Spreading oodles and bundles of hope

A quiet bubble floating on a sea of noise — reads the introductory line of Neha Ayub’s instagram account. She maybe quiet, but her artworks, which are a combination of poetry, painting and photography, are loud. They mirror her thoughts and all that have caught her attention. A self-taught artist, Neha, who posts her artworks on her instagram account Fragments of Hope, was brought under limelight when she did the Sunflower Series featuring women, who in her words, ‘never fail to inspire her.

As part of the series, she painted portraits of artists Noor Unnahar, Ohareeba, Fathima Hakkim, actors Gilu Joseph, Rima Kallingal and Parvathy, with sunflowers in the background.  "They are the one who encouraged me to come forward," says Neha.

If the artists motivated her to create and experiment with art, the actors explained to her the definition of courage through their deeds. "The sunflower series is a thank you note for them," says Neha. "I have added sunflowers as these flowers don’t get tired of the radiant sun. They don’t bend their heads under the blazing sun," she explains.

To Neha’s surprise, the celebs shared her works. "I just wanted them to be happy, but never expected this. Rima and Parvathy put my works as stories on instagram. Parvathy said, ‘you are not just fragments of hope, you are oodles and bundles of them’,” says an elated Neha, who has been painting since childhood. She discovered her passion for poetry recently. “In school, once I cut class to participate in poetry competition and I won first prize. That was the trigger,” says Neha, a native of Thrissur, who did a part of her schooling in Saudi Arabia. “After eighth grade, I came to Kerala and started studying here.”

She turned to art journaling as it allowed her to mix three of her passions — poetry, painting and photography.  In the journal, she writes a poem on one side and paint a related image on the opposite side. Then, she photographs the book and uploads it onto instagram. A person who loves to experiment, sometimes, she weaves lines on jeans and writes on bulbs and hands. There was a time she abstained from instagram, but soon she realised that it was her muse and returned to the platform. “It inspires me. At the same time, my works inspire others,” says Neha, who came across this style on Instagram. “I first saw it on the walls of two Pakistani artists and I thought of giving it a shot,” she says. “I bring anything that triggers my emotions in my works. It is not the title that comes first, but the words and lines. I slowly build them up.”

Even the title was not Fragments of Hope at first. “People told me that my works inspire them and gives them hope. I decided I will keep doing this and that the title should be something else. Hence, named it as Fragments of Hope,” she says hoping that her works would continue inspiring people.