Eminent artist Sabarimala explains why art is cathartic, not commercial

Manilal Sabarimala, who holds the record of drawing 10,000 Ganeshas in one of his art works, is exhibiting creations at art gallery. Many senior artists aim for visibility and sustainability through the art they create. While the inherent purpose of creating art might not be commercial, several fall in the trap of losing the balance between the motives. Manilal Sabarimala is among them.

The renowned artist, who was born and raised in Sabarimala, Kerala, believes in creating for self-improvement, a creative signature that is a piece of himself. In doing so, appreciation and sustainability might come, but that is not his priority.

“I don’t need hundred people telling me my work is great or amazing. Only one person doing so will work, only when this appreciation comes with a critical view of my art and becomes a part of my growth as an artist,” he said. Sabarimala is showcasing his latest art work, his creative drawings based on concept such as human mental agony, frustration, and settled feelings of sub consciousness at the SG Thakur Singh Art Gallery. In drawing, he has his own signature style, which creates a typical blend with stone/marble/granite carvings. These drawings, done to detail that would automatically draw appreciation for this artist, all are done with micron pen on canson paper.

The black and white monochromatic treatment creates a poetic rhythm in all his works as it puts the audience in a position to self-interpret the theme.

But that’s not how Sabarimala started early in his career. “It was in 1999 that I was in Bhutan and put through a stressing time that I just sat, took a pen and started drawing on the paper, random lines. Once I finished, I realised I was calm, the drawing on paper representing the outflow of my emotions. I left it at that. Years later, when I was somewhere running after creating inspired works by some artist or the other, one of the things that struck me was the pen drawings that once made,” he shared. To this day, Sabarimala now works in his signature style having come out of his comfort zone.

The art work displayed at art gallery, he said, represents his inner most emotions, turmoil as he passes through them during the process of creating art. “These drawings represent my mental frustration, agony of an artist, feelings of an artist that most people would relate to. Sometimes, I might have clear mind before working while at others, I stretch as I am not in a mindset to continue. Nonetheless, the art does draw from reality,” he says.