Cheryl Braganza
Montréal 45° 30' 11.46" N, 73° 34' 11.30" W Music Poetry Visual Arts Person
CHERYL BRAGANZA is a Canadian painter.
About
Bragaza was born in Bombay, India, studied in Pakistan, Italy, and the UK before immigrating to Canada in 1966. She began to paint in 1964 through the influence of FRANCIS NEWTON SOUZA, the Goan artist from the Progressive Group of Painters, whom she met in London, while she attended Trinity College of Music for classical piano studies. It was there that she also started writing poetry. With no formal training in art, she continued to paint regularly, taking occasional courses at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Montreal, Concordia University Fine Arts and the National Portrait Gallery in London.
She has also worked with textile artists and silk painters and specialized, in her early years, with batik on silk and cotton. Through the 70's and 80's, she worked in oils. She now works solely in acrylic and mixed media.
Bold text===Activism===
An activist for human rights, she was selected MONTREAL WOMAN OF THE YEAR 2008 by the Montreal Council of Women and nominated for the RAEV project in 2010, an initiative of ELAN (English Language Arts Network).
For the past 4 years, her paintings were selected for the academic calendars produced by S.E.D.E. (Social Equity & Diversity Education) at McGill University, Montreal.
She is represented on the IMOW website (International Museum of Women), chosen as one of the artists in the WOMEN'S DATE BOOK 2013 a publication of the Syracuse Cultural Workers, NY.
In September 2012, election day in Quebec, her work MAGIC DUST OVER MONTREAL was published on the front page of the Montreal Gazette.
Her painting NEW BEGINNINGS 2012 graces the front cover of Reason & Medicine, a 2013 publication written by Daya Varma.
THE HEALING CLOAK 2012 image accompanies an article she wrote entitled DISCOVERING MY SACRED SPACE - A CANCER ODYSSEY for the FEZANA Journal (Federated Association of Zoroastrians of North America).
While concentrating her efforts for a retrospective of over 100 works at a gallery in Quebec City in the fall of 2013, she continues to offer her artwork and writing to organizations close to her heart.
Reviews
To quote from a 2010 ELAN RAEV publication : BRAGANZA brings a global experience to the message of optimism that shines through her art work. A mainly self-taught and prolific artist, she uses brilliant color and texture to characterize emotion and movement in her naive and richly intuitive paintings, which often reflect her day to day life in Montreal and elsewhere. She collaborates with various organizations and charities to better the lives of people within her Montreal neighbourhood and globally.
Of her art, the painter says:“I want my art to play a role in lifting people’s spirits, in challenging their assumptions, in provoking thought, thus promoting dialogue between peoples towards peace…. “
Details of her life's work can be seen on her website: WWW.CHERYLBRAGANZA.COM