My son, Aryan Kapur, is twelve years old and finds art very calming. When he was six years old, like any mother, during the summer break, I enrolled him for an art class. In that class he hardly drew anything. It seems it was a task for the drawing teacher to make him even draw a line neatly. But with time I realised that he believes in self-tutoring. In the world of Youtube, the youngsters are finding their niche and are working towards it.
‘Sees art in everything’
During his growing years, he would have his drawing book with him everywhere. He did not want to be told what to draw. He drew his own inspiration. He would find a paper and he would draw on it. He would find a tissue and he would sketch on it. He just needed a surface and he would make something on it.
With academic pressure, his father and I were asking him to devote time to his studies and asking him to manage his time with more focus on studies. At school he eagerly waits for every break and uses that time to finish his drawings. He waits for us to sleep so that he can work on his art. His passion, his pastime, his entertainment, his stress buster is all art. He diligently saves all his pocket money for his art supplies, which are not very cheap in today’s world.
Big break
As parents, we never took his interest seriously till I saw a sketch of a horse drawn behind a used cardboard. The finesse in that drew my attention. That drawing sits in our living room now. I decided to make his Instagram and Facebook page this August. Within a week, his Instagram page received an invite to paint the office wall of a big coffee distributor’s head office in Dubai. They wanted to promote the young artist, hence they wanted him to bring his art on their walls.
I gave the call to Aryan as I did not want to put any pressure on him and wanted him to make his own decision. Next, I took him to the office and showed him the walls of the office. He knew what he wanted to do, He was asked to create his own art, by using his own imagination. With his school and other commitments he ended up doing two walls for the same office.
Self-tutoring in today’s world
In this hi-tech world, self-teaching is possible. He has all the gadgets, and he uses all of them not only to play around but also to better his art skills. He searches for the art masters and follows their work on YouTube and Instagram.
Funding animal welfare
Lately he is using his art to personalise personal accessories, like power banks, clocks, phone covers, shoes along with doing portraits on personal requests. He loves dogs and he can do anything for them. The idea for animal welfare fund came in when he was asked by one of his friend to draw something and the friend paid for his drawing. Since then, whenever anyone is asking him to draw anything, he draws for them and asks them to give anything as per their desire for the love for his cause.
— The reader is based in Dubai.
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