Have you ever gone fishing and caught something you didn’t want? A shoe without a pair, a crushed plastic cup, clothes, or waste from a factory? Not so pleasant, is it? That’s exactly what Sujesh V Chitty, winner of the Urban Water Vector Contest by Photoconcierge, portrayed in his artwork on pollution in urban waters. Chosen from among the 18-odd contestants, he says he participated for the cause, and not to win the competition. “I didn’t think I would win. In fact, I didn’t even see the other contestants’ work to judge myself. This issue of pollution has been bothering me and I wanted to do something about it,” he shares.
His work depicts a boy wearing a mask and squatting on a polluted planet drowning in pollution and waste. Explaning his concept, Sujesh says, “People throw everything from scissors to bottles into the water. I wanted to depict that — how the animals of the sea suffer and also how we humans deprive ourselves of good water.”
So, how long did it take to conceptualise the idea? “The idea took just a couple of minutes! I started working on it two weeks ago; did a small sketch and used Photoshop to do some detailing, and that’s it,” says the digital artist-painter.
About the experience of painting his piece on a wall at Goethe Institut, Chennai, he says, “I had to join boards together, sketch the details and cut them out to form a huge stencil of the image. This took me a solid three hours,” he says and chuckles that it gave him a backache. “That was the toughest part and then I had to use spray paint and do the rest on the wall and it turned out pretty well,” he smiles.
Did he face any challenge? “The only challenge was so many people looking at me while I was working. It was weird for me as an artist. I usually prefer working alone,” he shurgs.
Having always liked to illustrate his observations through art as a medium, he shares that drawing, sketching and painting are all he does and thinks about.
“I have been working as a digital matte painter for feature films for four years in Toronto, Canada. Now that I’m here in Chennai for a while, I want to do something that would create social awareness,” says the artist who is inspired by the works of Andy Goldsworth.
“My father used to encourage me a lot to puruse art. I was not that good in academics,” he laughs. Working on creating photo-realistic background sets and concept development for films, he has the credit for working in films such as Final Destination 5, Abraham Lincoln, Darkest Hour, Jack and the Giant Slayer and In Time.
“I love creating science fiction environments and concept designs,” he says. Witnessing a change in the eco-system, he is driven to support environmental awareness through art.
“I want to create art installations made out of recycled cardboard. Recycling is important and I have already started working on it. I want to be the change I want to see,” he asserts confidently.
Sujesh is working on freelance art projects. To view his profile, visit sujesharts.blogspot.in