What’s more beautiful than waking up into the world is waking up into a world that is colourful! A creative manifestation of both our inner child and sage, Art in all its form is food for the heart and an elixir to the soul. Therefore there are all the happy reasons to paint and change this world One Wall At Time. Asian Paints, in its latest initiative #DonateAWall in collaboration with St+Art India Foundation, invited people from across the country to donate their community walls for tuning them into artistic public murals. The aspiration and objective of this one of a kind initiative are to flush the light of life, hope and vivacity through the medium of vibrant colours on majestic walls. The idea behind the initiative is, in essence, to put together breathtaking life-size art that can speak to those surrounded by it.
The Asian Paints wagon on its journey of ‘Changing The World, One Wall at A time’ has splattered lively hues of astounding artwork through the cities of Ahmedabad, Chennai and Guwahati.
Ahmedabad: A wall for tiny tots!
The brightly lit faces of the little ones at the ‘Todd Zone School’ is in itself the testimony of how a piece of wall art can speak to the hearts of those who are still taking their baby steps into the world of education. It all began when Monica Vaswani, founder of the Todd Zone School approached the #DonateAWall campaign with a hope to get the walls of the school aligned with the aesthetic feel and free aura of the school in general. She, of course, received a resounding ‘YES’. Todd Zone School is a place where happiness is synonymous with colours. Monica rightly says, “ In a race to make your child the best, to be the first, we forget the importance of art. In our school, we encourage the children, paint their hearts out. There is art in every nook and corner of our school. That’s why I approached the #DonateAWall campaign and luckily got selected.” Today the sprightly, colourful art-wall of Todd Zone can be seen humming joyful songs to the tiny tots!
Chennai: An abode among the slums!
It is not the best thing if little dreamy eyes of children are lost within the narrow alleys of a slum. So Sathish, a filmmaker decided to create something for the children of Vyasarpadi slum, North Chennai that they can look up to as an inspiration. He says, “Vyasarpadi is India’s largest slum. This is where I was born and brought up. Kids have a tough life and many of them become child labourers.” The school, as Sathish says can’t even be compared to regular schools. In his will to change that, Sathish approached the Asian Paints’ #DonateAWall campaign and there it was! The 50 feet wall of the Chennai Primary School, a canvas to create an extraordinary masterpiece soon became the biggest made painting in Vyasarpadi. Sathish who now beams with elation says, “I’m certain that this painting is going to bring many more kids into school.”
Guwahati: A world of wildlife to conserve!
Forest is essentially a metaphor of fertility. It is the womb of all life forms. Conserving the forest is one of the greatest services to Mother Earth. ‘Deepika Choudhry’, Director of Assam Forest School wanted to dedicate a wall to get the message of conservation across and inspire people to pay attention to the importance of wildlife. This made her approach #DonateAWall campaign and was happy to know that she was not turned down. Deepika wanted the wall to align with what the forest staff and foresters do in the field on a day to day basis. The mural that came out literally in flying colours was a digital artwork on top of the photorealistic imagery of animals. It was unreal and a matter of elation to look at an artwork so surreal. A Forester at the department, Mr Dev Upamamanyya suggests, “If we as humans are sitting on the top then the least we can do is conserve for the sake of future generations.”
It is true that the vocabulary of art is not to be learned but to be felt. Some stories are meant to be painted and each wall telling an extraordinary tale is a masterpiece in itself. The initiative of Asian Paints in collaboration with St+Art India Foundation is truly rising the spirits by animating the world that might otherwise look a tad bit monotonous, ‘one wall at a time’.
