Kuzana Ogg, Untitled, mixed media on Arches paper, 6.6" x 6"

b. 1971 in India, playing from Bakersfield, CA, USA

Kuzana was born in Bombay in the early ‘70s. Her parents brought her home from the hospital on the back of their motorcycle.

The first years of her life were divided between the ancestral home of her grandfather, surrounded by lush gardens and groves of coconut trees, and the exquisite Worli sea face home of her grandmother. Her earliest memories are of temperate weather, fragrant jasmine blossoms, and layer upon layer of color.

A short while later, Kuzana and her infant sister joined their newly immigrated parents in England. The landscape changed from streets crammed with disorderly traffic and cows to cars neatly parked in rows. Crumbling palatial structures were replaced by tidy brick homes with frilly curtains. Plastic toys took over when those of tin and copper couldn’t be found.

Kuzana’s education was in a series of boarding schools; Cornwall and Surrey in England, after that, Kodaikanal in the south of India. At the age of 10, Kuzana and her family moved to New York. Her secondary education was completed at Catholic and public schools.

In 1995, she graduated from SUNY Purchase. Marriage followed shortly thereafter, and she and her beloved moved to South Korea. They spent the next six years living in historic Kyung Ju; teaching English and learning Korean, before they returned to the United States.

Kuzana and her husband lived in New Mexico since 2001, and moved to California's central valley in 2012. She has participated in several residencies, the most recent in Sri Lanka. Her work has been exhibited, published and collected both nationally and internationally.

Please see KuzanaOgg.com for a contemporary portfolio in oil, CV, special projects and representing galleries.

Thoughts on the Telephone process

I thoroughly enjoyed this process. It was like having a conversation with a new friend. You think you might know what they are saying, but you don’t know their history and so you can’t be entirely sure.

I watched the video I was asked to translate several times. Had I only watched it once, I would have made a very different piece. I’m not sure what the intent was on the part of the Collective.