Hi, I am a self-taught illustrator from India – who chose to work on her creative dreams over a stable corporate career, embracing the opportunity to leave the world a bit more wonderful – with her art! My creative career was never planned, it just happened. It took a lot of time and soul searching to understand what brings me joy.
Seed: The early influences
It started with the 3-year-old me when I was enrolled on my classical dance lessons. With every growing year, the love for dancing also grew with me which continued formally until I was 8. Not in touch with formal training anymore, but dancing is my mojo even today.
When I was 10, during one of the drawing lessons I came across mixed media. Making textures and patterns with a pen – hatching, dots, crisscrossing, making marks and many more. Paper Tangrams brought me closer to experimenting with shapes. Every outcome was amazing and delighted my naive mind.
Oh, my beloved (school)projects – hand-lettering the titles, collaging on the covers, and drawing pictures were much fun and got most of my time than my academics. By the time I finished my projects, each turned out to be a piece of art that I cherish to date. Even my love for biology stemmed from the drawing aspect of anatomies.
Just to jazz up my dresses I embarked on the wonderful crafty journey of embroidery and sewing, only to figure out later I love fabrics so much. Yes, they are my guilty pleasure …even to date one of my cupboards is fully stashed with fabrics only to be used for some ambitious project – God knows when!
Born to a father who played the violin and drew fabulous bird portraits as a hobby; and a mother who’s an awesome cook with fairly good sewing skills, I guess the creativity was in the DNA. And how to forget my only elder brother, looking at whom I also wanted to tag along for drawing lessons. He showed the world to me, literally at every stage of my life. Unknowingly, but surely they had an influence on me in a good way – I am grateful to them.
Meander : The life explorations
I pursued Biotechnology for better mainstream career opportunities but after graduation didn’t want to make a career in the same as I found it a bit dry to my liking. None to be blamed, as the exposure of how a creative career looked like was very limited, rather invisible back then. I started prepping for MBA and got exposed to the internet. The endless possibilities and plethora of information available online were expanding my world.
While applying for the MBA colleges, I got through a digital company and from there the trajectory of corporate life started. While working a job, I was happily using my lunch breaks to draw. From paper, things slowly moved to digital. I explored MS Paint (with my wired mouse) and I was astonished by the UNDO function; the possibility of drawing on the screen and choosing any colour under the sky. That was my first taste of drawing digitally.
In my later corporate years, I invested in a small Wacom tablet to draw digitally.
I made my way to working with my dream media company eventually, but after quite some years things didn’t feel dreamy anymore. The career got demanding with hardly any time to rest, forget indulging in creative explorations. The only creative opportunity left in life was while I made client presentations – it was my jam!
Amidst the chaotic work culture (that’s how all advertising agencies work) and office politics, I finally decided to leave for greener pastures. But the lessons learnt and the friends made were invaluable.
We moved cities and I started looking for a marketing job with a heavy heart – not wanting that life again. The Universe also favoured my wish, by not granting me the right opportunities either. Guess life had some other magical plans for me.
Feeder : An opportunity that lighted me up
Luck struck when I participated in an online competition (some mascot creation challenge). From the brainstorming to the final creation – everything felt like a jolt of excitement and somewhere it felt this is what makes me feel alive…and I would love to do this forever for a living.
Did I win the competition? I don’t know; I did not even check the results. Cause I was already winning at heart. I enjoyed the whole process so much that I didn’t even care. That was the onset of ‘something magical’, something that triggered it was time to shift – to shift into a career that felt like me.
Bloom : The happy place
Finally, after 8 years of corporate life, things felt wonderful again! I was mentally ready to embrace the life of an artist. I started putting my illustration work online and got through queries.
Daily drawing challenges on Instagram kept the fire burning. I explored a lot of art forms digitally and saw my influences shape up. I utilised this time for my self-schooling. While I explored, my husband was my support system, which I know not many of us can imagine being privileged of – and I am forever grateful about.
Today my work is an exploration of colours and patterns, influenced by my own experiences, different cultures and art from the past – all with the magic of playfulness. I am privileged to be creating something every day – an art, a memory or an insight for myself with the hope that it will help someone, someway navigating a similar path like me.
Closing off now, hoping to see you along in this wonderful journey.
Until then, keep creating!
