In June 2021, when Victoria A M opened her studio — which had been closed for several months due to the lockdowns — she found that the enforced closure and the monsoon rains had caused much devastation. “I was mentally destroyed,” she recalls. Her series of paintings on the Kerala Floods of 2018, which was to have been her entry to the Lokame Tharavadu show, had been ravaged.
A devastated Victoria gathered the mouldy water-stained canvases and torched them. She remembers “those terrible days when there was no income”. Then she contracted COVID-19. But at a time, “when things were coming apart”, Victoria found hope in “my angels”, a new series of works on those who helped her during these dark days.
In her 60s, Victoria says that life has been hard for women artists, especially during the pandemic. In the beginning of 2022, she began Advent, a series of works by women artists at Namasthe Art Cener, her 160-sq.ft space in Mattancherry. Her only trouble in this hired space is the lack of a toilet. Victoria hopes her health will permit her to host women artists as frequently as possible. After Advent -3, Austria based Malayali artist Deepa Chandran Ram is to exhibit her works. She also plans to have art camps for women.
