CHENNAI: When 16-year-old Laya Mathikshara conducted her first workshop on digital art, a participant from an HIV-positive family said, “I drew a black and grey rainbow as I was at a phase where I felt like I couldn’t communicate or express my emotions to anyone.” This was the time Laya understood that not all rainbows are meant to be colourful. Another participant at the workshop said the paintings gave her an outlet and freedom to express herself without feeling judged.
When the world came to a standstill during the pandemic, Laya, all of 12 years, found her solace in making digital art and 3D animation. Confined to her home, she followed her passion for art through online tutorials. Today, at just 16, Laya is not only a budding digital artist but also a young entrepreneur minting her art to ‘non-fungible tokens’ (NFTs) with remarkable success. (NFTs are digital assets that are stored on a blockchain and represent real-world objects like art, music, videos, and in-game items). What started as a casual interest for Laya quickly evolved into a profound passion.
The teenage girl now works with children of HIV-positive families. Laya started with art workshops, lending a hand to the children from these backgrounds to escape from the world.
She is now in the process of ‘tokenising’ their artwork and converting them into NFTs on blockchain. She hopes to give the proceeds back to them to encourage them to pursue it further as a hobby or even take it up professionally.
“Art allowed me to form an identity of myself. It got me to think as to who else this could help and I thought of children from HIV-positive families who were yearning to break free from the stigma of being born into an environment where they struggled to form an identity,” Laya said.
Laya came into contact with an organisation which works with such children and held her first workshop this year. The workshop began with a curated Tamil playlist, featuring energetic kuthu songs and the timeless melodies of Ilaiyaraaja. Laya’s choice of music was deliberate, and designed to create a warm and inviting atmosphere. The beats encouraged the children to relax and let their creativity flow. “Music helps in breaking barriers,” Laya notes.
“I wanted them to feel at ease and enjoy the process of creating art. The workshop was for the children aged between 5-15 years and I asked them to doodle to the songs that were being played. They came up with an interesting set of doodles. I’m planning to make a collage out of it before minting it into NFTs,” Laya said.
Laya also conducted her second workshop within the same organisation. The artist worked with women falling in the age group of 15 to 19 years. This time, the brief was to draw what they loved or hated while encouraging their paintings to reflect who they were as people. “A lot of women took this opportunity to come out with their sexual identity and also spoke about liberation in their paintings,” she said.
Laya is also revolutionising the art scene. In Gujarat, she’s introducing young tribal designers to digital mediums. Her international curations include striking pieces in Belgium: one of which featured an elderly woman wearing an ice helmet, to highlight global warming by an artist with hearing impairment from Chennai and another that explored the intersection of the masculine- feminine.
(Edited by Srestha Choudhury)