An artist is someone who views the world around them from a different perspective and feels what they want to see — Arti Uppal Singla, founder Kagazi Ghoda, a stationery brand .
Her journey is stimulating. One feels like diving deeper into the story and gets very much inspired to bring their passion into the forefront. Think about it, there must be a couple of such people around you too , who pushed their passion backstage. Perhaps, you too have a similar experience. If one has multiple reasons to quit or procrastinate their passion or dream, there must be one reason to pick it up there and then. We often fail to realize that those purposes hold the essence of enthusiasm to live life to the fullest. You would be in awe of her ardor with visual art when you know that it was not the first bus that she took in her journey, instead she had appetency for both Science and Literature. Aarti was caught between choices and options but to deal with the Catch 22 situation, she had to take a decision. Although it took awhile for her to step out of the fences, she ultimately came up with a soulful solution by paying heed to the voice of her innate self . Having a Science background , she had two options for the undergraduate course, either to go ahead with preparations for medical entrance examinations or to pick her passion as a career in visual art. She followed her heart and got enrolled in an Art college to pursue a degree in Fine Art. A few years later, as she graduated from college, she was again caught in a soup of doubts. However, an intense urge to embrace her fondness for Literature as a subject, guided her towards a Masters in English.
“My journey though interesting, wasn’t a linear progression”—- Aarti Uppal singla, founder Art Exchange project, a community for visual art lovers.
Her creations are compounds of science, art and literature. She executes her projects with an amalgamation of her insight knowledge of three different streams. Inspired by nature, they are laid down with a technical know how of application of tools and elements. Her first job was with the renowned magazine, COSMOPOLITAN. Then came, her design studio, called Easel Ideas. Graphic designing, book designs, logo designs, branding, packaging designs and all types of print designing was taken care of.
“It was interesting to work on different projects as each one of them were different from the other”
Later she started her own venture , PUBLISH OUR DREAMS, which is a publishing house for new authors. Today, she runs a community, called Art Exchange Project, where she has more than 5000 people , coming together to exchange their ideas and creativity to spread the beautiful hues of their artistry. Workshops, meetups, contests and interesting events are common features of this community.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview with Aarti Uppal Singla
Q. What can be done for students and young people so that they don’t give up on their passion due to peer pressure ?
I belong to a school of thought that if you want to go for Fine Arts , you must join a formal college education. Take the bus as then it would be easy to take your journey from point A to B. Moreover, parents , children and teachers must have open end discussion to identify a child’s abilities. You need not push the child for everything, instead only for the skills a child is passionate about.
Q. Artists often get involved in controversies. If visual art is an expression of one’s musings or feelings about, things, people, surroundings and situations then what is the point of controversy?
See, here the difference in the way people perceive an art form and the intent by which it was curated causes all the trouble. Many a time, an artist goes on to express their emotions and when their expressions don’t fit in the society’s predetermined format, it creates controversy.
Q. What is Kagazi Ghoda all about ?
It is very close to my heart, more like my baby. When I was a student , I realized that there was a big dearth of stationery items and appropriate products for us. There were very few choices. This led me to start my own brand. We deliver products across the globe and when you visit our website, you will come across all the variety of products we have to make art a problem free arena.
Q. What is your mantra in life?
My all time favourite mantra is that No learning ever goes waste. I learn from everyone, even those who are younger to me.
Listen to this podcast and know more about her inspirational story.
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