MUKESH AMARAN
ALBUM ARTicle:
AMITAV MISRA
T
abhu is our artist of the month. A poet, a creator
and an ad-man. A personality who has been
creating while chasing the sheer need to express.
What does he have in common with all the other artist
we have featured? The influence music has had in the
way he is. “I feel, one of the biggest reasons why I am in a
creative field is the liberation and freedom I experienced
from music and it strongly influences my thinking, to
date.” An emotion we can relate to on a level where it’s
frighteningly had the same effect on each one of us.
Tabhu is the brains behind the album art of the Avi
Misra album New Delhi Blues. Being family, only
meant that Tabhu had as much intricate knowledge
and understanding of what Avi was capable of and
the advantage of knowing him for pretty much his
whole life. Armed with the right tools, he has always
collaborated creatively to put out covers, videos, posters
and added a visual element to his music.
Like many artists Tabhu has a strong sense of
expression of ideas irrespective of what the medium is.
“ I remember doing a couple of concerts with Avi, where
I read out my poetry, Avi played his music and Ashish
Chawla projected his photography at the Blue Frog,
years ago. It was a magical experience for all of us. “
Tabhu tells us as he recounts one of his experiences with
Avi. A fairly straightforward and simple approach seems
to be the key to Tabhu’s work. “I get an image in my
head that I feel tells the story that the song and the lyrics
are trying to project. Then I chase this idea till I am
happy with it. Normally, do the designing in Photoshop,
but at times I have even used Powerpoint and once even
used social network filters. The effect was phenomenal,
and no one believed I did that without using the
computer.” He says, about his entire process
of creation.
“I believe in finding meaning in the everyday things
around us. Recently, at Pushkar, I shot a girl juggler
with a stick, poised mid-air, looking like a Goddess
going for the kill. It was Navami. Embedding meaning to
visual portraits is something I like to see, and something
I endeavor to do. I often use images I clicked onto the
art I create, to give it another extra layer of meaning.
On style, I like to follow the work of prominent graphic
novel artists like Frank Miller and Mike Mignola.” A
honest process is something that garners great attention
and appreciation. Tabhu is an adherent to one such.
Looking forward to more.
50
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