VILLUPURAM: In a growing trend of digital advertisements by political parties popping up across all social media platforms, the old-school freehand painters who paint on walls still find amusement in the art and play a role in reaching out to the remote rural villages.
A 36 years-old Senthil Ramakrishnan was a curious artist since childhood who was more interested in drawing.
Eventually, he pursued his career in painting and went on to rename himself as Jack, inspired by the male lead in the film Titanic, who was also an artist.
‘Jack’ was busy painting the walls with the caption ‘Vaakalipeer” (Vote) on house walls in a village near Yenathimangalam while TNIE got in a little conversation.
“I was always doodling during class hours at school. I was also good at maths. But somehow, around high school, I knew I’d make a living by painting.
I had travelled to Mumbai to work on a wall painting project for a school there, several years ago. According to me, being an artist is god-given. no one can really teach or learn it like any other subjects,” said Jack as he was effortlessly giving the strokes for the PMK’s flag on the sides of the two leaves.
Along with Jack, was P Gopi (35), a friend and co-artist, who was painting the AIADMK’s two-leaves symbol on the walls. Gopi is a temple artist, who paints statues, temple compound walls, and the ceiling.
But as the election season had risen, Gopi had been booked for painting logos and slogans of political parties, and election awareness messages.
This transit of work, as Gopi puts, “Is relaxing to the mind actually because in temple painting one must pay complete attention to draw the intricate figures and paint them without flaw. But election painting is unlike it, the logos are very familiar and we could simply experiment with new strokes, styles, and fonts. The only trouble is the scorching sun during the summer when elections are held.”
Both Gopi and Jack earn Rs 500 each per house for painting the logo of the party with the shades of the allied parties’ flags and a text asking to vote for the party. They paint around 50 houses on an average day and sometimes even more if the party cadres insist on painting more walls, Gopi said.
In an era where digital banners are widely used for even a small gathering or function, the sustainability of artists like Gopi and Jack is put into question but it never is the trouble, said Gopi.
“We don’t choose to work with a particular party or against one. As long as the job is given and payment is made right, we paint for all parties. In March alone we had worked for DMK, VCK, AIADMK, PMK and DMDK in Gingee, Tindivanam, Villupuram, and Thriukovilur” said Jack, adding that above all, wall paints are a direct way to claim political identity through the symbols painted.