-
I met an amateur young talented artist, with a wide horizon. He is a big talent
of this field, and his mulitalent will help him in dealing with the problems,
wich he will face while building his career. Justin please introduce yourself
for my readers:
- I am a fine arts(applied art) student and working as an illustrator,
designer and photographer. I love nature, photography, travelling, music… and
more often I am a perfectionist.
-
What inspired you to get into art and photography?
Justin
George: -
Simply the strong love towards colours, strokes, light and shadow… how
beautifully they can create a mood, a story and some times the perfect use of
them can freeze the time too. I believe that they are my perfect companions to
express myself more often.
-
Who inspired you in start?
Justin
George: -
Mainly my parents and my father is from a traditional artists’ family so they
encouraged and inspired me a lot to get into this field. - It’s wonderful, that your family can
support you, and you have the opportunity to get experience from them.
-
What problems did you face to achieve your career?
Justin
George: -
I knew this was the right career but I was really confused to choose the right
course after my secondary school level because there’re many courses related
with art and designing and I was interested to do most of them. So I
did a diploma course in graphic designing, 2D & 3D animation. Now I am
doing Fine arts in applied art and completed Bachelors degree. - the fact that you are very openminded is amazig!
-
Who have you worked with?
Justin
George: -
After completing my first level designing studies I'd got a nice opportunity to
work with 'Pencil Jam' one of the famous illustration and designing studio in Bangalore, India. There I could study more
about contemporary, traditional designing and illustration techniques. After
that I'd worked in Music of Rain designs with Abhilash Sivadas an artist and a designer who helped me a lot to
study more about branding and web designing.
- What
is the most improtant goal, you want to achieve?
Justin
George: -
I believe that I am slowly developing a particular style in illustration and
photography. To do it perfectly I am trying to learn more about other artists
and how they made their work different from others but never like to follow
them. - Lots of work needed to
build a carrier and become famous, wich contains hard moments also...
-
How do you see the work nowadays in your field, popular or not?
Justin
George: -
It's popular but most of the people are following a particular style and it's
too difficult for them to think differently and use new styles and techniques.
Sometimes this attitude prevent the designers or
artists to develop and present new ideas. In most of the companies designers
are working like slaves without creative freedom. There are clever designers
who create designs with the help of templates and claim they are made by
themselves. It's always necessary to use new styles and techniques to stand
alone and to be different in this field. - i totally agree with you, its fantastic to hear someone in such
a young age talking this wisely.
-
You must have a lot of plans in the future, please tell us about them.
Justin
George: -
I would like to known as a world famous illustrator, designer and photographer
and I firmly believe that I can achieve it through hard work and observation. I
am also planning to publish illustration books for children which help them to
study the subjects easily and create love towards the nature. An exhibition of
my paintings various places across India and outside also is there in my
mind. - Oh, these are wonderful
plans, i wish you the best: make your dreams true, or at least be
succesful in your occupation and your personal life.
Actually I was very interested
in photo modelling since my childhood, and I saw a lot of models. I like to
change my looks and my personality with some different creations. I think
people should choose there field of work
which he or she is really interested in, so that's why I want to be working in
this field..
What inspired you to start?
My sir inspired me.. and
secondly model Nomi Ansari inspired me.. He is my favorite model.
What problems did you face to achieve your career?
Well i have not
achieved my career yet. Plus some people don't want to see me as a
model, my family fully supports me so i don't care about others .
Who have you worked with?
I hope i will work with famous
people in the future.
What are results of your achievements?
Well i have not yet achieved any platform for which I want to
because I want to be a model. But i’m working hard to achieve it.
How do you see the work nowadays in
your field difficult or Easy?
Im
looking for the best opportunity, and i know that this is not the easiest
field.
What are your plans for the future?
My plans I want be a Film and
TV serial Director and I'll join university for proper study of this field..
and with wanna be a photo shoot model....
Shahzad Zar is perhaps the last young artist to have
been guided by that man of the arts, s. Ali imam. When the artist first
approached imam he was in his teens, a self-taught young man struggling to
teach himself. The art of collage, mixing organic materials and paint. Imam was
interested in Shazad’s work and in his determination to be an artist. He sent
him away with advice and suggestions and monitored his progress from then on.
Four years later imam felt the artist was ready for an exhibition at the prestigious
indus gallery and Shahzad Zar was launched with a solo exhibition in 1999.
How
did you get interested in art?
I am a self taught artist, started my work with the
inner inspiration & learned to express myself through paint &
calligraphy on natural preserved leaves under supervision of Asian legend, Ali
Imam, founder of Indus Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan.
