alive /// artist spotlight
Dreaming in
Color
PASSION-DRIVEN PAINTER HEMALI VADALIA FINDS HER SENSE OF BELONGING ON A PATH ASTRAY FROM TRADITION
MORNING PAINT-MEUP
Vadalia’s painting snacks of choice are plantain chips. “Somehow, painting really makes me hungry, and I love munching during painting breaks!”
WRITTEN BY: JACLYN KEAGY PHOTOGRAPHY PROVIDED BY: HEMALI VADALIA
Expectation’s harsh grasp on our future often beckons us towards our non-existent crystal ball, inadvertently impacting our ability to fully focus on growth in the present. Taking advantage of the now while embracing the unknowns of the future is the mantra of India-raised artist Hemali Vadalia, whose creative journey required a huge leap of faith and the ultimate stray from tradition. Entering the workforce as a computer programmer, Vadalia’s feelings of unfulfillment prompted her to leave her job and open up to the possibility of the safer traditional route—marriage and a family. Shortly after, she realized her true passion lay in the world of storytelling, art and creation—a career which would go completely against her culture’s tradition. “Education is very important in Indian families; however, art is still not accepted as ‘real’ education,” she explains. Regardless, a passionate Vadalia received her master’s
132 LOCALE MAGAZINE
CONCEAL AND CREATE
HEMALI VADALIA www.hemalivadalia.com @hemalivadalia
“EDUCATION IS VERY IMPORTANT IN INDIAN FAMILIES; HOWEVER, ART IS STILL NOT ACCEPTED AS ‘REAL’ EDUCATION.” —HEMALI VADALIA
degree in animation. While immersed with art, she became fascinated with painting. She then went on to study classical realism in Florence, Italy. After her formal art education, a multitalented Vadalia hoped to intertwine her love of animation and painting, but she wasn’t entirely sure where to start. As if it was meant to be, she stumbled upon an invitation for artists to work on what would become the first-ever feature-length animated painted film. After an intensive training and testing process, Vadalia was selected to work alongside a team of artists in Gdańsk, Poland, to paint and animate for the 2016 Oscarnominated film “Loving Vincent”. With each second of the film being comprised of 12 frames, Vadalia composed and animated seven whole shots, completing a grand total of 358 unique paintings for the nowbeloved film.
“I carry a small diary with me 24/7. All events that are too
powerful, I need to write them down.”
FINE-TUNED
“Sometimes I prefer silence when I am doing something for the first time and figuring things out, or I’ll even play movies just to listen to the dialogues in Hindi if I miss home. My music playlist is a mix of ’90s Bollywood, 2000s pop and hip-hop.”
Vadalia’s creative journey stands as a true testament to the rewarding nature of staying true to your passions, which can oftentimes require endless patience, faith and perseverance. “Sometimes it’s difficult to find motivation when you’re just looking at your progress from last week to this week. But when you look at it from two years before and now, you want to keep working at it,” she says. Peering into her crystal ball, Vadalia confidently shares that she’s in no rush to figure out her ultimate end goal. “I am still working towards it. I want to learn to articulate and organize thoughts and express myself. Life happens so quickly that we miss taking note of the little things, and it is often in those small things that happiness lies. I am trying to be more attentive to those moments and paint them.”