Senior Talisa Prabhu was selected to have her drawing, The Mangos, featured in the 2022 Young Artist Exhibition at the St. Louis Art Museum Student Gallery this past summer. The piece is currently being displayed with 20 other students’ pieces all under the theme of “Unfolding Identities.”
Prabhu created her colored pencil drawing in Beth Kathriner’s Drawing 1 class. She completed the piece for an assignment in class, but ultimately dove into the piece more.
“I spent almost a week in class working on the sliced open mango on the left of the composition,” Prabhu said. “I used colored pencil to create the drawing and building up colors was a gradual process. My goal was to make the mangos look as realistic as possible.”
Prabhu drew her inspiration from her love for mangos and her grandmother who used to feed her mangos from her tree in India.
“I realized maybe the fruit wasn’t what I loved so much as the nostalgia and sweetness it brought to the memories of my grandmother. My grandmother passed away three years ago and the tree that once produced the mangos of sweet memories is now dead too,” Prabhu said.
“This drawing allows me to keep alive the pleasant memories of the sweet mangos and a sweet grandmother,” she said.
Once the piece was chosen and displayed at the St. Louis Art Museum, Prabhu attended an artist reception for the chosen artists. She was able to mingle, see the other artists’ work, and explain her piece.
“The artist reception was engrossing. I got to see the artwork that other students had submitted and it was just so intriguing,” Prabhu said. “It was a kind of experience that I had never experienced before.”
Prabhu didn’t think the selection was as prestigious as it was until the reception.
“Once I realized this, I felt kind of awesome not gonna lie. I didn’t realize I was an artist,” Prabhu said.
Prabhu’s The Mangos will be displayed until January of 2023.