Christ like us – Young artist paints religious scenes in Indian style

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press
 
At age 2, a girl pointed out what was lacking in her mother’s artwork.

So, her mother took her to art museums and to do outreach at a nursing home, where a nun became like a grandmother to her.  

Researching art and church history from the homeland of her grandparents led the child to start making paintings of Jesus, Mary and Bible stories in the style of her people, expressing some of their culture. Listening to the Gospel at Mass inspired her too.

This is part of the story of Jeena Ann Kidambi, a 13-year-old from St. Louis Parish in Webster, who had her first art show in a Texas church this summer. Last Saturday at The Big E fair in Springfield, she showed her religious paintings, worked on another and won prizes.

An only child, Jeena Ann expressed gratitude for her supportive father, Shantanu Kidambi, and mother, Aradhana Mudambi. They’re not artists, but Jeena Ann’s maternal grandmother is. With a little input from her mother, Jeena Ann told her story.

One day her mother was trying to draw a lion as part of her doctoral dissertation about the impact of computer games on how well children learn vocabulary words. But the lion wasn’t coming out right.

Jeena Ann, then 2, pointed to where the pupils should be in the eyes, and said in Tamil, their “home language” from Southern India, “There’s no dot here.” (Jeena Ann and her mother were born in the United States. Her maternal grandparents were born in India and spoke to their daughter in Tamil, as Jeena Ann’s mother did with her.)

The lion episode gave Jeena Ann’s mother the idea that the child had an interest in, and talent for, art, so she took her to the Worcester Art Museum. There, at age 3, Jeena Ann and her mother attended classes, for which children were shown part of the museum and taught to create the kind of art they saw.

“I really liked the spirals” in impressionism, Jeena Ann said, noting that she tries to use them in her religious artwork now.  

To make these paintings she uses the Kerala mural art style, she said. (Kerala is a state in India where murals were painted on temple walls.)

“When she was around 11, during COVID, she started looking online for how to do Indian art,” her mother said.

“I taught myself,” Jeena Ann said. She saw Hindu deities and stories about them depicted.
“But I’m Catholic,” she said. “I really wanted to paint Jesus and Mary … but they don’t look like me” in images she’s seen in churches. “God made us in his own image, so we should be able to paint him in ours.”  

After St. Thomas the Apostle “started the first-ever Catholic Church” in Tamil Nadu, the state in India that her family hails from, people there started mixing Christianity with their customs, including Indian art styles, she said.  

“We all want to see ourselves in Christ,” she said.  

At age 12 she began creating new images: Kerala mural art of biblical figures.  

First was the Madonna and Child. Jeena Ann said she tries “to redo [that] painting every so often” to improve it.  

Like many Indian women, Mary bears a red dot on her forehead. In some of the artist’s later works, Jesus is identifiable by the red cross on his forehead.  

“There’s a saying in my home language that your fate is written on your forehead,” Jeena Ann explained.

“Jesus is wearing a lot of jewelry,” because “in Kerala mural art, jewelry is a symbol of divinity,” or holiness, she said.

She said she’s seen only two other artists’ depictions of Jesus in this style.  

“They don’t have jewelry” and the skin is not orange, she said, “because they tried to make him look a bit more Caucasian. They are beautiful paintings, but I wanted to make him look more traditional.”

The artist drew from Indian culture to depict the Wedding of Cana, her most recent painting from this summer. Jesus and Mary are sitting on the floor to eat rice and laddu (an Indian dessert) off banana leaves.

Jeena Ann expressed her personal taste in her painting of Jesus’ parable of the lost coin – by using sequins for the coins. Sequins aren’t traditional in Kerala mural art, “but I like shiny things,” she said.

She shares her imagination and spirituality too. In her painting of Jesus walking on the water, “the fish are jumping for joy because Jesus is there.”

Her favorite of her religious paintings depicts a smiling devil tempting Jesus in the desert – with an Indian lily, which she used to represent material wealth and frivolity. Evil isn’t depicted as terrifying, because it tricks you, she explained.

 “The devil didn’t say, ‘Come with me; I’m going to ruin your life,’” she noted. He was promising a kingdom.

Jesus is also smiling – “because he knows better,” Jeena Ann said. Instead of looking at the devil, “he’s focusing on teaching his sheep … teaching us how to properly live.” The sheep who’s facing Jesus is smiling more than the others – because he understands Jesus more, she said.

Why is this her favorite piece?

“I really like the movement in [the] painting,” she replied; the viewer’s eye moves to take in the whole picture. And she’s proud of the details she used.

“I draw [a picture] with a pencil first,” Jeena Ann said. “Then I go in with a waterproof fine line pen so that it doesn’t smudge.” Next she erases the pencil lines and colors the drawing with acrylic paints. She uses watercolor paper, so it won’t tear with her abundant use of water for layering colors.

“Each painting takes about 100 hours,” she said, not counting the planning.

Planning for the painting of Jesus’ parable about the Mustard Seed began at Mass when she heard that Gospel story and thought she should illustrate it.

“After Communion I was kneeling, praying,” she recalled. “That prayer helped me form where everything would go” in the painting.

It depicts a man praying under the mustard tree that grew from a tiny seed. He’s praying to help his faith grow. Our faith, the artist said, helps bring others to the faith and makes life more beautiful for everyone, a beauty symbolized by birds in the branches.  

One way Jeena Ann learned to live her faith is by helping others. When she was 2, her mother took her to visit St. Mary Health Care Center in Worcester. The child became attached to one resident in particular – Sister Marie Bissonnette, a Sister of Mercy, whom she called, “Babcia.” (That’s Polish for grandmother, for part of the heritage of the religious sister, who died in 2020.)

“She taught me about art” – techniques and colors that go together, Jeena Ann said of the sister, who taught at the Worcester Art Museum.

“They were just beautiful together,” commented Jeena Ann’s mother. Sister Marie attended the child’s first Communion Mass and one of her Christmas pageants.

Jeena Ann had her first art show Aug. 3 at Ecclesia Clear Lake, a Christian church in League City, Texas. Last Saturday she showed her religious paintings and worked on one at The Big E fair in Springfield.  

At The Big E, for her watercolor painting of Mary’s sorrow, she won two prizes: Grand Champion/Best of Department for youth watercolor for ages 13-18, and the Outstanding Youth Watercolor Donor Award.  

– For more information and pictures see Jeenaannpaintings.com.