To celebrate the publication of issue 44.1 Growing Room, we’re delighted to share artwork by the Alisha Sian, who was intended to be a part of our first ever festival marketplace at the 2020 Growing Room Literary & Arts Festival. You can also find more of Alisha’s work in the print issue, which you can order online. Alisha Sian is a long-time dweller in the world between realism and abstraction. A career as a Registered Nurse, her South Asian heritage, and her compassion for all living beings each play dominant role in her goal as an artist—to find solace in the darkest places.
23 by Alisha Sian
23 is an unconventional coming-of-age story created in April 2020 using graphite pencil, conte pencil, and water-soluble graphite on 14 by 17-inch paper. This drawing shows the subject exploring and dismantling their own face in order to find a voice. The use of mixed media portrays the different layers we build as time goes on. The person you are now is not the person you always were. Sharing that can be an incredibly personal and scary experience.
Take This Poison and Grow by Alisha Sian
Take This Poison and Grow is a 14 by 17-inch piece created in May 2020 from graphite and water-soluble graphite on paper, and shows a person offering whatever they can to unkempt land upon which a tremendous amount of effort is needed to achieve growth. Internal conflict, frustration, and potent desire is displayed in a barren setting where all odds are placed against the subject the viewer is meant to identify with. Instead of support and love, the person is given poison and expected to grow.
You can continue to support and celebrate the rest of our Growing Room artists by ordering issue 44.1 Growing Room online, and watch this space as we share more content from contributors to the Growing Room 44.1 issue all throughout the month of March.
