I have been involved with the process of creation throughout my life, as far back as I can remember. Various forms of art and craft have filled large parts of my life. In the absence of a formal art education, most of my work has been a playful exploration of various tools at my disposal (often inexpensive items like pencils or pens or old papers or waste material). And hence art creation has always been a joyful and relaxing experience for me. My curiosity, creativity and a financial need to recycle everything that can be recycled have taken me to open exploration of various forms of art and craft without restrictions or judgments. In many ways I am grateful for not having a formal art education. It took me years to find my path but it liberated me as an artist.
After years of experimentation with various art forms, I have found a special joy and peace in pen drawings. I love the simplicity of its process and the limited need for tools. As I went on doodling little shapes in my school notebook to intricate drawings on carefully selected papers in recent years, I have built a style that is satisfying for me as an artist. I now spend most of my time drawing with pen on paper, mostly black on white or white on black.
I am fascinated with the simplicity and inexplicable beauty of black-and-white; and its ability to reach the depths of our hearts and show us that from which colors often distract us.
Drawing allows me to explore my own thoughts about life and the world around me. Like many people, I have also spent years contemplating on the nature of the universe and consciousness. And like many others, I don’t have answers. That’s where art helps me – drawing can allow me to somehow give an image to the abstract, inexplicable concepts that often pass through the mind space but without the support of any useful words for explanations.
The process of drawing allows me to experience a state of deep meditation. The monotony of repetitive and symmetric drawings induce a state of inertia where my hands refuse to stop moving even when in pain. I often lose sense of time and ignore the physical discomfort or body pain. All that matters is the next stroke on paper. The only thing that resides in my conscious experience is the pattern being revealed on paper. It’s an uncanny experience. Sometimes I can go on for hours and sometimes I just stare at a piece of blank paper or partial drawing wondering about the next possible pattern to complete the design.
My work and style is a confluence of and heavily influenced by:
Common Tools used by me:
Paper:
Pen:
Basic level high-school geometry set
The artworks are intricate pen drawings with extensive use of lines and dots. To enhance the fine line drawings, pens used are 0.35, 0.5 and 0.8 mm on a smaller canvas size.
Following are the commonly used sizes:
Most of the pen drawings are black and white.