We recently connected with Christine Das and have shared our conversation below.

Christine, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

I have my late parents to thank for who I have become,a Wildlife Artist because it is their encouragement since I started holding a pencil that brought me here. I had a fascination for pencils and doodling as a very very young child and what my parents did was to nurture that interest by providing me with the tools and at that time in the late 60’s & 70’s it was colouring books and coloured pencils! Oh I loved them so much and I had a stack of them throughout my growing years. I wasn’t the academic type and what I love & appreciate about my parents is that they never, not once, even though my mother was a teacher, they never put that kind of pressure on me to make the A’s or top of class. Instead they allowed me the freedom to become by giving me that space to grow and learn for myself that the decision is mine and mine alone to make. In other words, I had a FANTASTIC childhood just being myself with a lot of play and fun. I remember my dad telling me stories of what a fantastic artist his dad was. I believe subconsciously that was what I wanted to be when I grew up and it did come to pass. So when I decided to get into graphic design school after high school, I had my parents support right up to their passing. Unfortunately neither lived to see where I am today as a Wildlife Artist but I am sure they know.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a Wildlife Conservation Artist and I embarked on this path into the contemporary arts in 2007 and in 2012 I became a full time artist. I am the 1st Malaysian artist to become a member of the Global collective : Artists for Conservation! My life purpose to be an ARTvocate for wildlife was given to me by an orphaned baby elephant from Sabah in 2013 thru a very tragic story of the loss of his entire 13 family members were poisoned in a Oil Palm Plantation. Since meeting this elephant fondly named Lil’Joe, my pathway was clearly mapped out and I have been on it faithfully till this day. There is nothing else I would rather do than this. To further level up my ARTvocacy for wildlife, during the recent Covid19 lockdown, an idea for a workshop was birthed, SoWild: Art meets Conservation. It’s aimed to educate the public. 7 years and above, about the plight of the endangered Malaysian wildlife one species at a time and to narrow the gap of ignorance and lack of information due to a poorly planned education curriculum in Malaysia. Its inaugural debut was on 4 December 2021 on World Wildlife Conservation Day and has been slowly growing with good support from corporate companies wanting to fulfill their ESG (Environmental Social Governance) initiatives. I am most proud about this workshop and I do know that it has the potential to grow into something very relevant to this world. It’s a matter of time. Now I have 2 ways of reaching out to mankind on how to become better human beings who will start healing planet earth from where they are & become CIA (Consciousness in Action)!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Definitely a resounding yes! Humans, being human, are so caught up in pursuit of their own life goals & needs, have totally disconnected themselves from the core of who they actually are, nature. When this consciousness that we are nature, we NEED nature to survive and that we are innately connected to nature is non-existent.We tend to hurt & destroy nature through our action and inaction. There is no guilt nor remorse in oneself and most of the time we are unconscious of how our actions & beliefs;including religous beliefs,are affecting the health of our planet & welfare of animals. My mission is to bring this awareness to as many people as possible regardless of age not only through my paintings but also my workshops. I would eventually love to be engaged in talk events and become a speaker so that I can marry it all together. Of course ultimately, my dream goal is to be able to create various artistic events around my Wildlife ARTvocacy that are engaging and for a larger public crowd into it.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

That I am UNIQUE and I am ENOUGH. Initially when I started out as an artist, I successfully embraced this concept which brought me great joy in creating art and very successful shows. But a life situation altered me which caused me to spiral downwards for 5 years, costing me to be unproductive and lost my consistent income. I faced a “loss” during my divorce which shook my independence to the core and made go in search incompatible pathways for my artistic career. So I started venturing off my unique path and went into the conventional contemporary art path thinking I would do well here with the support of gallerists & collectives due to the sense of loss I was experiencing. To my disappointment then, nothing worked and I faced let downs all the time and further spiralled down into fear and anxiety which worsened my heart palpitation that I had one severe heart episode of Supra-vascular Trachicardia that jolted me to a profound inner awakening. I was made aware that I am making myself ill with all this fear & anxiety and something needed to change immediately. I am eternally grateful that this incident has brought me out of this LOSS and finally realised that I have the ability to run my art business on my own just as I had successfully done before. If and when I needed help and advice, I have all the resources around me. I found out that I don’t have to and I don’t want to follow the conventional contemporary art pathway which is not suited for me & most importantly my mission as a wildlife artist. Instead, building my own unique art business model is the way forward for me without having to conform and loose my self identity to the rules of the normal art world. What a great relief it was to re-emerge as a new version of Christine Das! I know now that I had to go thru the 5years of dark nights in order to see the light which is re-directing me to my purpose as a Wildlife Conservation Artist and every bad choice I made are now pearls of wisdom to never make those mistakes again! The unlearning was in an instant in that profound “I had enough” moment! I am now just moving forward enjoying the process of making art which I love!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.christinedas.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinedas/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristineDasArt

Image Credits
Christine Das