Shunyata/Awareness
Drawing from contemplative thought and lived experience, these paintings attend to states of awareness rather than belief systems. They explore how silence, vibration, and focused attention can soften the boundaries between inner and outer worlds, allowing perception to slow and deepen.
The Sanskrit term shunyata, often translated as “emptiness”, is used here not as doctrine, but as a way of describing spaciousness: a condition in which form, sound, and identity momentarily loosen, creating room for clarity, presence, and awareness to arise.
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Aum is among the most ancient sounds articulated in Indian philosophical thought, understood as a vibration that encompasses emergence, continuity, and dissolution—followed by silence, which gestures toward pure awareness.
“In the beginning was the word...and the word was God” (John 1:1)
Mina interprets this word as AUM. She sees it bursting forth into the universe from the beginning of time itself. The frequency ripples across the universe through time and spce, encompassing countries and cultures. Mina depicts this with aum painted in the 75 ancient and contemporary scripts that radiate forth from the copper Aum into forever.
The painting holds AUM as an eternal vibration—rooted in Indian philosophical thought yet experienced universally. It invites viewers to pause and reflect on powerful frequencies that can be experienced as stillness under the noise of everyday life.
2025/26 | 88×88 cms | 35×35 inches
Mixed media on canvas
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“In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” — John 1:1
In Indian thought, this primordial sound is known as AUM. It is understood as a vibration that moves through space and time — without beginning or end — since once a vibration is created, it continues to exist.
In this painting, the AUM form appears in its most widely recognised shape, dividing the canvas into three fields that suggest creation, preservation, and dissolution. Across cultures and belief systems, the number three recurs as a structure of balance and continuity — from trinities of becoming and transformation to paths of knowledge and practice. Variations of AUM appear in thirteen different languages around the central form, indicating a resonance that moves through cultures, geographies, and time.
2017 | 90x90 cms | 35x35 inchesCopper and acrylic paints on canvas
sold
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A mélange of spiritual forms comes together to reflect nirvana — a state of heightened awareness, freedom, peace, and complete happiness. AUM, the sacred sound of awakening, and the Hindu swastika — a symbol of the sun, prosperity, and continuity — are placed alongside Krishna, one of the most revered incarnations of Vishnu, associated with protection, compassion, and love.
Krishna is shown adorned with a peacock feather and playing his favourite instrument, the bansuri (flute). These familiar forms are not presented as separate narratives, but as converging expressions that settle into a shared stillness — where sound, symbol, and presence gently dissolve into a state of quiet awareness.
2003 | 70x93 | 27.5x36.5 inchesAcrylics on stretched canvas
commissioned
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The Buddha is shown seated in samadhi — the Sanskrit term for the highest state of meditative absorption, where awareness rests in complete stillness.
Above and below the figure appear the symbols tai and loi, markings often found on traditional gongs. Read together, they carry a quiet affirmation — that what is harmful recedes and what is good arrives; that happiness emerges as the mind settles.
2015 | 60x50 cms | 24x19.5 inchesCopper and acrylic paints on canvas
sold
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Fluid acrylics swirl around with the whirling dervish as he loses himself in his devotion. A touch of copper depicts the purity of his soul.
2018 | 78x68 cms | 31x27 inchesCopper and acrylic paints on canvas
sold
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Six panels hold Ganesha in moments of musical absorption.
In Indian philosophy, sound (nāda) leads to silence (shūnya) — a transition this work quietly inhabits, where rhythm gives way to stillness and attention rests within.2014 | 116x97 cms | 46x38 inches
commissioned
Mixed Media
Commissioned for a home in Kolkatta
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This diptych shows the Buddha in deep meditation — serene and balanced, held in quiet composure.
The leaves represent the 'Bodhi' tree under which he attained enlightenment.
2012 | 15x65 | 6x25 inches eachCopper and acrylic paints on canvas
sold
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This work emerged from a lotus-imprinted paper discovered in an art store in Manhattan.
Using an incense stick, parts of the paper were gently burnt away to reveal the seated Buddha beneath. The act of burning reflects my understanding of karma — not as punishment, but as accumulated impressions formed through intention, thought, and action. The process here is one of purification: not erasing the past, but softening its hold so clarity can surface.
The lotus, rising unstained from murky waters, appears as a recurring presence — a symbol of resilience and awakening amid complexity.
Set against a gold ground, the work gestures toward stillness and release, suggesting that through removal rather than addition, what is inherent can quietly reveal itself.
2019 | 104x80 cms | 41×31 inches
Paper collage and acrylic paints on canvas
Sold
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The maestro plays beautiful and divine music to celebrate the rising of the sun, a new day and a new beginning.
2016 | 80x80 cms | 31x31 inchesCopper and acrylic paints on canvas
sold
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Ganesha’s association with the tandava highlights his divine strength, linking him to his father’s powerful, transformative energy — even as his form is most often perceived as gentle.
As the elephant-headed god of new beginnings, Ganesha’s dance becomes an expression of movement held within awareness — where obstacles dissolve and renewal begins.
2013 | 50x50 cms | 19.5x19.5 inchesCopper and acrylic paints on canvas
commissioned
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Ganesha is shown in a state of joyous movement, surrounded by musicians who are also forms of Ganesha. Dance and music unfold together, creating a shared rhythm that radiates outward.
The work holds a sense of celebration — where sound, movement, and devotion merge into a state of collective ecstasy and presence.
2000 | 200×140 cms | 78×55 inchesMixed Media
commissioned