“There’s no space for artists here. That’s one thing I have understood.” Here, I gloomily quote a friend I was in a conversation with, the other day. While his words hit me like a pickup truck, they also filled me with the inspiration and a sense of duty to produce this piece for a society that should not only love art but also uplift it.
The article features seven young artists from impressingly vivid fortes – each from a different background, having a different story to tell, striving, and winning the soul all day, every day.
- Jillian Thottan
Jillian Thottan is a visual artist and an illustrator who makes doodling look absolutely effortless. It is phenomenal how certain pairs of hands graciously move on paper to create something which is beyond breath-taking and this artist here, is possibly the greatest example. She’s done it all – from freehand mandalas, ink and watercolor series to symmetrical as well as asymmetrical pieces where every dot, every dash collide and clash to create nothing but absolute beauty.
Jillian has been featured on a number of artsy Instagram feeds like arts.gallery, daily.arts, creativeempire, art.magazine, artist_publicity and artistic_share. She has been enlisted by Polka Cafe in a number of articles like ‘Top Illustrators In Mumbai’, ‘Top Women Illustrators In India’ etc. on their blog as well as being featured on Cupick’s ‘Big Bad List: 150+ Female Illustrators, Designers and Visual Artists From India’ and ‘Big Bad List: 23 Doodle Artists On Cupick You Should Keep An Eye On’ etc.The Doodle Time has also featured her artworks on their Facebook page multiple times. She has also been interviewed on a blog called peopleyard.wordpress.com.
With wonderful accomplishments like these at a tender age, Jillian Thottan rightly gives art a whole new dimension. Hence, I can’t help but agree with her words, “Give me a paper and a pen, you’d be amazed.”
To check out more of Jillian’s magnificent artworks, log on to:
- Shweta Ranka
Who knew sketching that was once fun and games would turn out to be a burning passion for Shweta? Although graduating in a field absolutely contrasting to sketching, Shweta’s heart and soul has always and only belonged to the idea of gorgeous, willful strokes of pencil against paper. One of the most striking features of her work is the almost surreal celebrity sketches including Aishwarya Rai, Rajesh Khanna, Marilyn Monroe and more.
In all true senses, her inspiration and mentor is Mr. Avdhut Narvekar – a man of great artistic talent himself. For Shweta, it has seldom been spilling her thoughts, views or feelings on paper and the beauty of it is that it always works, creating wonders to both – the eye and the heart. Picked up sketching since the time she started talking, for Shweta, there is certainly no looking back.
- Riya Duggal and Simran Duggal
Riya Duggal and Simran Duggal are a singer-songwriter sister duo who collectively go by the name ‘Simetri’ . “Simetri means ‘Sim’ and ‘Ri’ in French which is why we thought of going by that name”said Riya Duggal, which stunned me to know how precisely fine the sisters are! The duo also fronts a band called Twisted Paradox. Their forte is western rock and pop while they are also into Indian classical – I can only imagine how much they have to offer with the smashing blend of western and Indian music that they make, music that will sweep you off your feet and chase all your blues away!
The sisters have successfully performed at Boveda,Canvas Laugh Factory, Hard Rock Café (Andheri), Three Wise Monkeys, Score and have also been featured on VH1 Music Diaries with their band ‘Twisted Paradox’. Their latest achievement has been singing for the background score of the film ‘Kapoor and Sons’. They have sung for a number of advertisements and jingles incuding the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz ad featuring Ranveer Singh, the Kindle Ad (We are the readers), iBall Andi and more.
Simetri’s cover set usually consists of the latest pop/rock songs and are backed by a full band set up. The duo focuses on creating enchanting yet catchy melodies – songs about love, heartbreaks and the intricacies of human nature, sung parallely with signature harmonies of the vocalists. With their family being into music for two generations (them being the third), they never had imagined how music could turn from passion into something they saw themselves doing for the rest of their lives.
Youtube links-
Lean On Acoustic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owuRoc63_tc
Drag Me Down cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb95oOItsyM
You can find some of their originals on SoundCloud:
Pay the sisters a visit there facebook fan page.
