‘Chalking’ on canvas

BENGALURU: As a child, Anushree Chokappa used to attend various art courses. And now, the lettering artist, who uses chalk as a medium of art, has been conducting workshops on lettering art around the city. 
She says her work as a lettering artist is playful and comes with a lot of experimentation. “I want to share joy with my viewers by commenting on the quirks of everyday life. I create artwork for friends and clients to express my personality, or theirs, in a way that is relatable,” she says. She graduated from Srishti Institute of Art as a design artiste where she learnt skills and techniques on lettering art form.

This young artist also enjoys using satire in political comic illustrations and most of her artworks can be seen on social media. She is greatly influenced by artistes on Instagram like Lauren Hom, Stefan Kunz, and Ian Barnard. “I also listen to The Honest Designers Show podcast. I’m mostly inspired by them not only because of their skill, but the passion they have in sharing their journey and insights into living a creative life,” Chokappa points out.

Chokappa, who is a freelancer now, had initially joined a company which helped her become better at her work. When asked why she chose chalk as her medium, she says, “I was quite fascinated by chalk art created by the lettering artists I follow, the simplicity of the medium, and the ability to create large art works in a similar way as you would with pencil and paper. Like pencil, chalk is a temporary medium and is forgiving when it comes to making mistakes.” A few days before last Christmas, the artist started ‘Deck the Walls’ project to create chalk lettering on menu boards and walls in restaurants. She says the project has been a great hit. “I created and handed out a flyer showing my lettering work to restaurants, and soon some of them were calling me back to decorate their space for Christmas. Some also commissioned more lettering work for their marketing projects,” Chokappa says.

She started conducting workshops in early 2019. Being an extrovert, she enjoys engaging with people and couldn’t have thought of a better way to do so without conducting workshops. “It is fun to come up with interesting ways to teach lettering. It’s wonderful to see that your participants are enjoying themselves,” she says, adding, “Chalk artwork is gaining popularity in India, so I wanted to ride that wave with my ‘Deck the Walls’ project. Restaurants like Chinita, Toit and Britalian Kitchen were also a good public space to gain visibility.”She navigates the art world mostly on Instagram as she has a big number of followers. She follows current art trends related to lettering on social media and improvises her work based on them.