Mindscape

She started this series a year back when a poem by Ernest Cline titled Dance,Monkey,Dance gave birth to the concept. “There must have been too many monkeys in my own mind,” laughs Vellody who says in many ways she has managed to tame her monkeys by having a balanced attitude to life. “I have this odd theory that everything that happens in your life has already happened before,” says the artist,who has exhibited at the UAE International Festival of Arts in 1994 and was recently the only woman artist to showcase at this year’s Harmony Art show hosted by Tina Ambani.

Each of the nine oils,with an undercoating of silver,has a story to tell. So the one titled Epiphanic Spin was inspired by the whirling dervishes she saw on a trip to Istanbul. Algorithms Deconstructed depicts monkeys joined by broken strains of thread,inspired by her mother-in-law’s Alzheimer’s.

Having an observant eye for detail,she delves into the human psyche for inspiration. “I might forget the colour of their clothes,” says Vellody,“But I’ll never forget people’s words or the expressions that flit across their faces.”