Altered Art Journal

December 16, 2020

Rashmi Kaushik

I generally paint and draw while waiting long hours in a hospital while my loved one undergoes treatment that usually lasts over four hours. Probably meditation or maybe a prayer is what I describe my art process.

Painting, reading , music, dance, cooking are art forms that help you heal. Your hobby keeps you alive and vibrant. I love reading and writing poetry and short stories. I think I conjure images and then wrap a story around them.

I paint canvases , glass, wood , fabric, tiles, metal where I can pour out my rustic creativity. Why rustic? I am not a trained artist but have always experimented through observation. During my years as a journalist covering topics on art, music and culture I was fortunate to meet great Indian painters like M F Hussain, B Prabha, Anjolie Ela Menon and many others. It was a wonderful time when I interacted with them and was inspired with their unique styles. These conversations and influences have stayed with me.

It is an amazing journey where one silently progresses from a blank space to something visually delightful.

Today artists have so many platforms to showcase art. But art created should make you happy first. Only then can it spread joy among others. Art is an expression of your soul. Your body only delivers it to the viewers.

Canvases take space but these art journals are created in books you no longer read. They can be carried with you everywhere. You can write stories and weave your thoughts around these art spreads.

I have been painting and drawing over 28 years but my journey through art continues. Our country is steeped with amazing stories, culture, mythology and a plethora of art forms.Hope to integrate them in my style and borrow so much more from other lands. After all art expands your vision and we learn to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.

Art creates you and not the vice versa. The more you create it liberates you to explore spaces you have not ventured making you bolder like the brush strokes and your colour palette.

Art is my bliss, my pure joy.