What kinds of
art you do?
I started my work using preserved leaves to paint my
colors for calligraphic work, now I am tuned into oriental figurative thematic
paintings using different mediums, including pastels, paints, collage and so
on.
What and who
inspired you to start?
Ali Imam, gave me an Artistic eye to see & a
realization to express myself. I have worked with leading artists in Pakistan
with shows in almost all leading art galleries & venues in Pakistan &
abroad.
What problems
did you face to achieve your career?
I think there is a dire need to promote young
upcoming artists, as a new artist in the field, I have faced problems that most
of the time, discourage young artist, and to confront with those problems, I
myself created a Youth Art Circle, known as Zer's Youth Art Circle @ ZAC
studio, which promoted many youngsters who are now well known in art community
in Pakistan.
What
are results of your achievements?
As I mentioned earlier, I have struggled for myself
and other young artists, now I am known for the artist who use to work with
leaves and young talent.
Symbolic Creations by Shahzad Zar at JI
Art Gallery
Symbols are a part of our everyday
interactions. Sociologists specialize in the study and analyses of symbols in
society, politicians intelligently exploit symbols for power-gains, marketers
try to employ symbols to advance a given product or brand, and the ‘icon’ is
how the technology-savvy among us refer to the symbols used on the Internet and
in gadgets. No rite of passage, no ceremony, no activity, nor does any day pass
where humans do not interact or utilize symbols.
The wedding ceremony is one such
important rite of passage in the Subcontinent and it is one that is loaded with
symbols. Painter Shahzad Zar recently held a show at JI Gallery, in Karachi ,
titled Symbolic Creations, which showed his recent body of work that celebrates
those very wedding festivities and the symbols that are employed throughout the
ceremonies.
Weddings in the Subcontinent are and
always were huge productions. “Since the time of the Mughals to now, the
wedding is the time to rejoice, to enjoy henna, music, sweets, and finery,”
explains the artist, who is still a bachelor, which perhaps explains his
fascination with weddings. Shahzad’s mentioning of the Mughals at the
exhibition resonated immediately, as it became apparent that the painter’s
style and motifs were derived from the Miniature tradition. Elaborate borders
and backgrounds composed of vegetal and geometric designs, along with brides being
the central focus are what give these pieces the likeness to Miniatures. The
elephants are a reoccurring motif in Shahzad’s paintings, because the elephant
“…is not just a part of the Subcontinent and its history, but it was a symbol
of wealth and status. You can say that the elephant of before, is like the
4-wheeler of today”.
During last decade’s ‘time of plenty’,
the wedding became more of a time when families of both the bride and groom
seemed to compete to out-spend, out-party, and out-dress one another. Symbols
of wealth and status took on new precedence and unbelievable frequency,
bringing industries related to weddings immeasurable wealth, and bringing
families more worries and burdens.
However, Shahzad’s paintings showed the
happier and colorful side of a wedding. These paintings are actually mixed
media, with “…gold leaf, silver leaf, pen, pencil, acrylic paint, oil paint,
and collage techniques are all employed.” The intricate backgrounds and borders
were inspired by the henna that brides and women close to both the bride and
groom apply to their hands and feet. And some of those backgrounds were actual
remnants of wall paper- perhaps symbolic of the redecorating that occurs at the
homes of the bride and the groom, ahead of a wedding.
Like the Mughal Miniature, the female
form takes center stage, with the bride being the subject of many of these
pieces. “I focus on the Eastern bride this time. Notice the clothing and the
jewelry”, explains Shahzad. Despite the finery and the details with which the
brides are shown, they lack facial features- making the figures perhaps more
universal- that any girl can imagine herself as the bride shown. One painting
that stands out shows the bride perhaps at her Mehndi/Sangeet ceremony, dressed
in the traditional colors of yellow green and shows the henna painted on her
palms in the traditional manner. One would think the actual wedding and giving
away of the bride are the climactic points of a marriage celebration in
Pakistan , but instead it is the Mehndi ceremony, a ceremony with the most
number of traditions, rituals, and the most participatory for friends and
family members. It is also the most abundant with symbols.
Often this is the ceremony when the
elders from the two families exchange gifts for the bride and groom, with great
pomp and circumstance, hoping to not only make one another happy, but to show
one another the fine taste, the wealth, and the large hearts that they possess.
As for the younger generation, this ceremony is party-like, with food, music,
and many other young people to mingle with, perhaps giving rise to another
wedding in the future.
Symbolic Creations was a body of work
that celebrated more than just the festive rite of passage of marriage. In
itself, the show was a marriage between the Mughal Miniature and contemporary
art.