Monday, October 6, 2008

How was the interest fueled ?

How was the interest towards art fueled? He has no answer for that. He vaguely remembers drawing imaginary objects on notebooks in 2nd or 3rd standard. He used make some caricatures and cartoons on the class-work books. He says its hard to recall what he drew but the fact that he used to draw on the class work books cannot be refuted. That’s because he was once punished in bringing these undefined foreign objects into the book. There is no reason for him to regret for what had happened and there is one reason for him to cherish that moment. And that is even after he was weaned of that habit the trend continued in the class. Some of my classmates picked up the baton that he had dropped and carried it for him.

There is one anecdote that he says comes to his mind. It was when he was in 4th std and was trying to depict war between LTTE and some country. Then one of his childhood friends Appu, who is senior to him by 2 years, came over to his place and told that it is "LTTE" and not "LTT". And he feels that many such anecdotes is lost as the mortal body is engulfed by the worries of today and un-predictability of the future.

The Art classes that were held in school are the only formal training he could ever get and afford. And those are the classes that he cherishes most. The classes were conducted by the great artist Mrs.Geetha. She was like a goddess to him. Once she held his palm in hers and should him how to render palms for the immortal men on the canvas. He was mesmerized by her skills and yearned for the classes to be eternal. Her calm face, slender palm and bright eyes were clearly seen in her works.

He also claims that he created a masterpiece while still in school. And it is the portrait of JC Bose. He had to make a portrait of this inquisitive scientist for the JC BOSE house book. He was astonished and asked himself if he is the one who created that sketch. This incident made him believe that drawing is more than a hobby, it was a skill.

The remaining part of his life is marked by sporadic incidents of demonstrating these skills. It college, instead of taking notes he used to draw some gizmos and automobiles. But never could he recreate the magic of JC Bose.

He continues to hone his skill to this day. He is thankful that he met up with some great artists. Each of them had different styles but like him had suppressed those skills to earn the daily bread. Among the artists he met were Darshan aka darCwader, Sridhar Bakkawad, Dilip Maddala, Priya Parathasarathy. And he says "If at all I become an Artist some day then it will be a tribute to Mrs Geetha for the pain she took to impart her knowledge to us".

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