Reshmi Shekhar turned her fascination with doodling into a profession with her design studio, Curiosity kills The Cat. The architect-turned-artist hides a cat in each of her quirky artworks. Reshmi, who graduated from RV School of Architecture, talks about her inspirations and more in this free wheeling interview. Excerpts.
Since when have you been doodling?
I remember wrecking our phone-diary as a child. Not the best piece of art I’ll admit, but it was a start.
Where do you think your creativity stems from?
I wish I could point to a source, so it would make the daily question of ‘What should I draw about today’ easier. I have always been drawn to fields of art – dance, music and writing. Art came along a little later, after I travelled with a few friends and felt the urge to represent my experiences visually. Inspiration usually comes from music, ocean, night sky musings.
Your first exhibition...
The first time I displayed my art was at Soul Santhe in 2014. I held exhibits at the Comic Con events across the country post this. The most enriching exhibit so far has been at Kala Ghoda last February. Just being in Mumbai in the centre of the artistic hub and creativity was a surreal experience. I started by selling my art as posters and framed art, and have currently expanded to a wide range of sketchbooks.
How did Curiosity Kills the Cat happen?
I bought a beautiful fabric wrapped sketchbook. It was initially architectural illustrations, with an element of a hidden cat in the art. I then started illustrating things I liked – music, movies, books, animals. After a few events and projects, I decided to take the plunge to give CKTC all my time. It has now evolved to a space between art, illustration, and design services. Apart from the sales of art prints on my website and retail stores, I also work on album art, design and wall art projects.
Why do you hide the image of a cat in all your art?
I Googled Curiosity Kills The Cat because I wasn’t entirely sure what it meant; a random image of a cat screaming in outer space appeared. I was doodling at the time, and thought it would be funny to have a cat stare out of a window that I was drawing.
Why a cat? Why not an ostrich or a dog?
An ostrich….Not a bad idea.
How do you strike a balance between your passion and your day job?
I hope to see Curiosity Kills The Cat as an adaptive design studio, where the work I do ranges from art, doodling, architecture to maybe even product design. I currently do practice architecture aside from handling CKTC; but yes, over the last two years the architect in me had taken a back seat although I do owe most of my design sensibilities and judgements to architecture school.
Could you talk about your upcoming projects?
Apart from the art that goes into CKTC, I plan to expand the product line. I am also working on a few interesting projects; the first is a ‘Mystery Travel Box’ that I am doing in collaboration with Mehek Punatar, founder of Map and Magnets. We curate mystery subscription boxes with products and keepsakes that are local to cities or countries that we travel to.
The second is social design-initiative in Bangalore called the ‘Dabba Gaadi Project’, which involves redesigning signages for gaadis or hawkers.
