Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kajal Zaveri. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kajal, 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.
I am not a formally trained artist and neither have I always been a full-time artist. In my early life, art was a part-time hobby which has now become my passion and a full-time career choice. I grew up in a close knit, happy family in India, blessed to have my amazing dad, my first guru, who always believed in me and imbibed in me the confidence to follow my heart and work hard for what I wanted, and my mom who always was and still is my biggest cheerleader and proud of me, no matter what. I was also always surrounded by deep, vibrant colors, customs and traditions seeped in various hues and shades, patterns, artistry, celebrations, and joy. So even though I never went to formal art school, my love for the arts was ignited by and stayed with me, due to all this inspiration around me and the guidance of a great teacher at a local hobby art class.
Throughout my early life, I pursued the path of academics and research and after my graduation. moved to California from India, to pursue my MBA. Armed with my new degree, I set out to conquer the corporate world, but soon realized that deep down I was not really enjoying myself and was yearning for something else that would make me truly happy and excited.
It was then that I started painting vigorously again, and began visually translating with wonderment, the beauty and bounty of California, its uninterrupted horizons, shorelines, its flora and fauna, magnificent sunrises and sunsets, the deep blue ocean scenes, and all that I was keenly getting to discover in my various, regular explorations. I felt a great sense of joy and excitement again, I looked forward to visually journaling on canvas, all that I saw and sensed around me and all that I loved from my various travels abroad. For fun, I took part in an online art competition and won, and that felt like a final validation of what I was seeking, which was to focus on my art. After my son was born, I quit my day job and focused all my energies on pursuing art as a full-time career; finally feeling fulfilled and getting paid to do what I loved the most.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My art comes from a positive and happy place, and is an amalgamation of my memories and experiences, both past and present. My painting style is a mix of abstract and semi abstract portrayals of nature in rich, lush colors. Being largely self-taught, I paint intuitively and spontaneously. My landscapes are free flowing, expressive, and lyrical and fall in the realm of Abstract Realism. The aesthetics and the sensation of a fleeting moment, or carefully collected impressions, or vivid memories of various places and encounters, is what I try to journal and visually translate onto canvas. I use this reference as a point of departure for abstracting for a more representational and modern composition. Since the viewer doesn’t know of my point of inspiration, it is my hope that when they view my work, it ignites their own fond memories of special places and times and entice nostalgia and dreaminess and a sense of commonness and shared experiences. I am so blessed to have my work well received and sold on various luxury ecommerce sites like Williams Sonoma Home and One Kings Lane, featured on Times Square Billboards and featured in luxury magazines like Elle Décor and Popsugar.com to name a few. I have been interviewed and featured on various art websites and been able to exhibit and sell at major Art Fairs like Art Market San Francisco and Spectrum, Miami and Red Dot, Miami. Though it has not always been easy and has entailed a lot of hard work and patience to get visibility, recognition, opportunities, and commercial success, it has also been the best decision of my life. I am always so grateful for all the love and support that I have got through my artistic journey and am so humbled and honored when people enjoy my artwork, or my collectors buy something I created, and display and share in their beautiful homes.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Being an artist, I really enjoy the freedom that I have carved for myself to create my visual stories and conversations about what I choose to share as I continue to learn, grow, and create and then share my point of view with the world. Art is powerful and giving yet humble and vulnerable at the same time. This sentiment has been reiterated even more strongly for me as I have recently found an immense sense of fulfillment as an art teacher to young artists. At the start of the pandemic, I volunteered to teach inclusive art classes to many children of all abilities, for more than a year, and saw a very real, positive transformation in their interest in art, the boost in their confidence and skill set, and overall excitement about the possibilities of self-expression, joy, and pride that they experienced through their hard work, efforts and tangible artwork. I also conducted various guest artist sessions for various NGOs and Art Museums and helped with Covid relief efforts through auctioning my art. I am also humbled to have had the opportunity to be a mentor and advisor in various capacities. My various varied interactions showcased the immense strength and power of art and how rewarding, satisfying and therapeutic it can be when shared with one and all . In the process, I also learnt a lot about myself, and this has boosted my confidence both as an artist and a collaborator. This entire experience has strengthened my vision to keep creating my art with even more gratitude, and joy.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
My journey as a creative and an artist involves struggles, challenges and processes that are unique to me. It is a deeply personal experience with its own layers of complexities and nuances. Years of pursuit, time, effort, and constant exploration have been invested to find my own artistic voice and identity. From generating ideas to translating them into tangible works, I go through periods of exploration, experimentation, and uncertainty. The iterative nature and effort needed in the endeavor of the creative process is sometimes undervalued and underappreciated by some in the non-creative fields. People appreciate and enjoy my artwork, but at the same time, some of them are also curious about art as a full-time career choice and may insinuate that working in a creative field doesn’t qualify as a real job. For them I can share that a real job in the conventional sense of the word is one where you can engage your passions, use your skills, and is something that provides for your needs. For me, my creative career choice ticks all these boxes and on top of that, additionally, it makes me very happy. It gives me the freedom to express myself in my own voice and create in my own way and allows me to connect to people who appreciate me for my point of view. For me, that is enough.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kajalzaveri.art
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artist.kajalzaveri/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KajalZaveriArt/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kajal-zaveri/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/zaveri_k
Image Credits
Kajal Zaveri