‘Ruch’ing out to the artistic
With a platform that celebrates art in its truest form, this girl is going about embellishing creativity for all.
By : soumashree sarkar
Update: 2015-12-20 22:51 GMT
One day, after scrolling through an astonishing number of selfies on her News Feed, 24-year-old Rucha Dhayarkar decided that she had had enough. But unlike the rest of us, she did not put up a status update in anger, she opened up a platform where she could publish the works of the artists that she loved so that people could indulge themselves in a minute’s worth of daily art. The Daily Blip is not just a blip in the art-lover’s daily life of the quotidian; it's also a page where artists can find recognition. It’s little surprise then that this Bengaluru girl’s initiative has thousands of followers who depend on this free source for their daily fix of names as well known as Egon Schiele, as well as obscure Japanese illustrators like Kosuke Ajiro.
A filmmaker, artist and illustrator herself, Rucha grew up drawing prohibited doodles on her textbooks. She says, “Ever since I was a child, I would always be making things out of scraps, drawing on things and doodling. But being a normal middle class child from Pune, I gave up all interest in art in my tenth grade and began to focus on academics (I wanted to become a marine biologist at that point, yes) but eventually in my twelfth grade I decided to give design schools a shot as I really missed drawing and working with my hands creatively. And now, here I am.”
A member of the Klatsch Collective and a graduate of Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, Rucha is set apart by her devotion to tracking down the artists and letting them know that she is promoting their work. She says, “As a rule, I write to every artist whose work I share (I generally try really hard to track these people down and contact them with some super stalking skills that I have acquired!) and it is overwhelming how many of them respond and appreciate what I am doing. I don’t know what it is called when somebody you're a fan of tells you that they are a fan of you, maybe reverse fan girl moment, it’s like, ‘you talking about me?!’ The most surprising and humbling part is when an artist you admire tells you how they go to your blog for some inspiration.”
Channelling the aesthetic of a true freelancer into her days now, Rucha spends her time doing whatever she loves best. She says, “Ever since I quit my day job, I start my day with skipping (actually) and then a cup of green tea, sitting in front of my laptop and looking at artists. After I am done scheduling work for the day, I move on to work on the freelance projects I have in hand. Usually I take breaks to chill with my kittens. Evenings are spent hanging out with my boyfriend, watching some movie and very often cooking together.”
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