We recently connected with Aprajita Lal and have shared our conversation below.
Aprajita, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
It was March of 2020, the world acknowledged that humankind has been hit by a pandemic in every part of the world. Things started shutting down, I was actually fortunate that I have anyways planned for a 3 month sabbatical leave from work between April -June’2020. And believe me, I was looking forward to this time off, as during the last 17 years of my corporate career I never took a break from work. I was looking forward to these 3 months (pandemic wasn’t in view) and paint my heart out. But now the situation was very different. My kids started home-schooling and my husband who would generally travel almost every week was also working from home all the time. And there I was, off from work, painting regularly and had zero distractions. Yes it actually worked out well. I maintained a routine and had some number in my head to create “x” number of paintings within those 90 days of time-off. I am proud to say that I actually created “x” no. of paintings within 75 days. Then the proud artist in me, decided to put all those artworks all over my living room. My husband and kids were amazed at how many I ended up painting. My husband knows exactly how to keep me going – and there he threw a task, he said, “Now that you have created so many, why don’t you create an artist website and put them all for sale.
And there begins the next challenge …. I managed that too ( coming from technology experience of so many years, it wasn’t that hard)
www.aprajita.art was launched on 7th July 2020.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I remember I was in third grade when my Mom Mrs. Geeta Chaudhary (my real art teacher) encouraged me to participate in “All India Camel Color Contest”. I was a little kid and didn’t know what to do, it was my Mom who guided me and helped me create two posters for the contest. My school principal Mr. P. L Chopra was so encouraging, he got my posters submitted by school, as that was a prerequisite. After a couple of months my name was announced in the school assembly and I got the first prize in “All India Camel Color Contest”. That was my turning point, that too so early in my life. This got me interested in art. I started participating in all kinds of art contests, will practice and prepare for those. And hence I started trying different subjects and mediums – landscapes, still life, posters, cartoons and much more. The years went by and I kept making art every now and then. I did my masters in computer applications and my obvious career choice was to join the IT sector. I started working and the corporate world kept me busy and progressing. I worked for various organizations in 17 years of my corporate career, like EY, JP Morgan & Chase, Avaya, Unilever and a few more. I would still paint whenever I get an opportunity to. I started creating paintings for friends and family and for my own house.
Life started settling down a little and I started getting a lot of time over the weekends to paint. I started experimenting with different styles and mediums again. There was a time I had a collection of almost 25 decent sized paintings. Then I thought of putting my works in a gallery to see if the strangers like my work or not. And to my surprise I sold quite a few pieces. That probably was a validation for me, that my works are sellable, and that’s how my journey as a professional artist began.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is to be able to “share happiness and connection to nature”. We, humans have been taking Mother Earth for granted and have exploited it in the worst ways. But through my art, I want everyone to appreciate the beauty and blessings from the nature. Nature is so forgiving, kind and magical in its own ways, that we should pause, admire and appreciate it. We have all heard that “ART Heals”, and we have all experienced that “Nature heals, nurtures and gives life”. I am trying to create a intersection of both (Art and Nature) to create and share the beauty, happiness and the magic that can make life better for us mentally and physically. I have a simple saying with my artworks – “Art that Brings Happiness” and that’s the Moto that I live by.
Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?
Technology has been advancing much faster than we imagined, and NFT is one such innovation of technology that can give a better ecosystem to artists creating both digital art and physical too. NFTs are helping artists by providing them with a new way to monetize their digital creations and claim ownership over their work. By creating a unique, verifiable digital certificate of ownership, NFTs allow artists to sell their work as one-of-a-kind, valuable collectibles, rather than just unlimited copies of a digital file. This provides artists with a new revenue stream and more control over how their work is distributed and used. NFTs also allow for greater transparency and accountability in the art world, which can lead to fairer compensation for artists and more trust in the art market.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.aprajita.art
- Instagram: https://www.instagram,.com/aprajitalal
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063771661364
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/69354215/admin/
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aprajitalal
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@aprajitasart133
- Other: https://goo.gl/maps/L333v5iQjbrXYgcf6
Image Credits
These are pictures from my different exhibitions and shows.