Sonabai: Another Way of Seeing

Sonabai Rajawar was one of the few self-taught artists of India, whose story expresses the capacity of human beings everywhere to meet their challenges head-on, and to draw from deep within their inner resources the strength and insight to change their lives. Sonabai: Another Way of Seeing is the result of years of research by the author. Through stories, insightful documentation and evocative images in colour, he conveys Sonabai’s life and that of her family and community, portraying the remarkable productivity that resulted from her isolation, and the influence she had on the work of seven other local artists. For a decade and a half, Sonabai was forcibly removed from almost every thing she had known growing up. She found ways to transform her oppression into expressions of beauty and joy in living, creating an entirely new artistic expression with no guidance or instruction. Her art was completely different from anything ever seen in India before a world of colour, light, and whimsy all her own.