Paintings exhibit stories of rescued dogs
BENGALURU: To celebrate the spirit of animals, an event EmPassion is being organised by Sujaya N Jagadish, founder of SOACT India. The event includes a coffee-table book launch with paintings and stories of about 20 dogs rescued by Sujaya. The event will also feature an exhibition of portraits of dogs painted by artist Sandhya K Sirsi.
Sujaya claims she has rescued about 60 dogs ever since she began her endeavour 15 years ago. “I have also held animal health camps in villages trying to spread awareness about animal birth control (ABC). My husband and I got this idea of launching a book with stories of some of dogs I have rescued.
The book has original pictures of dogs and high-resolution pictures of paintings along with a brief story narrated from the point of view of the animal. It also includes how the dogs felt when they were treated and petred,” she says, adding that some noted personalities have written testimonies for the book including former Indian cricket team captain Rahul Dravid, Biocon MD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and actor Sruthi Hariharan.
The paintings are done by Sujaya’s family friend Sandhya K Sirsi who started her visual art journey about a decade ago. She says she was inspired by Sujaya and her work when she met her a couple of years ago. “This is the best I could do for her selfless service with my talent. I have tried to bring out the story of each dog and hope that people would understand and do whatever they can for the stray dogs. They deserve a second chance at life,” she says.
She has done line drawings with acrylics as she says it is a flexible medium and dries faster than oil or water colour
Bengaluru weather. She visited these rescued dogs to learn more and interact with them. “I travelled to Mettur village in Kolar district. I met Raja there. He lives in a school and has only three limbs. He is full of life and kids at school love to play with him.”
Though the images might look easy and minimalistic, she says it was challenging to work on the series. “Most pictures given to me were not high resolution ones and hence, it was difficult to understand their postures and body language. I had use my imagination and sketch before drawing their portraits. Even the thickness used to draw lines could change the structure entirely,” she adds. She recalls about Sandy, a street dog in Malleswaram. She’s being taken care of by residents of an apartment. “She sits with the guard, plays with kids and goes for walks with older people. I didn’t have any proper pictures and I had heard about her from Sujaya. Such stories get challenging to represent on images,” she says.
EmPassion
The event was inaugurated by actress Samyukta Hornad on August 31 at Rangoli - Metro Art Centre, MG Road. The exhibition will be on till September 2, 11 am to 7 pm.