PORTFOLIO
A collection of artworks that sometimes define a portion of who I am, and sometimes the way I co-create with my clients
SKETCHES
Artworks that were made mostly with graphite/charcoal pencils and sketch/fine-liner pens.
My journey as an artist began with ball point pens, drawing the side-view of vehicles of different types. I can’t remember why I didn’t use pencils, though. Simultaneously, I also began drawing cartoon characters that I used to watch on TV. I was lucky enough in those times that we had a colour TV and a recordable VCR. The only way I could use references to draw was to record cartoon shows I liked on TV onto cassettes and pause the video to use as reference.
PAINTINGS
Artworks that were mostly created using Acrylic paints
The first time I used paints was watercolours to compete at a children’s painting competition. Though I love watercolour art, it never stuck with me. Years later, I found out from my mum that I can use acrylic paint to paint on clothes. That led me to use acrylic paints on my school bag, which gained me some attention in the schoolyard. I did not use paints for many years after that, until maybe just a decade ago. That really stuck. I was afraid I might lose interest in sketching, and that fear became true when I fell in love with the process. A few years later, when I was knocking on gallery doors to have my art exhibited, one of the gallerists pointed out that I was better off doing sketches. That made me go back to my roots, while also staying curious and learning new tricks with painting.
TATTOO
The period of my life when I made a living hurting other people, while making them feel good about it and leaving a lasting impression
The idea to learn tattooing was incepted in my head when I accompanied a friend to a tattoo studio for his tattoo. The process, after witnessing it for the first time, made me realise that it’s achievable by me. After being rejected by that very artist and a few others, I found my mentor who trusted in me and taught me the ropes to not just tattooing but also a lot of basic theories that I’ve neglected to learn in art. Thanks to his tutilage, I found the confidence to turn it into a meaningful career for many years. And I wouldn’t have had so much fun with it without the help, trust and support my friends gave me. It was around this period that I finally came to accept that maybe I am an ‘artist’.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Capturing stranger moments in my visual spectrum
Even though my uncle is a photographer and I loved to watch him work in the red room when I was a kid, I never found the drive to be a photographer. I used to experiment taking pictures with my phone when smartphone were just getting better capacity than 1 megapixel (this was probably around the start of the millennium). But that didn’t go farther either. Fast forward to 2017, my friend asks me to help him out start up a TV channel company from his garage with one new Sony Alpha 6, an old Canon video recorder, a large green cloth, an iMac and a few basic lighting equipment. I learned a few tricks from my friend who did most of the research about cameras, while we were doing small shows that was shot just inside the garage. But once i was given freedom to explore with the camera, that’s when I really started loving the process and also taking better pictures. That love never faded, even though I still don’t own a good camera.
MURALS
Not just another brick in the wall
Loving the idea of murals were not that strongly built in my heart for a very long time because I grew up in a country where walls that had public access were meant for ugly ads, large movie posters, political campaigning, and sometimes being a urinal. And Indoor murals were only meant for religious ‘purposes’. So, naturally, I always thought walls were never meant for art. I used to stick posters and magazine cutouts in my room, though, which was still frowned upon. So I can’t really say the idea was completely absent in my mind. But painting art on walls were consistently a big no-no, until I started living in a tiny house in Bangalore with a couple of friends. The house was old, and the owner didn’t really care about how the walls looked. With their permission, I started working on my very first mural using colour pencils. It was small, and born out of curiosity and rebellion, and it was one of my absolutely favourite works, even to this day. The owner even kept that mural after they repainted the house. Years passed, and I had forgotten the high of creating art on walls, until I arrived in Australia for the first time to visit my sister. She took me to lanes filled with mural and places brimming with artistic energy. Needless to say, I was hooked. The love for murals grew exponentially when I took up my first volunteering gig at a graffiti festival in a small town in Queensland called Toowoomba. Meeting so many talented mural artists and seeing them create magic on public walls made me rethink the very idea of the relationship between public spaces and art, and how that connection extends towards the people around it. It was a time of massive growth for the global mural industry, and the effects were felt intensely in my heart. The process of finding the right kind of walls (ideally, the kind that at least would not invite trouble for me) to paint on still challenges me.
DIGITALS
When the realm of physical reality offers laziness
My first dip into digital art started in MS Paint, like many others. That phase did not stick, like many others as well. When I was kicked out of college for one year, I went to study a short term graphic designing course, which introduced me to Photoshop and a couple of other software. That was a game changer.
