Chandigarh artist paints Covid-19 messages on garages

Amarjot Kaur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 31

When the devastating second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic washed hope to the dark and macabre shores of despair, city-based visual artist Ravi Sharma picked up his brush and colours to paint optimism. On garage doors of Sector 45, he has made four artworks about Covid-19, to pay tributes to health workers, create awareness about the virus and to motivate people to fight against it.

The 39-year-old resident of Sector 45, who is also an automotive trainer, said it was his way of giving something to society, as it struggled to battle the deadly blows of the infectious disease. “My neighbours, an elderly couple, too, got infected with the virus. I would give them lunch everyday. My garage was the first thing they saw when they opened their door. So, I decided to paint ‘hope’ on my garage, to motivate them,” recalls Ravi, talking about his first artwork about Covid. “I travel a lot and was inspired by the street art in European countries,” he adds.

At its core, Ravi’s artworks are aimed at spreading social messages and he paints on people’s garages free of cost.

Ravi uses acrylic colours on garage doors to create his artworks. “However, when the garage door needs more preparation, like if it’s rusted and needs to be repainted, we do that too,” he shares.

Ravi’s neighbour, lawyer and President of Resident Welfare Association Ashok Sharma Nabhewala, who also got his garage painted by Ravi, says: “Visual art always helps in spreading the message rampantly than an individual personally can. This art on my property, for instance, might make the violators guilty and the unaware more conscious. My daughter, who is also a lawyer, insisted that we must have this socially mobalised, to encourage others to follow the norms and also make streets more colorful.”

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