Twinkle Sharma: Discovering her Dreams and Following her Passion

“Love what you do and do what you love. Don't listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. You do what you want, what you love. Imagination should be the centre of your life.” ― Ray Bradbury

We are always told by our parents and the society to make safe choices in our life and when it comes to career – well, society asks you to pursue something really very safe. Engineers, Doctors, CA, and MBA are some of the many safest career options which society allows and encourages (Read forces) us to do.

People who are clueless about what their interests are, end up doing something which is really very safe, which their family thinks will fetch a huge amount of money in the near future. Such was not the case of Twinkle Sharma, the girl who chose to draw mandalas instead of writing codes all day long. Twinkle Sharma is a young and very talented artist who studied engineering in computer science stream from JECRC University, Jaipur.

“I tried, trust me I really did try my best learn languages like C and C++ but they never really caught my attention and deep down I knew this is not something I want to do”, told Twinkle Sharma to City of Jaipur.

City of Jaipur: I’ve seen your portfolio, you draw fabulous. When did you realize you have this creative bend?

Twinkle Sharma:

I wouldn’t call it a creative bend because it is something that I have cultured, something that I had to carve out, as most art enthusiasts must and do. As you asked, I remember the incident as it was yesterday, I was just done with a sketch and being a child in 7th class I was overwhelmed by self-praise. But the bubble was soon burst when a classmate came up to me, had a look and said it looked “absolute garbage”. I spent the next two days in the repercussion trying to make it better and prove myself, but all in vain. That day the pride of a 14-year-old girl took a big hit. That day serves as a reminder to me, because I couldn’t stop till I improved that sketch. That was the day my hobby became the obsession.

City of Jaipur: What is integral to the work of an artist?

Twinkle Sharma:

I really don’t know if there is a real answer to that question. Being a person who loves to express their thoughts and emotions through painting and sketching, I spend an awful amount of time wondering the same question to myself. For me sometimes everything is integral to my sketches. Every variable counts, my mood, playlist, food, people around, last phone call, any and everything. Then there are times when nothing affects me, art comes to me naturally and sometimes I end up painting my hands, bags, walls, books, mirrors and the whole 9 yards. Needless to say, I have my share when I come to halt for weeks, not drawing anything and hitting a wall. All in all, before getting up and drawing a huge mandala on a wall, in my house, in the middle of night, without any rhyme or reason. So, my answer to that would be I don’t know and I sure hope someday I get to learn that answer as well.

City of Jaipur: What’s your Favourite Artwork?

Twinkle Sharma:

I haven’t done that many artworks, hence it’s hard to say any one of them has reached the epitome of my favourites, but if I had to choose one, I would go with the one in the office of Sukoon Academy in Jaipur. As when I started my journey, I got the same criticism and scepticism from people, as I got when I started working on that mandala. The sheer size of it, the time-frame and the boldness it would require to get everything done was too abstract for a person like me to pull off. I guess that challenge made it even more worth to get it done and end up at a picturesque this sublime. It turned out way better than I hoped but there is always room for improvement in my book so until more endeavours this would stay the top.

City of Jaipur: What has been the biggest challenge in the journey?

Twinkle Sharma:

Journey is certainly a big word for a newbie like myself, I believe I have barely scratched the surface yet, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t had my share of lows. I don’t want to jinx my luck but if I had to check on the list of atrocious things life has thrown at me till date, I would go with the challenge to go against my family and time that followed. As heroic as it feels, I can very well assure the readers it isn’t walk in the park scenario, but certainly and absolutely worth the pursuit. I come from a lineage of IITians and NITians. Being honest I had my own doubts, 4 years into pursuing engineering and now I wanted to pivot into being an artist, who wouldn’t call me a wayward. But I prevailed and kept on having faith in myself and mostly in my art, it helped me get though some rough times. I had always known that coding will never be something I’ll be interested in. Don’t get me wrong, I am still in awe for the cool things my colleagues at Venera do with programming, it’s just that it’s not my cup of tea. Art is.

City of Jaipur: Who is your Inspiration? And why?

Twinkle Sharma:

I feel over whelmed with warmth and love when I recollect the people that have been through this toil with me. Feeling lucky is one thing but the words they deserve are indebted, I will without a doubt, forever be in debt of the people who acted as a light in my times of darkness. Each piece of art I make, is and will in times to remember, be accredited to my family and a few close friends. But it would be unfair to leave out the mention of the person who very well acted as the sun in my sky of stars. My boss, my mentor, Dilnoor Singh, is the one I would take as an inspiration and while most of the people get inspired by artists around the world my inspiration revolves in my office. Just before I was about to lose all hope and let a 9-5 job get the better of me, He gave me the chance, he played a gamble on my talents which even I would have been cynical on. I have never seen a person so enduring when it comes to a love for your passion, his encouragement is something that I deeply cherish and require. Safe to say, I am what I am because of his belief.

City of Jaipur: What are your future plans?

Twinkle Sharma:

Even with the drawings I make, I never really stick with the original design and keep improvising till the last minute. I’ve never been good with following plans. So no, I don’t have any big plan mapped out. I like to focus on one thing at a time and it’s been working out just fine. I just found the tip of my ice berg and in time I will see how deep it goes. I know things will not go all rainbows and sunshine’s so I have my boots up and I am ready for the rain and that’s all I need. I have my family, friends and art, that’s all the future I would ever need.

After all, Art is a science made clear!