About Nishima
I have worked regularly in my art studio since 1996. Raising daughters, painting flowers, writing and editing, and running Artketubah.com kept me busy until I began to pursue a master’s degree in Art Therapy. Now “busy” is not a word I care to utter aloud.
I was born in 1969 to parents who had recently immigrated from England and India to raise me and my sister in San Antonio, Texas. I left home at 19 to explore the world, then in 2013 returned home to live near my primary family. Along the way I was blessed with three children who inspire me continually with their vitality, fresh insights, and loving hearts.
“Where does the name ‘Nishima’ come from?” My father gave me the name ‘Nishi,’ or a “good night” in Hindi, with a full name of ‘Nishima’. When I converted to Judaism, I reclaimed my birth name Nishima after my ‘Neshama,’ or “Soul” in Hebrew. Recently I learned from my eldest daughter, who is studying Hebrew, that Nishima actually means “breathing”.
I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 with a dual degree in Russian studies and Multinational Management from the Wharton School of business. Yet my “extra” figure drawing and sculpting classes brought me a taste for my deepest passion and destiny—to spend my days making art. I turned away from the professional path and continued my studies for the next four years in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, receiving a classical training at the oldest, most traditional art school in the US. Carving marble, limestone and wood, studying anatomy, and mixing oil paints to capture light on a figure created a foundational structure that continues to grant me freedom to experiment and grow in my studio.
My art studio serves both my business and my original creations. I work in every contemporary art medium I can get my hands on. Painting in oil, acrylic, watercolor, and encaustic, hand-building with clay, wood, glass and stone, collage-making with colorful papers, gold and silver leaf, wood, and fabric arts, all allow me to express my ideas, feelings, and images through my multimedia creations. In addition to making ketubahs, I am an active artist, writer, and parent. I work with clay to hand-build works that I cover with paper, paint, gold and silver leaf, beads, and sometimes words. I am developing a series of menorahs and hamsas using these techniques. I work with fabric using paint, stitching, beads, and Jewish letters, words, and symbols to create challah covers and sacred wall art. I draw and paint from life, working with figures, flowers, and landscapes. My writing influences my art through poetic story-telling that sometimes finds its way into my art through words as well as imagery. My children, by demanding loving attention, have deepened my ability to be present to my artworks and now to clients of art therapy. I strive and work to create a Jewish home for them and this keeps me grounded in Judaism, the tradition that I have chosen to provide a specific framework for my lifelong spiritual search.
The strongest influences on the content of my artwork have been Judaism; travels and pilgrimages throughout the world; camping and hiking extensively in various natural settings; and the connection I feel with flowers, people and human life. Lately art therapy has added a new dimension to my work that can be seen only on this website.
My personal love for intense color and powerful forms brings dynamic energy and movement to my works. The narrative for my work speaks of the spiritual journey that describes both my creations and my life as an artist. I explore color and shape as ways of vibrating with the holy. My subjects include symbolic and iconic forms; interior emotions and inner states; holy sites and gatherings; images, symbols and words taken from religious traditions; and the texture of relationship between myself and that which I depict.
My life in community, art therapy groups, and family frames my art and transforms my art-making into a constant stream of communication with others. From collaborating in the creation of art shows and projects, to building with clay in my kitchen, to teaching various art forms, to raising children to happily play in my studio, to working side by side with patients in an art therapy open studio, I constantly find ways to include others in my creative life. This process is a two-way communication: as my art touches those around me, they in turn touch and impact my art, and the end result is greater than all of us.
I hope you also visit my Fine Art website, www.nishima.com, my Hebrew art website, www.hebrew-art.nishima.com, and my Ketubah website, www.artketubah.com. If you want to read more of my writing, check out nishima.wordpress.com. Please write to me with your comments!
