When Amritha of Hindusthan Trading invited me to the opening of the Art Studio in their second floor, I happily accepted.
I love supporting local business and if it means investing time, then so be it. I do fancy myself something of a good human being ;) Or at least better than what I have been in the past.
At the event, I was moderating a panel discussion on the future of art and the role of new mediums . We had some amazing people on the panel - all of them artists who had explored, pivoted and paved their own way in the field of art they had chosen.
My conversation with Mr. Mark Rathinaraj is what remains in etched in my memory.
At the end of the session, I approached him and said Sir i want to learn water colour painting and he smiled and said "Art is not taught, only the medium is taught" and then proceeded to ask me about why I was interested. As the conversation progressed, I, being my usual unabashed enthusiastic self, jumped in and said "Can i show you my work?" ("Work" ?? calling the few pieces I have attempted to paint "work" is stretching it but ....well..work it shall be )
Now a bit of background about Mr. Rathinaraj - he is an incredibly talented artist, who has worked in charcoal, acrylic, mixed media as well as wood sculpting, his work has been exhibited all over the world and some of his works are priced in lakhs. Just so you know the kind of level we are talking about.
Background about me ? as an artist? errrr well... you get the picture.. or lack there of :)
To his credit, he didn't even wince. He said "Sure. Show me" and that's when it struck me what I had just done was quite stupid. :)
I back pedaled furiously saying " It is only a copy. I don't know how to do original stuff" Total face palm moment that !!
He gently interrupted my blabbing and said " Every art is original. even if you copy, you cannot exactly copy another artist's work"
Somewhat emboldened, partly sheepish I stuck forward my phone to show him my charcoal sketch of a horse.
A part of me wanted him to say "Your work is great" but another part of me knew I was being silly. And yet another part of me was curious how he was going to wrangle out of this situation with grace. And boy did he do just that!
He looked at the sketch and then looked at me and said "You know what I appreciate most about this? The sincerity with which you have executed it." He then pointed to the two sections below
"You could have just finished the horse. but you took the time and effort to work on these details" I gaped at him. Those were the two details that were NOT on the original . I had added them both on a whim.
As I told him that with a note of awe, he smiled at me and with a twinkle in his eye said "Not bad no? I was able to pick that bit of originality?"
And I was floored by the goodness as well as the honesty in this interaction.
He could have just said "very nice" or even lied and called me an artist with great potential. Alternately he could have ripped me apart for having the temerity to even show my "work" to him, that too a copy of someone else's work.
He did neither. He unerringly picked the two things that were truly mine and made a positive comment on that.
I must also commend my grace in not pushing him for a feedback on the main picture ..or was it my intelligence? After all if he had anything to say about it, he would have.
Something he had said during the panel discussion flashed in my mind. He had said "Art made me a good human being" And I was thinking how it isn't until you meet someone better than you , that you realise that you still have progress to make!
As I was savouring in the moment, he turned to Mr. Manohar and said "Sir, she wants to learn water colour" and Mr. Manohar said "I can definitely teach you. But you will have to give me one year. And be sincere and focused and do the home work"
My sheepishness vanished as I realised I was back again in familiar territory.
I grinned widely and said " Sir, Once I sort some of the things in my life , I am going to come to you to learn. As for practice and homework, I am very good like that."
What I didn't tell him was that i knew i wasn't good enough at something else - that I was also hoping that Art would make ME a good human being too. Better than what I was at the moment.
Only time will tell.
