In her light-filled house skirted by rice paddies in a peaceful vaddo of Saligao, Clarice Vaz is steadily building a unique oeuvre of artworks that are a formidable monument to her irrepressible passion, and a profoundly moving tribute to her beloved son, the late Craig Vaz.
Vaz signs her artwork with Craig’s name to keep it alive forever, permanently cherished by the owners of his mother’s paintings, as they circulate around the world and in Goa. Their increasing popularity should not come as a surprise, despite the fact their creator is a registered nurse who has only turned to painting full-time relatively recently. This because Clarice Vaz has been relentlessly, and highly impressively, innovative with her techniques and themes. The self-taught “fluid”technique yields canvases that are hypnotically powerful, drawing the viewer deep into glimpses of eternity. The “spin” paintings - executed on a home-made machine in the Vaz back garden - pack an irresistible, colourful punch. The additional suite of “syringe’ paintings are perhaps unique in art history – they required a nurse’s expert hand to create these extraordinarily detailed works depicting an idealized Goa. Today’s art world is dominated by manufactured superstars, by surface-deep cleverness and calculation. This leave little spaces for sincerity, for sheer perseverance. But these are precisely the rare the characteristics that shine through Clarice Vaz’s work, palpably imbued with love and dedication, and the compulsive quest for the divine spark that fuels this artist’s vision. It is not a secret that Craig Vaz was felled by a very rare, undiagnosed ailment that his mother also carries. But Clarice Vaz refuses treatment, and instead paints for hours every day. The practice of deep meditation with her artistic tools and innovative mediums is – quite literally – a life-saver. This too can been seen in the artwork, these are paintings that truly matter. For the path-breaking art exhibition, Aparanta, which took place in the Old GMC building in Panjim in 2007, the brilliant curator and writer Ranjit Hoskote took several days to travel around Goa, to visit artists in their home studios. At that time, there was very little local interest for most of them, coupled with a strong national resistance to the very idea of “Goan art”. But Hoskote detected the presence of something truly significant happening in scattered villages across Goa. Noting that Goan artists have fed art world for generations like “an invisible river”, he reported being shocked to repeatedly find “meteorically brilliant artists” languishing unknown because of “a lack of context”. Goa glaringly lacked critics and collectors with the wherewithal and confidence to celebrate talent where it flourished. Instead, shallow diktats from Delhi and Mumbai held sway, even here in the land of Fonseca and Trindade and Gaitonde, and Saligao’s own Francis Newton Souza. Less than a decade after Hoskote magisterially registered Goa’s twenty-first century art trajectory in the national imagination, many things have changed for the better. Some artists in Goa have started to earn real success, and national critical appreciation. The collector base is steadily burgeoning. But the challenge still remains whether this still-forming art world can understand and accept real artistic talent and guts when it shows up unannounced, or from an unexpected source. Clarice Vaz’s heartfelt paintings demand that kind of recognition, and our collective congratulations for her remarkable achievement. By Vivek Menezes --------------- www.claricevaz.in www.claricevaz.com ========