Mrunalini (Mini) Biradar Giri

Mini was born in Bangalore, India in 1977. Her father was a physician and the family moved around a bit. Germany, where Mini spent her first 10 years, then New Zealand for the next 5 years and finally Saudi Arabia. Wherever they lived, Mini’s mother taught Indian cooking from their home kitchen with the assistance of Mini and her younger sister. Cooking and teaching Indian cuisine kept the family culturally rooted to India. When Mini was 20 years old she decided she wanted to rediscover what it means to be Indian, so she moved back to India and stayed with her mother’s family. She learned the language (her first language was German) and planned to stay only a couple years.

As fate would have it, she met her husband while in India and they married in 2002. Their daughter was born in 2014. Mini’s parents rejoined the family and moved back to India in 2000. Mini ended up staying in India for 20 years, until she moved to Portland 6 years ago for her husband’s job at Intel.

Mini always loved to paint but her dad wanted her to go to college. She obliged and got a degree in teaching German but returned to painting after school. To this day, painting is her passion (besides cooking). She
creates works of art using traditional Indian painting techniques to create contemporary images. She even
mixes her own paints! Her work can be found at the Waterstone Gallery in the Pearl District, and we have a
piece hanging in our lobby in her honor this month.