Haiga Showcase: Nalini Shetty
To me, art embodies minimalism, simplicity, and rustic richness. While digital mediums can occasionally challenge these principles, I aim to maintain their essence by adapting and mitigating compromises. In works like “Cracked Keel,” “Monsoon Clouds,” “A Loose Kite,” and “Closed Sign,” I employ textures to preserve simplicity and rustic charm. As a relative newcomer to haiga, I often start with the visual art and then create the ku to complement it, balancing instinct and emotion.
—Nalini Shetty
Click on the images below to expand.
Commentary
By Ron C. Moss, Haiga Editor
I’m very pleased to present this wonderful collection of Nalini’s evocative haiga. You will see a series developing in the design style and poetic words.
“cracked keel” is full of minimal but carefully selected and rendered imagery that I find very pleasing to the eye. The abstract images work well with the haiku, which is profound and deeply moving.
“monsoon clouds” is full of colour and expressive painting and poetic words. The rendering captures the movement of the flowers, which nearly explode off the page, and the haiku adds to that movement in the way it links and shifts.
“closed sign” teaches us how so much can be said with uncluttered, continuous lines and a few words. The spare drawing and poem contain a sense of loneliness and despair. A simple but masterful haiga.
“a loose kite” is a fine example of inventive, semi-abstract imagery. I could write an essay on this highly original haiga, but I will leave you to enjoy it for yourselves and find the many layers of links and shifts. This is indeed an excellent display of what haiga can achieve, far from the standard definitions we see in modern ELH.
About the Artist
A stay-at-home mom, Nalini Shetty discovered Japanese short forms in 2017 and quickly developed a deep passion for them. Her work, celebrated for its simplicity and emotional resonance, has been featured in respected haiku journals. She approaches each piece with instinct, blending minimalism and mood to create meaningful connections.