Between Worlds: Creating Hybrid Figures in an Age of Transformation

The essence of creativity often lies in the unrestricted freedom to experiment with different mediums and concepts. In 2024 I was honored to be awarded the Individual Artist Fellowship for Painting by the NJ State Council on the Arts and the Mid Atlantic Arts. This fellowship opened the doors to a world of artistic exploration, allowing me to delve into experiments with collage and painting, and to create hybrid figures that embody myth, metaphor, and the intricate realities of our modern society.

These beings, part human part machine, refuse categorizations. They carry forward the visual DNA of classical sculptures while speaking the language of contemporary anxiety. Tantric imagery became the source of inspiration for me, not because it might be perceived as "exotic", but because Tantra understood transformation long before we had words like "metamorphosis".

The fellowship freed me from the pressure to make work that fits existing categories. These pieces resist being called paintings or collages. They exist as themselves, carrying forward multiple traditions while belonging fully to none.

The Angel | Not available for purchase

The Symphony of Collage and Painting

The fusion of collage and painting served the perfect medium. Through carefully curated juxtapositions of imagery, textures, and colors, I was able to craft narratives that transcended traditional boundaries. Drawing inspiration from mythologies, cultural symbols, and personal experiences, these figures became vessels to capture the essence of our emotions and experiences. As I immersed myself in the creative process, I re-discovered the profound ability of art to transcend spoken or written language, and communicate through visual indicators.

Working with collage forces a different kind of decision-making than pure painting allows. You cannot blend away a mistake. Each choice commits to the surface permanently. This unforgiving quality mirrors how we actually live. We cannot smooth over the fragments of our experience. But we often arrange them in our minds in new configurations and try to make sense of it all. These hybrid beings stand witness to our own transformations in a world that seems to be accelerating beyond recognition.

I wonder if this might be the purpose of contemporary art (?)

I.e. to create new containers for experiences that have no name yet!

Kāyā (The Body) | 18" x 24" | Available for purchase

Embracing Beauty in the Grotesque

The grotesque has always fascinated me. Not horror for its own sake, but the strange beauty that emerges when familiar forms shift beyond recognition. I want my figures to dissolve comfort for something more honest. I want them to reflect our actual contemporary condition: beings caught between ancient wisdom and digital overwhelm, between tradition and its rupture, for better or for worse!

Within the context of contemporary art there lies a paradoxical allure in the grotesque—a beauty that emerges from the shadows of chaos and disorder. I sought to unravel this enigma, infusing my hybrid figures with elements of the grotesque to create a visual manifestation of the inherent complexities in experiencing our world. In that sense my art is merely "imitating life".

Visha-Kanyā, the Dreaded Diva! | Available for purchase

A Call to Contemplation

Each of these figures asks the same question: what does it mean to be human when humanity itself is being redefined? They do not claim to offer answers. But only evidence that the question matters.

The work emerging from this fellowship period suggests that authenticity can emerge from honest collision. These figures embody the beautiful impossibility of existing in multiple worlds simultaneously. They carry forward the past in new forms without rejecting it. They stand for a complete acceptance of the inadequacies of our past and carry it forward in new forms without rejecting either.

But more importantly, my works are steady invitations for you to embark on an adventure of introspection and discovery with me. That invitation always stands.

Thanks for reading!

-Mesma

Parts of Me | Not available for purchase

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Mesma Belsare is an IndoFuturist artist working at the intersection of ancient mythology and contemporary technology. Her paintings and collages explore themes of cultural hybridity, transformation, and consciousness evolution. She is a 2024 recipient of the Individual Artist Fellowship for Painting from the NJ State Council on the Arts and Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in private collections. She lives and works between New York/New Jersey area and India.

You can also follow Mesma on Instagram @mesmabelsare where she shares insights, process videos and glimpses of her ongoing explorations