Pooja Pittie
Artist, Painter
Pooja Pittie is a visual artist who lives and works in Chicago.
Born and raised in India, she trained as an Accountant and moved to the U.S. in 1999. An MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business led her to a career in Finance and Entrepreneurship. In 2016, she decided to pursue her lifelong passion for art and shifted her focus to painting full-time.
Pooja has an incurable and progressive form of muscular dystrophy and her painting process explores the changing relationship between a slow-moving 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. She was recently 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 and The Union League Club of Chicago. Pooja is represented by the McCormick Gallery in Chicago.
Dear Artist,
I have been thinking all week about what I would like to say in this letter - what could I say that hasn't already been spoken or written about by people who are far more interesting, experienced and inspiring than I am!
So I thought I would offer some practical advice that has been helpful to me on my journey as a professional artist, as I switched careers from Finance and Business 4 years ago.
1. Commit to a small step if you find yourself putting off your larger goals - I thought I could never be a full-time artist because I had never been to art school and what if I got bored of making art all the time! For years, I would dream about it and think it was never going to be within my reach - I was busy with my Finance career, marriage, motherhood, divorce, health problems. How would I make a big change like this!
But, 4 years ago, I decided to ignore the insurmountability of making a huge change and committed to just a small habit of drawing for a few minutes every night.
Drawing on the couch turned into watercolors at the dining table, then painting at a small easel in my home office. I gave myself 6 months to pretend that I was an artist, made some paintings and applied to my first show.
So I encourage you to take a small step, a teeny-tiny, not scary one, that you think will move you forward, even if you can't see what the end goal might be.
2. Ask questions - when applying to calls for art, residencies, programs and shows, if I have questions, I reach out to the contact person listed and just ask. This has helped improve the quality of my applications and also provided me with confidence, if I had any doubts about whether I was a suitable candidate or not. Sometimes a few words of encouragement go a long way!
3. Be professional, polite and easy to work with - spell check, stick to deadlines, say sorry, please and thank you :)
That's it from me. I wish you all the best on your own personal and professional journeys. Thank you for listening.
Pooja Pittie
Follow Pooja’s Work
Website: www.poojapittie.com
Instagram: @poojapittie