Chasing Creativity – Part 1

Why I create

It’s not something I can accurately put into words. However, in the 2020 film ‘Resistance’ featuring Jesse Eisenberg, he responds to his unartistic father when asked why he creates, it’s like the urge to use the washroom, he simply cannot hold it in. Loosely translated.

Defacing Property

When I was in high school, I borrowed hand-me-down textbooks from my older cousin. I drew all over in ink on the inside cover and clear pages that didn’t have much information—almost every page. The next year the younger sister of the cousin I borrowed the book from had to painstakingly white-off all my “art”. Sorry, Priya.

I got a call from my Aunt, her mother, not sure if she remembers this, but she wasn’t too happy with what I did and was told sternly not to do it ever again.

I’ve always said, I just need a blank canvas, pencil and eraser with uninterrupted time and I’ll be the happiest person in the world.

Impulsive Behaviour 

There was another time when I was young, I was scolded and made to sound wasteful for drawing scribbles and nonsense that just came to my mind, in my drawing pad.

We couldn’t afford much back then but my late father quickly defended me and explained that I should be allowed to express my creativity even if it’s scribbles and nonsense. Despite our dire financial situation, which I didn’t realise was bad, my father didn’t let that stop my creativity, even if it seemed wasteful to others.

Somehow he knew, though he wasn’t an artist himself.

Finding My Creative Outlet

Right out of high school, I knew I wasn’t set out for academia or furthering my education like so many of my peers did. I didn’t see a point in wasting time and started working for my now cousin-in-law, literally 3 days after school closed. He owned a tattoo studio that offered airbrush art on t-shirts. So I asked for the opportunity and he gladly gave me a shot, knowing I was a creative like him.

I was to come up with original creative illustrations customers could select to reproduce on their t-shirt of choice, and eventually do the air-brushing work myself.

Those were some fun days I’ll never forget, though short-lived.

Chasing Dreams

I had so many dreams growing up about working on creative productions, whether it be comics, animation, or even films. So every opportunity to advance myself creatively I took it, unconsciously.

From the tattoo studio, I went on to work at a photo studio in our capital, to reproduce large digital prints and from there I found employment at an art studio-turned-sign company all in about a year and a half.

I worked at the Sign Company for some years, playing a pivotal role—actually, the sole employee—in transitioning their production from analogue sign art to digital prints, which became the sole focus of the company afterwards.

I was creating less, mostly printing around the clock.

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