aspect of her life, including her art.
In 2016, after a 37-year teaching career, she pursued her interest in art and graduated with ‘le Baccalauréat en arts visuels’ (a bachelor’s degree in visual arts) from Université de Moncton.
She also holds a BA in English (honors) from Rajasthan University in India, a BEd from Mount Allison University and a MEd in education from Dalhousie University.
She is the recipient of a number of teaching awards including the 1997 Governor General’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History and the 1993 Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence in Science, Technology and Math.
Since 1998 Varma’s work has been exhibited in both group and solo exhibitions throughout New Brunswick and in Nova Scotia.
Varma describes Inspirations, an exhibition of 17 works, as “a collection of paintings, prints and ceramic sculptures inspired by the stories of our common human experiences.”
Inspirations by Indu Varma is on exhibit at the Joggins Fossil Centre until June 3.
