As They Came to Be

As They Came to Be

Artist: Keerthana Kumar 

36 by 30 inches (91 by 76 cm)

Acrylic on Canvas

“As They Came to Be” is a vibrant, psychologically charged contemporary painting that reflects on the emotional imprint of objects and the quiet power they hold over our inner lives. Merging still life tradition with conceptual portraiture, the work captures the complex relationship between external surroundings and internal experience.

A color-saturated figure anchors the composition, their face fractured into luminous hues—part memory, part mythology. Surrounding them, a rich constellation of symbolic objects unfolds: crystal grapes, lobster, pomegranate, citrus, rare porcelain, tulips, parrots, and patterned textiles. Each element carries the weight of lived experience, personal ritual, or cultural inheritance.

The checkered floor suggests psychological duality—order and chaos, elegance and disarray. Together, these forms construct not just a scene, but a mental terrain. The painting considers how taste, memory, and ritual shape who we are—not only through what we keep close, but also through how we arrange it.

“As They Came to Be” is a meditation on identity through material presence. It contemplates how beauty, desire, and familiarity converge in our visual world to reflect something far deeper: the architecture of the self.

Price: $4,450