This is how it works for Preena. An idea pops into her head and she tries it out in her scribbling. If works out, it makes it to her Facebook page titled Lunch-Hour Doodles. If not, she throws it away. [break]
“Not all ideas work,” she says.
And she has brought these random scribbling of her ideas, that worked, to an exhibition.
Lunch-Hour Doodles are vivid black and white artwork by this young upcoming illustrator in a sardonic, candid and funny way of looking one’s life, any one’s life.
She started “doodling” these ideas about a year ago from the cafeteria of her University of Technology, Sydney in Australia. “That was how I kept myself occupied (and avoided the cafeteria crowd) during my hour-and-a-half break between classes,” she says.
“The ideas do not have to be on or of anything specific. Neither is it from a specific place,” she says.
So, these ideas are random. Really random.
Preena´s strips show the feistiness and creativity. But nothing indicates that this is a solely Nepali comic strip, which is what the illustrator wanted. “I do not want it to be of one society, culture, politics or an idea. It would be too confining.”
Maybe that is why she did not oblige to her friends who asked more of Nepali localized characters in her artistic work. “My friends thought it was too Western and wanted me to include some characters wearing a Dhaka or Gunyu and exclamations like Aiya instead of Ouch! I do not think it is necessary.”And she is right. Her strength is that anyone, be it Nepali or not, can relate to the depiction of her stories. The character protagonist does not have a name, origin, creed or religion and is uncannily funny with superhuman flaws. And Preena plans to keep her that way, unnamed. That way, she will have more freedom to work on various aspects of normal life, and not specific mission.
“Political and social cartoons, like syndicated cartoons and comics, have limitations,” Preena says. “Three panels, same jokes, similar punchlines, etc. It has to be boring at certain point.” “I don´t necessarily try to incorporate punchlines or jokes in my strips like people have come to expect of "comics" - its the subtlety that appeals to me,” the young artist says.
For her, any other form of characterization of comic strip is too confining, except personal ones. It does show in one of her comic strip, that reads, “Have I mentioned how bloody confining this strip can be?”Quite an angst there. But she says “personal means more spacious for creativity”. Her ideas are very personal. The artwork show subtle exaggeration of her normal being. Of what she thinks, how she feels and probably, who she is. She basically doodles her mind.
Probably that is why some of the sketches show shades of teenage angst. She brushes it off saying it’s just a “general angst” of a normal growing person. “I am a cynical kind of a person and perhaps it shows in my illustrations.”
Preena grew up reading Archies and Chacha Chaudhary, like every other kid in Kathmandu and began scribbling crayons on room walls since a child, “much to my parent´s disdain”.
“The constant traveling and forever being the "new girl" at the many schools I went to - coupled with the missing sibling to torment - made me the somewhat socially inept person that I am today,” she blames her guardians.
And that is also what “fueled (mostly out of boredom) my inclination toward art.” As for formal trainings, she has none except an art teacher in the 8th grade and bumped into Lalit Kala Campus for one day.
Her drawings have a tincture of graphic-novelesque characteristic to it. Even though she has never read Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Preena’s characters are a lot like Marji of the graphic novel. She usually prefers small-press variety rather than big corporate syndicated comics. “Independent artists like Julia Wertz, Natalie Dee and Laura Park have influenced me in a big way,” she says.
Preena hopes to own her own minicomic one day, but for now, feels that “her creativity is not consistent enough.” “I´ll have a week where I´ll want to draw every single day, and months where I won’t draw a scratch,” she says.
These pictures are great introduction to things to come in near future. It is an enlightenment of the perspective of a young modern Nepali, who could very well be any global citizen.
Lunch-hour Doodles is at the Bakery Café, Pulchowk and will go on until February 15, 2008.
