A letter from Greta Berman

It might come as a surprise to some that Tharanga Goonetilleke, who first made her reputation as an opera singer, has also for several years been producing visual art of great beauty and vitality. Indeed, she has both sung and made drawings and paintings for most of her life.

 A formidable soprano and visual artist from Sri Lanka, Goonetilleke received a Master’s degree (2005- 2008) and Artist Diploma (ADOS 2008- 2010) in voice and opera from the Juilliard School. This in itself is a major achievement for anyone, but Goonetilleke finds both areas essential to her life, her well-being, and her creative output. Her voice is memorable for the richness and maturity, and clarity of tone that she possesses.  Her art incredibly reflects the ringing of her gorgeous voice.

I asked her recently what she knew about synesthesia.  She did not know that much, but she knew that something somewhere forced her to draw, to paint, to use colors, and to express her very personal visions. She also revealed that words have taste for her (a known form of synesthesia, called lexical-gustatory synesthesia, though she herself was unaware of this).  When I showed her the paintings of the American synesthetic artist, Charles Burchfield, she resonated with them.  Van Gogh, perhaps the best known and most vibrant of synesthetic painters is, to no one’s surprise, one of her favorite artists. 

Synesthesia can manifest in over 70 different ways.  For this singer and painter, swirly lines and circles, energetic dots, dashes, and curves inhabit her numerous works.  Many of them, though not all, are inspired by music. I have little doubt that synesthesia is involved.

I particularly love her paintings inspired by Debussy and by Monet.  She also has a unique landscape vision.  Her paintings move, dance, vibrate, and pulse with life.

She once quoted Van Gogh as saying: “Do you know that it is very, very necessary for honest people to remain in art? Hardly anyone knows that the secret of beautiful work lies to a great extent in truth and sincere sentiment.”

Tharanga Goonetilleke’s art is, like her singing, truthful, sincere, original, and very very beautiful.

*Greta Berman is a specialist in 19th- and 20th-century American and European paintings and in the interrelationship between music and the visual arts.