Akshayaa Selvaraj Explores The World Of Stars With Her Illustrations!

This week on #FeatureFriday we bring you a quick insight into artist Akshayaa Selvaraj’s life and her brand Akshayaa under which she has introduced a multitude of creative collection including calendars, coloring heritage postcards, wall art clay dolls, etc. Conjuring out-of-the-box ideas are her forte and she has had multiple successful attempts at displaying her creative ability in transforming mundane objects into something of colorful, creative wonder.

In a candid chat with DissDash, the artist opens up more about her talent and achievements and also expresses her future aspirations. She describes herself as ‘‘a dreamer by default and a curious seeker of the magic woven inside our universe. An Architect who fell in love with brush strokes and the unfathomable world of art and illustration. After working as a lecturer for some time, I quit and plunge into my dreams to explore the depths of it to make it a reality.’’

‘‘I have created my own brand under which I have introduced calendars, coloring heritage postcards, wall art, clay dolls, doodled art prints and bookmarks.’’

We were curious to know how art has changed her world and Akshayaa Sevaraj gets all excited to tell us about her journey. ‘‘From my childhood, I had been participating in a lot of competitions that involved on-the-spot topics. Though I had only won a couple of competitions, experience and participation gave me the drive [to mold me into what] I am today. After finishing my architectural degree, I had the opportunity to restore an antique wooden inkstand and cloth hanger.”

“I started doodling on wooden artifacts and restored a wooden bookshelf with the concept of a storybook. Being self-taught, I followed my own art and style and kept exploring! From sketching it grew to clay modeling, wood painting, oil painting, doodling and it opened a new niche for me. I started a facebook page dedicating my doodles, to my loved ones by expressing gratitude and memories through doodles.”

“Slowly, it became a powerful habit of doodling my favorite Rumi quotes and delivering it to the people who await it and believe it to be inspirational. I started doing commissioned wall art, illustrating for book’s cover page, holding exhibitions and thus I ended up doing a calendar for the year 2017 with a heritage theme. It was designed with coloring postcards depicting Indian heritage sites, Rumi bookmarks, and a bundle of activities to do every day. From the overwhelming response of it, the venture into calendars that becomes a part of people’s life bloomed. Once a hobby encouraged by my parents slowly evolved and merged into my soul thus reflecting my life in all its traces.It is an identity and character that people recognize me with!’’

Can art be an inspiration? ‘‘Art beyond the canvas or medium imprints a powerful conversation onto the observer’s mind which can heal, inspire and profoundly affect a person’s life in a positive way,’’ came her reply without a blink.

2018 is already buzzing for Akshayaa Selvaraj! ‘‘My Storybook Calendar 2018 is an extension of my Inktober series called ‘Natchathira Kaadu’ (Forest of Stars). For my Inktober series, I took up a challenge of creating illustrations that would make me explore my thoughts and document it as a visual journey, penning down my thoughts everyday and realizations as a diversion from my everyday life. It’s a journey into the infinite world of stars which helped me in finding out the eternal truth ‘we are the universe,’ ‘dreams do come true’ and applying the metaphor of darkness and stars to our life situations. This radical journey led me to conceive the idea of a storybook calendar with an endless way of using the calendar and creating it in such a way that [it] makes a positive mark on our daily life. I ended up with a bunch of goodies such as a mini easel to display it and use it afterward too, glow paint and brush to ignite the inner child within us and 24 illustrations to ponder upon, contemplate, relish and pen down a creative story or explore your inner self. At the end of the year, you get to make a creative handmade personalized storybook or frame the illustrations.’’

She attributes her inspiration for this entire calendar series ‘‘to the difficult, boredom, ordinary times of my life which led me to look for the infinite stars, moon and nature and for teaching me the reality of the light at the end of the tunnel.’’

So what does Akshayaa Selvaraj have in store for the future? ‘‘My only dream is to create endless happy hearts through my art and illustration and get inspired every day. I am looking forward to work with more creative people and for social causes.”

‘‘Believe and follow your dreams as much as you believe in your next breath,’’ Akshayaa says signing off.

Check out Akshayaa Selvaraj’s creative pages: