28 April 2007
Giving Back Something To Chennai -By Joju Dominic
I had stolen Jasmine’s future by way of marriage. She was born and brought up in Chennai. I was enjoying my life as a cartoonist in Kerala. Since it’s easier in our social setup for a village boy to settle in a city than a city girl to settle in a village, I decided to settle in Chennai after marriage.
In Chennai, I used to visit art galleries whenever time permitted. One fine morning my wife game me money to buy canvas and paint. I approached some artists for technical details for painting on canvas. Some of them helped, some refused and some others tried to teach me the wrong way! Unlike today there were no books or short-term courses available then.
So I was forced to learn by the trial and error method. And it took almost 12 years to master the techniques. By this time my own style also evolved. I was trying to give a poster effect to my paintings. During my third solo exhibition a senior art critic who used to visit all my exhibitions in Chennai told me that my pictures looked like posters. But by this time, to my great dismay, computers also produced pictures with almost the same effect.
I was forced to change my style. I tried to give my single dimension paintings life and momentum without shading or without facial features like eyes, nose, lips etc. I tried to give life to birds even without wings, eyes or legs.
And the art critic of The Hindu, who visited my solo exhibition at Kochi last month, told me about life and momentum even though the human beings, animals and birds have no distinguishing facial features. So I knew my 11 years of hard work without a social life or a proper family life has given fruit.
All these happened just because I shifted to Chennai. So I was planning to give back something to Chennai, the city of peace.
I use to make small models of statues in wood, clay or M-seal and tell the Mahablipuram granite workshops to enlarge them to three or five feet according to the requirements. And I call myself modeler, not sculptor. I decided to present the city of Chennai three or four statues to keep at road junctions or parks, where public can admire them. But to get the official sanction, nobody knows from where I have to start.
After my Bangalore and Kochi solo exhibitions, I was planning exhibitions in Delhi and Mumbai. By this time a new gallery at Anna Nagar, The Covenant Point, approached for a solo show. I told them even though I have 26 paintings, 18 of them are already exhibited in Chennai. Then I thought the Delhi exhibition is only in August and I can do new paintings. These 26 paintings I can sell at cost price to the people of Chennai as a graduate to the city of peace.
The other day my son said he wanted to join visual communication degree course. Since both my son and daughter hate paints and painters because their daddy is always away from family and society, reading, thinking or painting, this was great news to me. I told my son that he can share my studio and if interested work as my assistant and learn my techniques. The very nest day he joined me. So I can relax now. Somebody is there to carry on from where I stopped. Maybe with the help of a computer. It’s ok.
Next week we are going to a movie theatre. My daughter was trying to take our family to a movie theatre for the last three years.
My contact phone number is 24426115 and 9884198118.