Atignas Art

For the believers of Lord Shiva

           What you call as coincidence, I call it "Magic". Artistic journey has many ups and downs, (I guess every journey has). There was a time when I was struggling with my art career.  Struggle not in terms of survival, as I am lucky to have support of my family and friends. But I like to be independent.

           I dedicate my art to my mother, so "Atignas"; reverse of my mom's name "Sangita". This name was also clicked while having a conversation with my friend Raj Mitra. Coming back to the struggling phase, one day my mother came and gifted me a canvas roll and asked me to create. I am very emotional, as receiving so much love and support from her, gave me strenth to create. I felt deep within that I will create something magical as this blank canvas is very special to me.

          It was a 5 mt roll of 40 inch (i.e approx. 15 feet), which I cut equally in three parts i.e. 5x3 ft each). Here, I am sharing a story about "Magic" artwork which was the last painting of the three artworks I created. I dont know how much time it takes to create one artwork, as I cannot quantify it. It is a continuous process and every painting takes it's time to reveal itself. Few take hours, few days, few months and few years. 

             I believe in God, but not a deep follower of any specific God.I belive in humanity and kindness, I believe in Love.

             So as the painting was created, I was happy, as it was something different from my earlier work. I remember while creating it, though there was turbulence in my mind, I was lost in the creation process. It took me few days to complete it, but I didn't get time to spend time with it, to feel it, to observe. I didn't create the painting, I was just a tool and the painting was creating itself.

            I had a exhibition in Delhi at Artizen Art Gallry. I was planning to exhibit "Fear" artwork, but then changed my mind to exhibit "Magic" at the last moment. At the gallery, I was not sure to display it horizontally or vertically. One of my artist friend, Nirakar Chowdhary helped me in getting the painting stretched (as logistic is always a huge task with large paintings) and because of the space constraint, and to have more breathing space, we decided to hang the painting vertically.

           All set for the exhibition, and I went home. In the evening (sunset time), I received a message from another artist, Mr. Bhanu Prakash, whom I met in the morning at the exhibition. Message was a picture of my painting with sun rays on it forming the shape of God "Shiva".

           I smiled and thought of it as a blessing from God. Next day as I saw the painting, I was surprised to see God "Shiva" in his meditation pose. I was even more surprised when visitors at the exhibition started telling me about it. I uploaded the painting picture on Imgur, to share with the world (without mentioning anything about Lord Shiva). The painting went viral and I was overwhelmed by the love I was receiving from the world. Later another artist friend, Mr. Atul Pandita helped me in bringing the painting back to my home.