Munubug is also a jewellery and textile designer, and one day as she was gathering inspiration, she came across photographs of exquisitely adorned women from the Dongria tribe of Orissa, India. Her father is from Orissa and an insatiable curiosity led Munubug to research deeper, till she finally couldn’t sleep and felt compelled to paint a composite portrait reflecting the collective beauty of the women of this tribe. One thing led to another and in typical Munubug fashion she sought out inspiration from more and more tribes, and began painting more and more portraits of the beautiful women! As she studied the tribes and communities, Munubug realized that while she found wisdom and elegance in them, these tribes are more often than not, marginalized. Munubug’s goal is to - in some small way - spread awareness and share the delight and wonder she feels learning about the beauty and diversity of India’s tribal women, while encouraging you to discover and research them on your own. And so began Munubug’s series ‘“I wish I were a Tribal Woman”, (fictitious portraits of the collective beauty of women from the tribes of India)’. In the summer of 2018, Munubug also won a grant from The Harry Davis Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Armed with a new purpose, Munubug has extended her research and drawings to include the indigenous women of Asia too - nothing inspires her more than these incredible women. Munubug is an unabashed, self-professed, monumentally starry-eyed optimist; you will notice that all her starry-eyed portraits of women reflect this infectious enthusiasm. 

Request for Originals: I am unfortunately not selling the originals of these prints - they are too near and dear to my heart - I have a hard time parting with the embellished prints themselves! 

P.S.: On March 31st 2016, Munubug won the worldwide Winsor & Newton watercolor spring contest on Instagram! Her story highlighted a couple from the Dongria Kondh tribe in Orissa. WOOHO00ooo!