Raghava KK: Five lives of an artist received from ted.com

Beginning as a child cartooning his teachers during class to becoming an internationally known artist, Raghava KK separates his varies stages of his artwork through his changes in art styles.

“With endearing honesty and vulnerability, Raghava KK tells the colorful tale of how art has taken his life to new places, and how life experiences in turn have driven his multiple reincarnations as an artist -- from cartoonist to painter, media darling to social outcast, and son to father.”

           Every stage of artwork is a life. Like many artists, he has separated his works into different progressions, or as he states it, five lives:  1life = cartoonists, 2life = performance painter, 3life = realist painter, 4life = abstract expressionism, 5life = abstract expressionism with humor. As his life changed so did his work. But sometimes his work changed his life.

            His speech was more personal compared to other artist lectures I have attended. He was humorous, personable, and honest about what he has created. He was very forthcoming about how his cartoonist days ended by making a politically incorrect cartoon related to 9/11 shortly after the Twin Towers fell. He also discussed how he allowed himself to be open to discover new things. A painter in Italy inspired him to become a painter being his 2nd artist life. He explained how there are “100” different brushes used for painting; and how he, as a person who drew, was overwhelmed. Instead of using brushes he started to paint with his hands and feet, which evolved into painting dancers into paintings being performed by dancers. The same painter also inspired him to be reborn on a daily basis.  This is maybe where the “5 lives of an artist” come from and one of the reasons he was so daring as an artist.

           I appreciated him letting you into his lives. I sat through a lecture my senior year of college which an artist made the statement that she hated how other artists always felt the need to categorize their work making their lectures long and boring. Instead she critiqued her favorite works in no particular order or progression; but in the end, her lecture was still long and boring. Though this was a timed speech, I still think Raghava KK's approach was better than others I have seen. He did not stay highly academic nor did he try to be something he is not. He spoke from the heart about what he has done as an artist, a person, a son, a husband, and now a father. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/raghava_kk_five_lives_of_an_artist.html

http://raghavakk.com/