Life depiction on Canvas painting

Art cannot be taught, feels Karma Tenrab, an artist from Sikkim, who held his solo exhibition in the City

No matter how long you sit in front of a flower without batting an eyelid, hoping to catch it bloom, you are bound to miss its evolution. What you finally see, will be a fully blossomed flower that will leave you perplexed as to how you missed so much despite being right there. Life, says Karma Tenrab, is like a flower. In the process of waiting and working towards a future that we aren’t aware of, before we know it, the present just passes us by.
This young artist from Sikkim has a very unique way of approaching life and makes you wonder if living it the way he does will add more essence to it. “I believe that if you acknowledge the present, the future undoubtedly, takes shape. There’s so much in the present to stop and appreciate and it’s important to do so,” he says.

Life, its meaning and Karma’s perception and understanding of it is visible through his work in the form of paintings. With the Buddha as his metaphor for life itself, the artist expresses, through his work, the influences the divine power has had on his existence. But he’s quick to add that he isn’t a religious person. “I am in no way religious and haven’t read anything related to Buddhism or any religion. In fact, I don’t read anything at all. Religion, to me, is like a cube of sugar — it tastes the same from all corners. I believe in the feelings Buddha evokes within me and that’s what one will see in my work.”

Born and brought up in Sikkim, Karma says he has grown with a lot of influences from Buddhism. “Most of my friends were monks and I used to tag along with them for their daily recital at the monastery. I was never given a sermon on Buddhism or its principles. It was, instead, something that grew along with me, a by-product of life’s experiences, if I may say,” he shares.

His approach to work is intriguing, just as much as his view on life. One who is firmly grounded to his roots, Karma Tenrab, above everything else, is a strong upholder of approaching art with utmost truth. “You have got to be honest with your work. Art cannot be taught to anyone. One can take off from the great artists or art schools but that should just give one a foundation to sketch out their own form from it. I respect those who have created beautiful paintings of the sunset or the mountains. But I stand by the principle that what is real and beautiful should be left where it is. An artist needs to go beyond that,” he says.

When he moved from an engineering course to a famed art school in Baroda, his pre-conceived notion of what an art school should be was crushed. The professors, he says, were very good with their work but he felt that the approach of learning art and being an artist wasn’t the way he perceived it or the way he still perceives it. “There is no ‘don’t’ in art. Maybe because of that, I felt like a misfit there and soon walked out to find my own path. I traveled to all the holy places of Buddhism and that resulted in my first series of black and white work based on the Buddha and from then on it’s been a great journey with solo and group exhibitions throughout the past year.”

For someone who likes to stay unaware (this is a result of steering clear of reading anything) and let experiences play a role in his thought process, the only other important thing is doing the right thing. “I believe in ‘karma’ and if my painting can influence the viewer, that, for me is good karma. I also want to give back to the state (Sikkim) that has made me what I am today and hope to find the means to do that too.”

On a piece of advise to the new crop of artists, he says “Follow your own form and do not think through another artists’ mind. Any form of art is beautiful as long as it’s pure and is brought out in an honest manner.”