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Ruchika Kapila

In this Spring 2021 Edition of JaggeryLit. Arts Editor Srividya Ramamurthy had a fireside chat with Ruchika Kapila. Her story will resonate with each one of us. The story to nurture our inner creativity and always find a way to express it.  Read through the interview to understand. 

Ruchika – Thank you so much for sharing your time. We are so excited to talk with you. You have been doing arts and crafts and if we were to think of how this all evolved. Can you walk us through how you got interested? Did you have any formal learning? 

Art and its various forms were an integral part of my education in school. Right from elementary school, we had singing and painting classes. I have always been attracted to colors and their various expressions in life. Painting was the perfect outlet….so many colors! I could never get enough of it. Myriad of colors add so much life and meaning. It has been a great way to experiment.

 

After school, being near Bal Bhawan, a center in New Delhi. I consider it to be a blessing. This is a center where children could go and participate in various activities. It was such a great extracurricular wholesome activity.

That’s nice to hear. The nurturing in childhood helps and stays through life in many ways for sure.

Yes of course!  I was attracted to arts and crafts. There was some learning, but it was mostly fun. So, my art education was very elementary. But when you enjoy what you do so much, I personally think it leaves a very deep impression within you.

Anyways, life went through many phases after that. For instance, academics took the front seat and art was forgotten. As life continued and work and family took the front seat after that.

However, that deep impression I spoke about earlier was always somewhere. The desire to paint and do crafts. So when I had some time, I always looked around at the available options for something I could do at my own pace.

There started a journey that meandered through, sketching, mosaic, painting on glass vases and now painting on canvas.

What a wonderful journey. So much hope for our readers who possibly had a deep imprint of something they loved and then skipped because of how life meanders on. Please continue, love to hear more. 

Sure! So, I just started doing things at my own pace. I started first with some mosaic projects available in craft stores, I got started from that. I thought it was a safe and easy route to start. Just the spark I needed. Once I had success in that, I was now bold enough to start my own projects.

As I look around your beautiful home, one thing stands out! The artwork is all done by you isn’t it! How wonderful. Can you please tell us how you did this?

Oh! Thank you! I am glad you like them. Well, as I mentioned I was looking at doing my own projects and I found mosaics to be very interesting.  I found that cut tiles are available for various projects in many colors and sheens.

Wow! So, you took that and made it into these massive and beautiful artworks! Tell us about that. 

Ah! I wanted a main center piece that resonates with me. Ganesha is my favorite deity.

So, I used a wood board as the base. I drew an image of Ganesha. I bought life by using tile cutting tools and shaped the glass tiles. I glued them one at a time on the board. It was a labor of love and so meditative at the same time.

Wow! Wonderful! What are you into these days? 

Well, I had these plain glass vases lying at home. And I was stuck with an idea to improvise and make this unique and handmade.  I truly feel the blessings of God and my Guru for these flows of ideas. Nothing is of my own doing; it is truly their blessings. There is so much that can be done with colors. An idea for a geometric pattern comes to mind. I transfer that into a vase. Once I have the pattern done, I paint it with acrylic colors. After finishing the painting on the vase, I then seal it to protect the paint from water.  I work on all types of glass vases and even plates.

That’s amazing. They do brighten any room along with or without flowers. Do you commission work for people? 

As for now I’m just happy sharing my work with friends and family. I’m so blessed that they appreciate and encourage me. I am happy that I was able to contribute some of these to charity to be auctioned off. I love that I can give back with my work. It truly gives me such happiness.

Totally true!! A talent like this you should consider taking this a bit bigger. 

As of now, I’m just happy creating, but if any opportunity comes, I might consider that.

You mentioned earlier about the blessings of your Guru. How does this help in your spiritual pursuit? 

It has been an immense help in my practice. It is very calming and relaxing which is a requisite in spiritual practice.

Thank you so much for talking with us Ruchika. This story I am sure will resonate with every single reader. It is a journey of hope to revive our past interests that brings our joy and life back. To rekindle the passion and to bring purpose and internal peace to life.