The Visual Diarist

Tell us a bit about yourself. You studied abroad, didn’t you?

In Hong Kong, in Sham Shui Po in Kowloon. It was just an incredible place to be for a young person [Chaaya was 20-years-old when she got there].

What was it like being a young person in a foreign place? You went from Chennai in India to Hong Kong!

It was one of the best places I've ever lived in, honestly. Initially of course there was a bit of a culture shock. But once you settle in it's an incredible place. You can hike or go to the beach. You can visit another island. There is an incredible public transport system.

I was living on my own for the first time. There is a red bus, and you have to say stop in Cantonese. If you're a socially awkward person who is also a foreigner: [laughs] that takes you out of your comfort zone. I feel like I learned to be independent, and that went into the kind of art I was doing as well. I was trying to solve a lot of design and art problems on my own. I figured out my illustration style. More than anything else, being young in Hong Kong taught me to see. Because there is so much life happening. It taught me to really observe, to constantly make notes and use that as inspiration for art. I became a visual diarist.

You had an interesting job there, didn’t you?

I was a graphic recorder. A very corporate job, but also creative at the same time. I would be sent to conferences and events, and I would take visual notes of what everyone was saying, and that would be projected on a screen. To help people understand what was being said. Because not everybody speaks English.

How big a role does travel have in your life now?

Huge. I get blocked when I'm stuck in the same place for days on end, just working on project after project. If I travel, the art block goes away because there are new things to see and draw. The work I do for myself starts with me walking around with a camera. I'll try to recreate that picture through illustration, add my own spin. Did the photo capture the light in a specific way? How can I recreate that, or perhaps amplify it? That's what I like to do.

What is it like living between two places?

I like to think of it as a perk. Goa is where my things are, where my desk is, where I do all my work. Chennai is where my parents and sister are. I like that I have these two places to go between. I know I said that they had the same weather, but I think they are also very different in terms of personality. I feel Chennai really influenced how I use color. The bright colors I use in my work comes from the buildings, the saris there. There is just an explosion of color which you only notice if you leave and come back. Goa has a very different personality. Where I live, it's much more serene and green.

Your book covers are wonderful. You’ve worked in English, in Hindi, and even on a German book. Does there have to be a connection between your visual language and the text of the book?

Language and culture are very intertwined. When you switch languages, you're switching cultures. Normally I would read the whole book, but I don’t read German! Luckily I was given a very good design brief, that it was about a German guy who travels to different parts of the world, and it should look like a local bar from Vietnam or Hong Kong. I noticed that people sit down on stools in front of these bars, they have these very tiny tables, a lot of neon lighting. The challenge for me was to ensure that mood was invoked on the book cover.

Is there an occasion; an exhibition or collaboration that you said Yes to, that dramatically changed you as an artist or as a person?

Earlier this year, I was invited to Singapore by a school. I was to talk to the kids about my art, answer their questions, do some drawing exercises with them. I'd never done anything like that before. I said Yes, not knowing what I was signing up for. It ended up being an incredible experience. When I make children's books, I am stuck behind a screen. I very rarely get to see the children sitting in front of me and noticing the things I want them to notice when I make these illustrations. I sneaked a cat into a corner of an illustration hoping somebody would notice. They all picked up on it! I also got to explain to them that my job is art. From the beginning of the day till the end of the year, I'm just creating art. They thought I was lying. But I was like, “no, I promise you, this is what I do”.

What is the best part of saying Yes when opportunity knocks?

The best part is knowing that you've been preparing for an opportunity like this, but also not knowing what the outcome will be. It is about being okay with that.

Were you prepared when Lufthansa offered to fly you to San Francisco in association with ART MUMBAI? I started doing this thing called urban sketching at the beginning of this year. It's basically when you take your sketchbook and go on location. It's a group activity in different cities and is usually free. I enjoyed it so much that I thought an ideal opportunity is to be sent to a city and asked to use that place as inspiration for art. And then the Lufthansa project came along. Travel and art together is the dream. So of course I was going to say Yes.

Were you comfortable?

It’s a long way from Chennai to San Francisco, but I barely even noticed the stress of flying. Because the journey was so comfortable, I was ready to go as soon as I landed. I just got off the plane and started exploring. I think that says a lot about the flight.

What do you remember when you started walking around? Did it make it to the posters?

I was warned by a lot of people about the microclimates in San Francisco. It'll go from being sunny to overcast to rainy to cold to hot and you don't know what to expect, you cannot be prepared. When I landed, it was bright and sunny. I remember looking out of my hotel window and it was completely clear. Literally 20 minutes later, a fog came in and covered the entire city. I saw the fog coming in! The locals call the fog Karl, and I really understood it because it behaves a bit like a person. It covered the entire city. Earlier I could see right into the water from the hotel room, but no longer, as it was just covered in these layers [of fog].

That was when I thought I need to explore the idea of the city and its layers and use that as my concept for each of my posters. San Francisco is also hilly. Buildings and neighborhoods are stacked on top each other. As I explored the city, I understood that it's also layers of culture on top of each other. So that's what I decided to do.

As a diarist, what has stayed with you?

I had just landed and I decided to get a coffee at a random coffee shop because they had outside seating. I realized I was sitting across from the Sentinel Building, which is a San Francisco icon. And right behind it is the Transamerica Pyramid.

So I just pulled out my sketchbook and started drawing.

Is there one thing that will stay with you from your trip?

City Lights Bookstore! I’d read up on it, its connection to the Beat Generation. But the area was fascinating as well. There's a café next to it called Vesuvio. And Jack Kerouac Alley.

I really enjoyed the architecture of the city, which I'm exploring in my posters. The buildings hold the history of San Francisco. There have been so many art movements that left their mark here. The attention to ornamentation; the aesthetics of the city may surprise you if you’re expecting a “tech” capital. They’re just very beautiful buildings. I think the other thing I’ll remember is how every neighborhood has its own personality. It was quite a surreal experience for me to walk through Chinatown because it was literally like I was back in Hong Kong. The smells, the way people were yelling at each other, it took me back in time. Clarion Alley in the Mission District has mural after mural, and all of them have a strong message of resistance, which I loved. Haight-Ashbury and its history with the Summer of Love and rock and roll is in my fashion-related poster, because I saw so much tie-dye and hippie-influenced fashion there.

What places are still on your bucket list?

I'm eager to go to Japan. The stationery, the attention to detail, the whole design aesthetic. I want to go to Korea. I would like at some point go back to Hong Kong and visit all the places that I used to live in. And Iceland! I can’t imagine a place where the light is more different than in Goa and Chennai.