- Megh Bhavsar
Monochrome, Monochrome, Monochrome. If only there were words enough to describe the talent of this artist here. Megh Bhavsar has been practicing photography for the last six years. “I believe photographs should be black and white. They are the colors of photography. They represent the distress and pain which mankind is forever subjected to.” Says Megh. Ansel Adams, Prabudhdha Das Gupta, Mary Ellen Mark, Henri Cartier Bresson and Stanley Kubrick are some of the photographers who Megh looks up to and whose work he admires. Megh Bhavsar works as a content writer for an e-Learning firm, which has, in a way, guided him to explore the unfettered territories of his heart as he has also developed an interest in writing off lately. With respect to this, Megh has done three photoshoots of automobiles for a magazine called Pitstop.
His work has a painful, humanistic approach with a little moral behind every photograph.
Megh only makes me muse that maybe black’s not that much of an unpreferrable color after all, for there’s always some amount of beauty in pain which makes us all humane, one photograph at a time. It’s beautiful how his works would give you the perfect Victorian (abstract, too!) feel and chill, hence transporting you to the 60’s, without needing a time machine!
Visit his Instagram handle
- Pooja Khanna
An empress of words that she is, her mystical, lyrical poetries would not only lull you but also haul you to a land trimmed to perfection and fantasy, a land which is past all human definitions. Along with being a mistress gracefully courting unimaginable lines, Pooja Khanna also majorly writes realistic pieces. While in a conversation, Pooja humbly quoted, “There is nothing much that I have received except for a few school and college based competitions.” But the greatest thing she said she received from her writing was peace – for every time she’d write, it would be like meditating.
All it takes for Pooja to fuel her writing inspiration is a paper, a pen and a genuine need for solitude and this in turn led her to create poetries about aggression and inner turmoils which later went on to lovely pieces on realization and being happy. Pooja co-runs a blog called The Civil Poets where artists- big and small, are invited to bask in the glory of their poetic findings. With so much going on for her, I could not wish any lesser of a luck to Pooja – a woman with great poetic abilities.
Visit her blog to find out more excellent poetries | Instagram handle
- Darshana Dhakan
Darshana Dhakan is a dream-catcher enthusiast, successfully running The Beige Box, which is the first ever thing in craft she started as a business/service. Darshana’s sister, father and grandma are all skilled artists ( Knitting sweaters, bags, purses, caps; pearl garland; pearl temples etc.), hence the passion for art in her comes in built. “I love fidgeting around and try making new things from the materials available,” says Darshana who first thought of venturing on to this art was when her bestfriend gifted her an unfinished dreamcatcher which she was quite pleased with due to its design and the love that had gone in making it.
So you see what an unfinished business (in this case,an unfinished dreamcatcher) could do? Zainab Attari (Chimerical Dreamcatchers) is one of the artists she frequently looks upto. Since Darshana sells her work solely through Instagram, she often gets inspired by other artists online and the rest at the Lil Flea Market. Creating something worthy and trendy yet making a business out of it is a dream for many. However, creations as exquisite as these come with their own share of hardwork and commitment and Darshana’s is surely not to be doubted. Because truth be told, I already count on her to be the best artistic businesswoman the world would ever see!
To view more of her work, click here.
- Joseph Francis
“I used to pray to God that He show me dreams while I was asleep. That way, I’d still be living somewhere.” With noble thoughts such as these fused gorgeously into digital art and micro-fiction, Joseph will jog your brains till it tires, only leaving it wanting more of his surreal works. It gives me immense pleasure to witness someone mastering the know-hows of micro-fiction as rapidly as him.
Joseph Francis goes by the name ‘Peesauf’ which is nearly enough to describe the quirky, witty stories he creates. He writes largely on battling human thoughts, philosophies and a big pocketful of artistic emotions that would not only make you drool but also inspire you in the littlest of ways. Sarcasm with a tinge of humor surely would go a long way in Joseph’s case. With a talent as artistic as his and an excellent sense of verbal humor, ‘Peesauf’ is not far from being the next TTT (Terribly Tiny Tales).
As I near the end of the article, I can’t help but count myself magnificently fortunate to have known such handsomely talented folks with their own strengths and stories which are sometimes inspiring and at other times, a calming catalyst to the chaotic mind.
Stay strong, stay artsy.
Cover Image : Source
