What’s brewing in Chennai, India?
I walked into the Tea Trails Cafe in Nungambakkam, Chennai and found it was filled with stalls of talented artists. What unites them is their patience and persistence. Patience in creating their art and persistence in following their dreams. The artists owed their presence to GoFloaters, who hosted the Be Your Own Boss (BYOB) event #BYOB event and provided an excellent platform to help them showcase their work. GoFloaters offers co-working cafes, shared offices and meeting spaces. Founded by Shyam and Srivatsan, GoFloaters provides on demand working spaces that the user can rent near their given location. The BYOB event points to new possibilities in usage of space, taking art to the masses and being your own boss.
Being their own boss, the artists have the luxury of putting their heart and soul into their work. It is rewarding to observe how passionate they are for their art and their art forms. The artists themselves were exceptionally talented and showed off their art with pride and grace. Talking about artists and their art form, Artmozo fits right into the conversation. Artmozo is a holistic platform that helps artists to sell their works online, teach and spread their art forms, exhibit in galleries and do much more. Raghu, the founder of Artmozo, enthusiastically talks about creativity and appreciative consumption of artwork. Besides providing an online platform for selling art, the startup focuses on offline workshops and in-person interaction with talented artists to spark interest in different art forms among the masses.
As I made my way in the cafe, Maya was busy at her stall which sells, scrolls, custom nutmeg cases and more. Maya’s Awakenings was one of the many independent artist brands, which was looking expectantly at the glass doors swinging open on a lazy Saturday morning. Towards lunch, the crowd started coming in. They expressed appreciation for the displayed arts while the artists expressed their gratitude to the guests for giving them an opportunity to introduce them to their art. In the other corner of the cafe, I found impressive pen drawings by Illustreshions that twist our perspective of architectural wonders. I particularly liked a new perspective of the Eiffel Tower that depicted a section of it instead of the whole. Comalcrafts on the other hand, specializes in Amigurumi which is the Japanese art of making crocheted or knitted stuffed toys.
Now finally to my personal favorite. (Have you found that it is hard not to have personal favorites?) Niru, from Niru’s Calligraphy, and I instantly connected because he wants to bring back the art of handwriting. I mentioned that I use fountain pens and we hit off from there. We discussed how our bank accounts were going to be depleted with the purchase of our next fountain pen and yet how it was totally worth it! Niru, who is passionate about calligraphy, does exquisite work on cafe boards, chalk boards, wedding cards and place cards to name a few. It was a pleasure to meet Niru and talk about our love for pens.
To wrap it all up, GoFloaters, the organizer, the artists and the guests created a great vibe and it was a pleasure to meet all of them. I am hoping to see more events like this in the future.
