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Shruti Vij

Inspirational

4.4  

Shruti Vij

Inspirational

My awakening as an artist

My awakening as an artist

4 mins
11.5K


I stumbled upon art in my quest for a more meaningful life. I wanted to give an outlet to my creative energy which would have been stifled had I joined the business for which I was trained. As a product of the prestigious NIFT, I saw numerous opportunities to join the industry and pursue a career in design. 

Somehow I was not very convinced about this idea, during my college years I never saw myself in a fixed hour job. I would rather be a free spirit and choose to create when I wanted to. My path to becoming a full-time artist has been indirect to say the least. However, I wouldn’t trade my time of being an “artist interrupted” for anything. 

The longer road with all of it’s detours has really paid off in terms of rounding out my life experiences, making me more focused, determined, and extremely grateful for the opportunity I have in the studio right now. Waiting is a great motivator.

My name is Shruti Vij and I am a designer turned visual artist based in Gurugram.

I’ve always had a love for creativity, right from a very young age. From drawing, playing with colours and making play dough to getting told off on my first days of school for drawing eyes in the word “look”, creative activities were always great fun to me.Although I might not have fully understood it on a conscious level when I was very young, playing in order to bring something new and unique (and hopefully of value) into the world always brought me a great deal of satisfaction.

I trained in Leather designing from National Institute Of Fashion Technology (NIFT), New Delhi. I got married after a short stint in the garment industry. Thereafter, it was motherhood which was my first priority. Soon I realized that I needed to do something on my own for my creative persona. It became pretty clear that whatever I did my desire to draw, design and be creative in a professional sense wasn’t going to go away, no matter how hard I tried to fit my skills and personality into other areas.

I started visiting various art galleries in Delhi and participating in their painting workshops. This is where the seed of being an abstract artist was launched & permanently lodged into my soul. The class was Abstract Painting. I went into it blindly and knew absolutely nothing about this style, the artists who developed it, or the thought behind it.

 Honestly, I didn’t know what to think of it myself until I started working on my first canvas. 

It was like a bullet hit me. I FELT something connect.  

The brushstrokes, lines, and dabs of paint made only with movements, gestures, and marks made complete sense to me. I simply understood the way to move paint, arrange surfaces, and how to express from the inside out. Purely expressive painting was natural, authentic, and intuitive for me.

But I’ve also found that it’s not just the creativity and continual development that I love like I originally thought.It’s the freedom that comes with working for yourself.

My career goal has always been to able to spend my time doing work I enjoy, namely creative work, but in becoming a freelancer I’ve come to realise that I actually enjoy the freedom of being me own boss and running my own business as much as I do the creative work. I recognized it as my own and knew this was my art language. 

 So there you have it – my art story. If you actually read the entire piece – thank you. I know it was long.

 I always prefer happy and hopeful endings when I hear a story, so I’ll leave you with this.Following your heart, inner vision, and passion can lead you to do the very thing you love & cherish, even if it takes a L-O-N-G time.

And know this, when an artwork ends up living on a wall in your work space, home or the places where you relax, laugh, and play…it is the culmination of those MANY straight-from-the-heart hours of creative output from my studio to you. 


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