Pragathi Shankar conveys mental health issues through doodles and posters.
What’s it about? The Chennai-based multi-disciplinary artist uses art to talk about mental health. Her notes and takeaways from the therapist are now sketches with her online store of doodles and posters. It began by putting up her artwork on Instagram during the lockdown. First, it was experimenting with oil pastels and moving on to sketches.
- Lady Pragaga serves as the fictional character through which she expresses herself. Last year, Pragathi challenged herself to draw 365 sketches, one for each day, to deal with her emotions.
- The themes of her drawings are work, stress, depression, sex, and relationships. She also uses digital illustrations to speak about taboo topics like the harmful effects of using certain sanitary napkins.
Journey: Pragathi is also a theatre performer and IT professional. She and her friend Suhas set up The Artists’ Block to host open mics and other events. Her first works were exhibited at the Alt+Art festival, where the response spurred her to continue her business online. Next up is a coffee table book with her doodles.
(Image credits: Pragathi Shankar’s Instagram post)