Gay Bawa Odmark was born in Lahore, India (now Pakistan), and moved with her family to Calcutta during the violence that erupted following India's partition in 1947.
Her family eventually settled in London and she has spent her life moving between the United Kingdom, India and the United States.
Odmark's artistic practice melds a variety of media. Photography has been central to her work from the beginning of her career. Painting and printmaking are important elements of her art too. In recent years, she has incorporated Kantha stitchery, an Indian embroidery technique used to join old dhotis and saris into quilts. Red and gold stitches add texture and decorative patterning to many of her prints and collages.
Much of the imagery in Odmark's work comes from her childhood memories of India; disembodied limbs evoke the violence of partition, for example. But her imagery also draws on the richness of Indian religious and cultural traditions. Hennaed hands, the deity Ganesha, and Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, all figure in her work. The lotus is a particularly important symbol for Odmark, whose father often told her to "be like the lotus." She has written that the lotus "surmounts the murky water of its existence and is so glowing and full of light." Her delicate artworks reflect the influence of India on Odmark's artistic practice at the same time that they are uniquely personal.
Gay Bawa Odmark has studied art at San Diego State University, California College of Arts and Crafts, the San Francisco Art Academy and San Francisco Art Institute and the Slade Academy in London, where she earned a Painting Diploma. She has exhibited her work in California, in Jackson, Wyoming, at the Boise Art Museum, and in Ketchum at Gail Severn Gallery. She has also taught art classes throughout Idaho.
Her family eventually settled in London and she has spent her life moving between the United Kingdom, India and the United States.
Odmark's artistic practice melds a variety of media. Photography has been central to her work from the beginning of her career. Painting and printmaking are important elements of her art too. In recent years, she has incorporated Kantha stitchery, an Indian embroidery technique used to join old dhotis and saris into quilts. Red and gold stitches add texture and decorative patterning to many of her prints and collages.
Much of the imagery in Odmark's work comes from her childhood memories of India; disembodied limbs evoke the violence of partition, for example. But her imagery also draws on the richness of Indian religious and cultural traditions. Hennaed hands, the deity Ganesha, and Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, all figure in her work. The lotus is a particularly important symbol for Odmark, whose father often told her to "be like the lotus." She has written that the lotus "surmounts the murky water of its existence and is so glowing and full of light." Her delicate artworks reflect the influence of India on Odmark's artistic practice at the same time that they are uniquely personal.
Gay Bawa Odmark has studied art at San Diego State University, California College of Arts and Crafts, the San Francisco Art Academy and San Francisco Art Institute and the Slade Academy in London, where she earned a Painting Diploma. She has exhibited her work in California, in Jackson, Wyoming, at the Boise Art Museum, and in Ketchum at Gail Severn Gallery. She has also taught art classes throughout Idaho.
