Remember how looking at pretty much every vibrantly painted wall on TV made us wish we lived around them? Schools with beautifully painted scenes from storybooks and walls etched with creative designs and patterns — if you’ve been randomly observing these rather often, it’s quite possible that Divya Ramachandran has something to do with it! Originally from Chennai but also having been a Bengaluru belle for three years, the artist is a former faculty member of Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology. These days, she’s the flag bearer of The Happy Wall Project. Started with the hope and dream of spreading and splashing the Garden City with more colour, the project is two-years-old already.
“I’d been teaching at Srishti, where I met multiple other creative people whose artistic skills inspired me, daily. It included both professors and students. On multiple occasions, they would paint the walls of the school and that awakened ideas in me — that the city could be splashed with a little more vibrancy too!” says the 29-year-old.
There’s no particular pattern that Divya follows when it comes to the walls she and her team chooses to splash with colours. More than a 100 walls in schools, cafes, homes and even railway stations later, Divya talks about how the Happy Wall Project is not a structured and strategic process. “If I look at a wall that I feel could do with colour, I seek permission and ask the owner if they would like us to work on it. There’s no strategic ideation that goes into the creation, really. We just go with the flow and improvise,” she spills. A wall selection, a post on Facebook informing people who would like to volunteer and voila – radiant hues are splashed upon walls! While Divya has been the lone ranger in painting personal spaces, more public exteriors have also been requested to be painted by both corporate and charity ventures.
Yet, that is not all. While every artwork Divya creates has a story to tell, most of them work for a cause too. From a Facebook page where she would put up posts about their next wall-painting venture to holding workshops for both adults and youngsters to explore their art, Divya talks about her socially-oriented projects for underprivileged kids, and rural areas. “While the major aim behind the Happy Wall Project was to liven up the city a little bit, being approached by the Teach For India Foundation was the most inspiring. At the end of the day, this project is about bringing out personal elements and touching the lives of people!”
