MUKESH AMARAN
ALBUM ARTicle:
MRINALINI
MAHESH
One of the most common characteristic that is seen
across most of our artists is the exposure to arts in a
very young age. Mrinalini is no exception. Mini has
been drawing ever since she was a little kid whose eyes
fixated on cartoons as she explains how indebted to these
characters. Disney and Pixar and even Miyazaki has
found their way into Mini’s world, influencing her and
shaping the way she approached art. In a way music also
had a similar effect on her from her childhood. Having
been a sucker for blues, she tells us how important all
genres of music has been at making or breaking her
mood. “though art and music have interestingly similar
creative processes I have never intuitively understood
the making of music in that sense and am constantly
in awe of it, and its power over people.”, she says.
The most interesting thing about Mini is where she
drew her inspiration from after deciding to make
artworks for musician. Some of our homegrown heroes
in the field of album art design in India were the artists
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she looked up to. “Acid Toad (Gaurav Basu), Anoop
Bhat, Blank Found Creative and other artists began
as a source of inspiration for me to bring together the
two things I love and that shape my life. And it's for
that reason I began developing multiple concepts as
fan-art for musicians I love, to try and understand the
directions and constraints involved in such a career.”
Mini looks into everything that goes into making the
album or a song to create the artwork. She draws out
the intricacies and involves herself with the musicians,
the album, the music, the story and the overall journey
and tries to capture it through the artworks. “My work
is intended to be pop, outrageous in a way, bold in
expression”, she tells us about her style and approach.
A musician’s work is auditory, the album art is the visual
book cover that draws the crowd towards a band in many
ways. A sort of layer that mimics not just the music but
even the musicians involved to an extent. A light gateway
drug to heavier doses that the music will provide you with.