ARNAV MAN SINGH

Born in 2000, right at the booming point of Generation Z, Arnav Man Singh is someone who was thrown into the convoluting guidelines of career, studies, and what today’s society has deemed fit as a basic need. Singh chose to follow his heart and pour his passion into something more than just a profession. He chose to express himself through art. Coming from a family where his father is a banker and his mother a museum chief, his passion for art had to come from within himself.

Singh tried to fulfill his role as a good student and good child by studying Business Administration. However, what he thought would be a creative platform to express his ideas became a confined space narrowing down endless possibilities that were emerging from himself. This was when he decided to drop out of his studies and pursue art. This was his calling.

Art has a lot of expressions. These expressions are not defined by anything, they do not have rules, guidelines, plans, or patterns. They come out from pain, pressure, misunderstanding, desires, and a kind of unfathomable need to mark one’s presence. Singh’s art came from a need, a need to channel all the feelings boiling down within him before they manifested any other way. With this, his art became his voice, expression, and exposition. He believes his interpretation does not have a code or a plan, it is just pouring his emotions onto the blank canvas, filling it as much as he can.

One of the greatest treasures in life is to understand oneself. Arnav Man Singh has understood this in his way as he believes that in life there are no specific right answers that work for everyone. In this way, he also questions if anyone can judge him. Only he is to judge himself. Admitting that the colors that he used in his paintings represent his mental health conditions and his being different, he passed the barriers of any judgment and has reached a state of acceptance. Singh believes that it is alright even if you understand things differently as long as you can channel all the darkness of the mind, into something beautiful that represents you. Why hide it if you can express it?

It is a difficult thing to make people understand you. Singh remembered his painting, “Untitled” was created because of a disagreement he had with his father. He almost spent the entire night painting and when his father asked if he painted him, Singh understood that a painting can have a vague interpretation. It can mean anyone and nobody at the same time. For Singh, the painting embodied Arnav, himself and his father saw himself in it as well. The important thing is to do something, anything that showcases a glimpse of what you are trying to do. This is the initiation of understanding.

The inspiration that drives Singh is through rejection, not accepting the obviousness of life. To practice art, the basic requirement is to be enrolled in art school, graduate, and practice techniques through layers. Adding layers to oneself is not a necessity, it is a choice. There is no predefined state of the art, as well there is no stability. It is a natural flow of emotions. Singh’s greatest aspect is to be able to express himself in his truest form. He is not hesitant to experience new things without the expense of being constantly reminded of what he lost, and what he could have been. He admits that he is not a genius or a prodigy, just a kid trying to express himself. There are endless possibilities in life and people just need to gather the courage to act on what they feel.

“Once you accept yourself, doesn’t matter who accepts you”