It all started with a newspaper ad
Albert Einstein once said, “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid”.
It took me a long time of a lot of years in my life to figure out that the moment I stop pleasing people, is the moment I start enjoying life. For its colors are so vivid, a lifetime’s never enough. I am no one, but a mere human on the pursuit of joy, celebrating little achievements, never to stay dormant.
Little did I know, a small advertisement on a newspaper would turn tables making me what I am. For never have I ever since then stopped to enjoy the satisfaction after I finish a good piece of art.
My dearest memories of my childhood are of times I spent painting. Giving away handmade cards was my way of showing love. And it was not difficult for my friends and family to figure what would I love to receive as gift. Sketchbooks, paints, brushes, you name it. My cupboard was filled with art supplies. Later in high school I took up Biology as one of my main subjects and drawing human organs, cell structure etc. in my practical record notebook was something I really enjoyed. The dream until then was to become a cardiologist. My classmates would sometimes ask me to draw for them as well. So once it so happened that I ended up drawing rat dissection diagrams for almost all my classmates and then later the teacher commented while correcting that to her all rats looked as if they were cousins and belonged to the same family. She did so while simultaneously smiling and staring at me.
My parents encouraged me to explore this interest of mine but doing well at academics was a priority in my family. As time progressed, I left home to study Electrical and Electronics Engineering and let art fade away into the distant background. The dream then changed from wanting to become a doctor to become an engineer. After completing my graduation, I moved back home and was all set to begin to a career in engineering. I started working and remained busy on weekdays but was looking for ways to spend my time more joyfully and effectively on weekends. So while browsing the newspaper one day, I found an ad for art classes and enrolled myself.
I could sit in the studio and paint for as long as I wanted. I learned to draw and paint using pastels, acrylics and mixed media. I worked on wood, canvas, sandpaper, paper, ceramic tiles, marble, glass and many more surfaces. Over the next two years, most of my weekends were spent in this studio. There was no expectation to live up to something / someone. What made me paint more and more was the process of making it and the feeling of happiness that it brought. I would bring my paintings home, and slowly my walls began to fill with my artwork.
I got married in 2007 and moved to Orlando. For the first time I was away from my country, family and friends. It was a long “Pause” and I must say I loved and hated it at the same time. This time helped me distance myself and let things be. I was in my late twenties and was still lost. Completely lost! What others wanted and expected out of me had gotten all jumbled up with what I wanted to be..
About a year later, one pleasant Sunday afternoon, my husband and I were on a ferris wheel, when I spotted this huge store from distance “Michael Arts & Crafts”. As soon as we got down, we rushed straight to the store, as I could not wrap my head around the fact that there could be an art supply store that huge. I had not seen anything like it in my life before. It felt like an incredible fairytale playing all around me. I picked a basket and a few supplies and my creative journey resumed.
For almost two years, I learned from books and television (PBS). I tried my hand at oils and acrylics. More and more, the urge to paint and lead a creative life became stronger and clearer. Later I found Maitland Art Center, where I dabbled in a medium that I had not tried until then but was always fascinated by – watercolor. It is a great medium for a travelling artist. And here I found yet another medium, Collage, that I had never even seen before. It was almost like sculpting with paper. I was fascinated – it was love at first sight! And soon I was sitting in Amelia Island, attending a collage workshop. I found the process of collage-making intuitive and effortless. I started attending more art workshops to explore different mediums and learning from books also continued. Having done that I must also admit that being a self-taught artist, books have been my primary source of learning. Moreover, my husband’s job was such that we had to relocate to different cities and that helped me. I spent a year at Milwaukee and another year at San Antonio before moving back to India. Travelling transformed me from within. Staying in the US for over 6 years helped me look at the world with a fresh pair of eyes.
The art journey of mine continues here in Bangalore and I have taken to it full time now.
Yeah it took me a lot of time to finally arrive and make the plunge. To let go of those ideas that I had formed earlier in my life and my pursuits in that direction. When I paint, my intention is to capture a given moment to the best of my abilities by being fully present and I try to achieve that by exploring my subjects using watercolor, acrylics, oil and/or collage. And hence to engage the viewers with a sense of wonder.
“We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us”- Joseph Campbell
