“Creativity takes courage.” It takes real strength to endure all the hurdles in the path to just follow your heart. Shriti Mohanto exemplifies this spirit gracefully.
An engineer by qualification, Shriti was born and raised in a small town of Mahasamund in Chhattisgarh. After completing her education, when she was all set to take up a technical job, destiny planned other things for her. Due to some important family issue, she had to sacrifice her plans, to stay back with her family.
In those days of figuring out life yet again, she started doodling to get a respite from the societal pressures and stress. Initially, she created art pieces for people on twitter for free. Gradually, with time her followers encouraged her to turn this passion into a profession and that’s when she realised her true calling in life.
Shriti is a self-taught artist. Inspired from legends like Kerby Rosanes, Lei Melendres, Justin Estcourt and Fathima Hakim, she perfected her art through consistent practice and perseverance. Her art is a reflection of regular people, experiences and situations, inspired by the world around her. She developed her skill by practicing every day. In 2017 she resolved to draw each day for a year under her “#365days365doodles” challenge, which has successfully continued till date. What seemed impossible at first, gradually enriched her craft along with helping her find her niche.
Despite resistance from her family for her highly unconventional career choice, she endured through all the hurdles and succeeded in creating a name for herself. Famously called as the “Doodle Queen” by the locals of Raipur, she aspires to take her art to the global platform.
Through the moments of convincing her parents to days of zero motivation, zero energy, she describes her journey as bumpy, yet incredible. Her belief, practice and persistence, along with the support and encouragement of her friends and audiences have made this journey rewarding.
Conclusively, her advice to every dreamer out there is that “Carry on and don’t give up. Just listen to your heart. Every time you feel like giving up, just give it another try. Give it another push. Trust me, it will all work out. And always practice and be persistent.”
So moral of the story is that don’t ever give up. Persistent efforts eventually result in the creation of artwork as fine and elegant as these.
