Arulu is a multimedia visual artist based in Black Mountain, North Carolina. She specializes in the sculpting of clay and paper-mache masks inspired by her elaborate dreams and the spiritual dimension of the natural world. Arulu’s interest in making masks originates in her study of the ancient ceremonial use of masks worldwide for healing, protection, and communication with spirits and ancestors. Her watercolor paintings and ink drawings expand upon the same mythos as her sculptures and masks, often illustrating an evolving pantheon of therianthropic and hybrid creature-beings. Making art in this way is Arulu’s way of tending to relationships with an intensely animate world, paying homage to its infinite incarnations, and courting their wisdom. She occasionally performs with her masks locally around Asheville, NC, hosts renegade art exhibitions, and teaches mask-making workshops several times a year.

Arulu began tattooing by hand as an accidental art school initiation almost ten years ago, and instantly fell in love with it. Since then, she has had formal teaching from established tattooers, and now practices in a private studio. Arulu combines both handpoke and machine techniques to create depth and texture in her tattoo work. She believes that tattooing holds the power to enable the embodiment of prayer or intention and works closely with her clients to create personally meaningful ceremony around the process of designing and receiving a tattoo. Arulu’s tattoo work has two distinct styles: one is very figurative and often depicts hybrid animals or spirit-beings; the other is more abstract and uses varying concentrations of dots and bold lines to create labyrinthine movement that complements natural bodily contours.

Arulu has a BFA in Art & Design from the NYS College of Ceramics at Alfred University.

Arulu’s art can be found on display and for sale at Odyssey Clayworks and Weaving Rainbows Gallery in downtown Asheville, NC.