For Ashima Kumar – Art is the freedom to live. Creating art is a risk we choose to take in the hope that we can soar to heights imagined and unimagined.
Why do I create art? It’s a question I am often asked and one I have long pondered upon. Is it to express myself, to share a message, to find an answer or is it something else? The answer like all other truths, perhaps lies somewhere, overarching it all.
To me, like to many other artists all over the world, art is something that continually grows within us and through which we grow. It is our way of being. George O’Keeffe had said, “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.” And that is how it has been for me. Whether I found art or art found me is a moot point; much like the question of what came first – the egg or the chicken? What is relevant is how our art impacts us.
If you were to ask other artists, they would probably agree that they create art because it feels like homecoming. It is that space where we forget all externalities to connect with the innermost part of ourselves that has the answers we seek. I discovered the joy of art quite early in life. Doodling kept boring classes alive and mitigated the terrifying aspect of math exams, as I doodled to distract and relax myself. Later, I continued to doodle to convey, communicate, explain and find solutions to answers that flirted at the edge of my consciousness. Fast forward a few more years and I remain a committed doodle artist. From teaching others to unwind with doodling or use it as a tool for mindfulness, doodling enriches my life in a million ways. Its simple lines and curves, its repetitive symbolism, the (sometimes) inherent geometry, the moment of surprised understanding – all of it captivates me. To my mind, doodling is one of the finest forms of human art. It is akin to the first thought; it is the primal, instinctive intuition bursting forth like a seedling emerging from the ground and finding its way to the sunlight.
We all seek a way to express ourselves the best way we can. Some paint, some write, some make machines. As we indulge our various passions, we often hunger to go beyond; to discover more, much like Icarus reaching for the sun. And our art is that moment of culmination when the medium, the expression and the understanding, fuse together in a moment of quiet ecstasy. Something else seems to direct your strokes, a quiet, calm presence carries away the clouds of gloom and moment by moment, line by line, you carve out your own identity. It is almost as if something beyond you directs your strokes to answer your queries and soothe your spirit.
Mystical as it may sound to some, I have seen doodles change the course of life. I remember this young child with ADHD whose mother was amazed at her daughter’s concentration and focus in a doodling class, and thereafter at her school. She couldn’t believe that a simple art class could ease her daughter’s life and give such immense joy. Then there was this young executive who had been struggling with a coding challenge, his peace of mind threatened by a looming deadline. Then in the middle of doodling, as his mind relaxed and gave up the reins to his subconscious, he discovered the answer he had been seeking; much like a modern day Einstein.
Many more have experienced the transformative power of art and doodling. And so I strive, to experience that transformation again and again. And that is why I create. Perhaps you should too.
