CHENNAI: Cartooning was his hobby which later turned into passion, when a stranger at a bank queue appreciated his cartoons.
Meet the hobbyist who will be seen participating in an international exhibition of Animal Cartoon — Zoological Garden, organised by Ajantha school of Arts. Ahead of the exhibition City Express catches up with KR Ramakrishnan or Ramki, who is into PR and publishing.
We see cartoons everywhere daily, be it in newspaper or television. But ever heard of wedding cartoons? For the past seven to eight years, Ramki has been cartooning for weddings. “It all started when a relative of mine asked me to do a sketch explaining the rituals involved in a wedding, for his friends from abroad. What I did was appreciated by many and that gave me an idea to take this further,” says the cartoonist.
Ramki feels that with each wedding he is cartooning for, he is getting a step closer to becoming an expert, “Each one I create are different in their own way. I work on different kinds of wedding cartoons all the time just to have to an edge over the others.”
Besides wedding cartooning, Ramki conducts regular workshops in the city too. “If you go to Bengaluru, you will see many workshops being conducted because the Indian Association of Cartoonists is based there. But here in Chennai cartoonists are not encouraged enough,” says Ramki. “I conduct workshops to create awareness about the art. I wish to train more cartoonists, especially women,” he adds. His workshops have seen an overwhelming response from not just kids, but also adults. He had various sessions with celebrated cartoonists like Keshav and Shankar.
Previously the artist had exhibited his Zoological Garden collection at Rajan Eye Care Hospital in association with Serbian cartoonist Spiro Radulovic. His art work there displayed the international animal cartoons that depict various aspects of the current society, some directly and others as metaphors.
Stating that cartooning is not recognised, with the lack of encouragement to cartoonists, Ramki believes that times will change in the coming years. “I see a lot of interest in people towards cartooning. I’m positive that in future, there will be more cartoonists and they will be given good credit for their work,” he shares. So what plans does Ramki have for the future? “I’m planning to conduct workshops in other cities as well. Currently negotiations are on, hopefully everything will pan out well.”
(Check out Ramki's work from Jan 21 and 23 at Ajantha School of Arts
Auditorium. For details,
call: 9940390708)