Meet Excalibur Nayar

We recently connected with Excalibur Nayar and have shared our conversation below.

Excalibur, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

It feels maybe a little cliché to say this, but I definitely learned my work ethic from my mother. She came to the U.S. when she was 15, seeking refuge from the Nicaraguan Revolution and has been working everyday since. She is the hardest working person I know, maybe even to a fault. If she taught me anything, it is to work hard; If I was to choose art as my career, then I needed to work hard enough to be able to defend my decisions to family members who were less happy with my choices. Coming from a tech and science family, I knew that they weren’t going to always understand my world or even know how to guide me, but my mother made sure that regardless of what career path I was on, I knew and fully understood the value of hard work.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am primarily a painter, but also adopt the titles of sculptor, translator, and spiritual. I accredit most of my understanding of myself as an artist to my heritage; I am half Nicaraguan and half South Indian, an ethnic mixture that proved to be difficult during childhood but now is the source of my confidence. I proudly wear those flags on my sleeves. I’ve spent the past couple of years including my time in Pratt Institute’s undergraduate painting program, drawing from both cultures visually and spiritually; doing what I’ve described in the past as “locating myself in some grand family tree”. I’ve been trying to see where I fit, culturally, and how my artistic practice can be an expression of that.

Currently, my painting practice derives from Pre-Columbian Nicaraguan spiritual rites and the indigenous understanding of what a soul is. Well, what is a soul? or rather, what does it look like? The answer to this question is what I am chasing after in my painting practice. Each circular or spherical painting is a different person whose soul has shown itself to me during a shared meditation, during each meditation or reading process, I try to better spiritually understand the person in front of me. Each painting is a portrait, and the collection of all of them is a portrait of me.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Well for one, Discipline is super important. Especially for those just coming out of school, I learned from a young age that no one is going to be breathing down my neck to ensure that I am painting. No one is waiting on me to make x amount of new paintings in x amount of time. I am the only one that can hold myself accountable to make new work. I am not in school, I don’t have school deadlines, I’m not getting a grade at the end of a semester, I am solely responsible for motivating myself to work. This can be a difficult hurdle to overcome for those who don’t have discipline, but it’s imperative to success to commit yourself to your work; once you are truly committed, the discipline comes easily.

Second would be knowing that it’s okay to make “bad” work, sometimes “bad” work can be the most important. Not that it would sell for a profitable price, but “bad” work can often be the most informative. Ask yourself, why do I think this is bad? How can I improve? What aspects of this “bad” work do I like or want to keep? A rut of “bad” work should not be discouraging, it should instead be fuel, igniting you to keep making work, bad or good, until you get yourself out of the rut.

For myself, I’ve found that exhaustive research can be really helpful when I’ve felt lost or didn’t know what to make next. Find something or someone you’re interested in do extensive research, fall down every rabbit hole. You will find yourself again. I know that in the past when I’ve gotten bored with the work I was making, this habit of researching has lead me to new visual language, new ideas, and new library of symbols which reignited my spark for creating, and motivated me to make new work.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

I’ve had so many amazing people help me throughout my career, so many amazing teachers and mentors, but if I were to choose one, it would be my faculty advisor/ mentor during my undergraduate thesis, Mx. Laurel Sparks. They were very supportive and more importantly, seemed excited about my work from the moment we met. They were a crucial part in gaining the confidence to talk about my work and expose vulnerable parts of my painting practice. I’m not sure if they even know this, but their early interest in my work and spiritual practice was unbelievably transformative. They gave me the confidence I needed to open my world, and allow people into a very sacred part of my life and my story. I am forever grateful for their guidance and support.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://excaliburnayar.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/excaliburnayar

Image Credits

Personal Photo: Credit: Bethany Neufeld