K Muralidharan

Q. What drew you to art? Tell us about your early development as an artist?
I was brought up in a very religious family. I was fascinated and affected by religious thoughts since childhood. The wisdom, adventure and romance contained in them (by religious thoughts) are an integral part of my life and my personality. My work has been based on recollections from my childhood. The rituals at the temple and at home had...

Q. What drew you to art? Tell us about your early development as an artist?
I was brought up in a very religious family. I was fascinated and affected by religious thoughts since childhood. The wisdom, adventure and romance contained in them (by religious thoughts) are an integral part of my life and my personality. My work has been based on recollections from my childhood. The rituals at the temple and at home had a deep influence on me and that probably shows in my work, too.

Q. Is this the reason that mythological subject matter seems to dominate your work?
It is true that I often paint Gods. But I can state that I have never deliberately painted Gods. It came to me spontaneously and as I said because of my religious upbringing and background. I feel comfortable with the subject theme. I don't tell stories; mythology merely serves as an inspiration. I don't have any religious point to make. In fact, my work became a refined surrealism. The fish began to assume three heads; the Indian Hindu mythical lore became my storehouse. I used mythology in my paintings even when they were based on landscapes. I started using landscapes and mythological images simultaneously.

Q. But religion is a sensitive subject and the viewer might not agree with your artistic perception of what's a purely personal experience. Does this worry you?
I try to see and decipher myths, the ancient myths and attempt to portrait meanings. I derive, their impact on me, as seen by a child. I see them through the child's mind in all its innocence and purity. An adult can pursue the emotional and the intellectual overtones; not a child. I want to strip down a particular concept of our mythological background in the Vedas to a simple and straight form so that there are no pretensions of religious messages being transmitted.

Q. You are known to experiment with a vast media, and come up with novel compositions. How do you pick the materials to work with?
I think I stand apart from my contemporaries in the use of material. My European sojourn opened up my vision in the use of materials. It didn't alter my vision, but suddenly, I became aware of the fact that even an ordinary material like sand and sawdust can be translated to show my sense of roughness.

Q. Can you elaborate more on your style of work?
I built up my canvas as an actual process. I am fascinated with mixed media and I want to show the differing temperament of the materials I use. So I use sand for texture, sawdust, jute, impasto color, distempers, plastic, industrial paints and whatever else that suits my work.

Q. Do you see art as a tool of sending any socio-political message?
I always respond to the social problems. I try to help these causes in financial ways or some times physically. But I never try to portray them on canvas to cash upon these. I am totally against that. I am not a great intellectual. It shuts me out from so many things. I want to be a simple guy without any pretensions and that shows in my work.

Q. So you try to keep it yourself, to follow your instincts and tread your own path when it comes to art.
What I experienced, I recreated in terms of my personality, my psyche. Even as I painted, I also learnt that I must continue to grow, continue to experiment, if I am to be relevant and meaningful to the society I live in. It's in a constant state of flux and I am a part of it whether you talk of materialistic achievement, success and of being different.

Q. What can we expect from you next? Are you planning any new series of work?
I feel as an artist there is so much left to be discovered. There are still lots of possibilities to explore into Indian mythology. I will try to form a fusion of mythological interpretation and reduce them to simple straight forms. I plan to delve further into the rich heritage of our country and try to express them in my individual style. I will try to find out how these mythological forms can blend with modern thought in my works.