Pooja Pittie

Pooja Pittie is a self-taught visual artist who lives and works in Chicago. Raised in Mumbai, India, Pooja Pittie trained as an accountant and moved to the U.S. in 1999.  She earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, which led her to a career in finance and entrepreneurship. A long held practice and self-study in painting was always apparent, and, in 2016, she decided to pursue her passion and shifted her focus to painting full-time.

Pooja has an incurable and progressive form of muscular dystrophy and her painting process explores the constantly changing relationship between an often slow body and an active mind.

Pooja is an alumna of the HATCH residency at Chicago Artists’ Coalition and the Center Program at Hyde Park Art Center.  As a Board member of Hyde Park Art Center, she is an advocate for equity and accessibility in the Arts. Pooja was awarded the 2020 3Arts UIC Bodies of Work Fellowship and has been nominated for the 3Arts Visual Art Award and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant. Her paintings have been exhibited at venues such as Art Miami, EXPO Chicago, McCormick Gallery and The Union League Club of Chicago, and she is in public and private collections across the country. Pooja is represented by the McCormick Gallery in Chicago.

https://www.poojapittie.com/

 

Pooja Pittie, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Artist

Pooja Pittie & William Jones College Prep High School

Click photo to enlarge

Click photo to enlarge

For my residency with Jones College Prep, I created a collaborative artwork with students from Mx. Marra’s after-school art group. The finished piece is an entirely handmade fiber-based work, incorporating small pieces woven by students on mini looms. I contributed a neutral colored piece to offset the bright colors, crocheted edges for each piece using crisp paper yarn, sewed all the pieces together and attached a cheesecloth backing for support. 

This piece is about color and collaboration, labor and slowness, and about diversity in community. I chose fiber as my medium because it naturally incorporates all these elements. Each woven shape holds its maker’s energy – their joy, worry, strength, and softness. I hope that the finished artwork reflects the students’ individuality while also existing as a piece that is greater than the sum of its parts.

 

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Artists in Public Schools creates artist residencies in Chicago Public Schools (CPS), providing expansive art making experiences for students, educators, and professional Chicago-based artists. Working together with a collaborative, community-focused mindset, we celebrate and widely share the unique stories of CPS students and schools through art and creativity. When the arts and aesthetics are integrated into education, work, and life, we strengthen our capacity to learn. Creating something is at the core of learning.