Drawing The Line: Artist Red Siri0
Interviews
15 min read
It’s easy to feel awake and alive in the presence of Lavanya Challa’s bold colors and expressive compositions. Maybe you sense her years studying architecture—her larger pieces almost three-dimensional, like you could step inside. Maybe you recognize the synthesis of an artist who has experimented with many mediums. Maybe you even feel the dedication of a mother supporting both her neurotypical and neurodivergent children to live outside the box. Whatever calls to you from her work, the fierce feeling of forward motion is undeniable.
Though she may not characterize herself as fierce, one look at her work confirms—it cannot be ignored.
Creative from an early age, Lavanya recalls what she intuitively knew about the power of art. Her earliest memory of making art was around age two and a half or three. She describes herself as a “really naughty child,” recalling how her mother’s friends and teachers suggested she was hyperactive and needed medication. But her mother noticed something: drawing and art calmed her. "I just couldn’t stay still, but my mom found that drawing seemed to settle me down... and I remember hours of drawing." She also remembers visiting her mother’s workplace, filled with modern contemporary art, and being captivated by its bold, expressive nature. Her father added to this artistic validation—coming home from work in the evenings and drawing cartoon characters for her.
Working abstractly felt like a natural choice, though early on, she received some harsh criticism. An acquaintance, who was also an artist, had negative things to say about one of her first abstract pieces. Rather than discouraging her, it pushed her to learn and improve. "That kind of propelled me to actually go out and learn abstract art and to get good at it."
Beyond external motivation, she recognized something within herself. She has a hard time sharing opinions—even committing to a favorite actor or movie feels limiting. "I like to keep changing my favorites," she admits. She also became aware of how others experience abstract art. Her husband, after listening to her explain her work, was able to articulate its meaning to others. That’s when she realized that in talking about her own pieces, she was actually teaching people how to see abstract art. "The more I worked on talking about my work, the more people understood how to look at it. They would often find something they appreciated and interpret it through their own experiences."
After years of creating abstract works, Challa recently made a shift. Her latest collection is deeply personal, much of it figurative in nature. It wasn't intended as a show—it was simply part of a healing process. "I had started a journey of self-healing in 2024. As I was pulling apart aspects that didn’t serve me, I realized I wasn’t feeling seen or known. I was struggling with the challenges of raising my younger daughter in a world not set up for her. I saw that I was pretending to be fine when, in fact, I wasn’t. So part of my healing was to be true to that self and journey. This introspection gave me the courage to share that.”
Accompanied by poetry, these new works are filled with tenderness and mystery. She hopes other mothers of autistic children will also feel seen when they view them.
Editorial Note: Challa’s work extends beyond the canvas, merging image and language to form a dialogue between emotion and perception. One of her most poignant pieces, both in poetry and painting, is You and Me. The painting itself, an intimate depiction of connection, serves as a visual meditation on the themes explored in her writing.
📖 You and Me – A Poem by Lavanya Challa
It sounds like I rate
At the bottom of your three people list
But our whole world revolves around you
Not because we have to
But because we choose to
Behind us, invisible is she
The source of unlimited energy and joy
She shakes up our fears and
Rearranges our priorities
Which should have been so in the first place
Why is being like others so important
Can’t we be just us
Without doubts
Can’t we just be here in the now like her
The poem, much like the brushstrokes in her latest collection, reflects a quiet defiance. A call to embrace presence over conformity, love over expectation.
Sharing such deeply personal work was a challenge. As someone who doesn't consider herself a portrait artist, she had to confront the fear of vulnerability. "This was the first time I’d used my art to process and express my life—what I was struggling with and learning to navigate. This helped me deal with the fear of being judged.” She took steps to safeguard the delicate nature of this process, choosing not to put the work up for sale. This removed external pressure and allowed her to create freely.
"This work has spurred me to create work that’s very personal and meaningful to me... I want to share my unique perspective with others and show that different isn’t odd or weird."
Watching an artist reach a pivotal moment in their career is thrilling. For Challa, this moment represents a journey home to herself—learning to integrate her personal life into her work. She shares how her younger daughter inspires her in unexpected ways: "My autistic child looks at life in a completely unique way—that inspires me to step out of my own comfort zone in my art. Even with all her limitations with language, she is quite the charmer. Her passion for life and her never-giving-up attitude is inspiring!"
Her latest Super Moon series is a profound interpretation of her awe of the natural world in the Dallas area, experienced while shuttling her daughter between school and therapy.
We at REROUTE celebrate every stop on this journey—and can’t wait to see where it takes her next.
