Everyday there are a lot of thoughts that cross our minds… we wonder , we question, we observe, we judge, we debate and all this gets us to a concept, a journey of spontaneous thoughts leading to a firm and concrete concept. One day in the studio Pankaj uncle and I were discussing this along with some more issues like how art is moving away from the common man. While working in the studio he often picked up little things that I had done offhandedly, he had seen some such things at Rajesh uncle’s studio as well… we had a discussion about how interesting this trail of thoughts could get…. How the little spontaneous thoughts shift into a more reasoned and logical forms and how sometimes we miss out on a very casual but important expression.

I guess art is an expression which is sometimes spontaneous and sometimes very logical… one needs to know why we do what we do. It actually starts from being a spontaneous feeling of an artist which is analyzed, cross questioned and then becomes a very logical expression.
Today in art we get to see many conceptually strong works but somehow miss the flow of thoughts, discussions, confusions and the contradiction of ideas that get the artist to that final concept. Sometimes these final concepts become so abstract that it’s difficult for a common man to understand where it came from.

(Works by Rajesh Sharma and Me)

When Pankaj uncle told me the concept of the exhibition he was curating I got really excited. It was a small effort to bring that process in focus which gives birth to the final concept….the process which is more important and genuine and somehow more approachable to the common man…. He named the exhibition ‘Maarm’ and since these were not our mainstream works we decided whatever money is generated through this show will go to Neev foundation which works to educate the street children in Indore.

(The children from neev foundation visiting our exhibition with pankhuri escorting them)

The works exhibited in ‘Maarm’ were sketches of the artist, thoughts that otherwise go unnoticed in some corner of the studio….. sketches which come from deep within but don’t reach the gallery….here was art not to give a profound intellectual expression but simple aesthetics and rasa which would stimulate the senses……

Pictures: Pranshu and the first one by me