Just spent a couple of days hanging out with artist and designer, Rahul Joshi in Mumbai.
“We must first learn the alphabet. After learning the alphabet you can form words, then create sentences, then paragraphs, then essays and then speeches. Finally you can communicate.” That’s what he said to me in the context of how to approach fitness, creation, or any new activity.
It’s been 4 years since I last met Rahul uncle who is an established visual designer, a fitness expert and a brilliant artist. I also learned that swimming used to be one of his passions since swimming was how he overcame his challenges in life, laying the foundation for his later path to fitness.
Talking to him about various aspects of life, art, fitness, career and being a youth turned out to be a deep conversation. It was something I’m thankful for, and the things he has said has given me faith that the uncertainty of the growing up phase I am going through will do me good. The conversation also increased my knowledge about the world and how it functions - it’ll help mature my thought process. There’s still so much about life and the world to learn. What I liked about talking to him is that he treats you as an equal, rather than as a younger person- it was a conversation instead of a one-sided talk.
He’s an inquisitive human who questions everything and has complex thought process. I have known him since my childhood as a family friend and also as an occasional coach on matters related to sketching. But this time I was able to view and discuss with him a wide range of his artworks, some of them from his school days, some from his days at Art school and many of his professional work as an artist over the last 20 years. His paintings are very varied in concept and diverse in method.
It was an evening spent discussing many matters including discipline, fitness, clarity of goals, long-term vision instead of instant expectations, need to create your work and let it go for audiences to judge rather than self-judgement of one’s work - something I will implement since I have a habit of creating works but choosing what to release. I agree with what he said: “As an artist you may have moved on from the reason why you created something and may not like it anymore, but that creation may be important for someone else, may help them.”
I value his thoughts on art and fitness but also on music and general artistic outlook and the advice and knowledge he’s given me on what it means to be an artist in today’s world.