Exclusive! It's Amusing To See How Much People Can Hate Success: Santanu Hazarika

Santanu Hazarika, a popular social media personality and doodling expert, speaks to whosthat360 about his process of art, how he started his journey, and much more. He also expressed his disappointment about online trolling that he has to face as he belongs to the Northeast. Check out this delightful conversation with him.

Here are the few edited excepts from an exclusive conversation;

Tell us a bit about your journey so far.

My journey so far is quite a turbulent but very exciting one. I've sort of experienced the best of both worlds, coming from humble beginnings in a small town in Guwahati City in Assam. I have always been in nature and surrounded by beautiful people. I sort of got in touch with a lot of things that were spiritually and artistically driven by the culture and its people and also, at the same time, I had the opportunity to migrate to big cities and understand how that ecosystem works. Apart from that, being interested in science, having an engineering background, and then shifting to art has been quite a journey, to be honest. Right now, I am in a beautiful but very curious state where I am experimenting and I am creating, and expressing. I'm also being appreciated for it; it's helping me get inspired and further my journey into this world of art and design.

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How would you define your process of creating art? How did your journey into doodling begin?

My process of creating art is very simple, I don't have a process. I straight up get down to my drawing board or my sketch pad and I start sketching and drawing, and I start developing ideas as I'm going through it. Sometimes I put on some music or some podcast and listen to it while I am making it. It's mostly a spontaneous process for me. Nowadays I'm doing more self-portraits and more introspective art, which requires me to sit and think more before I start off with my work and that thinking comes from a deep-rooted emotion or an experience that channels into other forms of art. My doodling journey began when I was in school and I used to collect comic books and draw all the covers and the characters of those comic books. So that's how I started sketching and drawing. During my classes, during my lectures, I'd sit on the back bench and start sketching and drawing. I did that throughout school, my high school, and even in my college days.

Your portfolio has a brief of striking album art for various renowned musicians. Among all your passion projects, which one is close to your heart?

My portfolio has a lot of album artwork for different musicians. I think almost all the opportunities I've had to work with other artists I would consider very close to my heart because you're working with a new artist, someone who's a different type of artist, like musicians, so it's a whole process of representing their art, which is auditory, into a visual form. I think that is the reason all my projects are very close to my heart, even right now, one of my favorite projects is the one where I worked with Comet and created a limited edition pair of sneakers, which sold out in 30 minutes because that's something that I'd always wanted to do as a kid and I finally could achieve it.

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The visual arts community in north-east India often goes unnoticed. As a globally recognized artist from Guwahati, what changes need to be brought to make these talents get their due?

I think, yes, the Northeast visual artists do go unnoticed often, but now with the advancement of the internet and better connectivity between artists and networks I think right now we have crossed that space where I see more visual artists from the north-east getting the representation and the attention that they deserve. We have a very strong network of artists who are all constantly supporting each other. A few of my friends started this collective called  Guwahati Art Project to build dialogue among artists in the northeast and to bridge the gap between the visual art seen here and the world outside, be it in India or globally. Through that we have done multiple workshops, we have done a lot of awareness campaigns, and interactive sessions with all the artists in the north-east. We have sort of built and created a benchmark in the field of art and design when no one else was doing it in this region. Now it has become independent and as its entity, it's growing in its place, and the whole idea of mentorship is also incorporated.

Your advice to the talents out there who are passionate about doodling but scared to choose this field, thinking about the lack of opportunities.

The only advice that I would give with my personal experience is being smart with your work, and constant practice and hard work, there are no shortcuts when it comes to art. So, first, you have to be confident about the work that you are doing. The passion that you are following, the only way to get that confidence is that you actually work hard on your craft and then the rest will follow. You just have to be aware of all the opportunities, where you stand, what your skills are about, and where you stand as an artist.

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How do you about the success of your collaboration with pioneering sneaker brand Comet?

I'm overwhelmed by the response that I have received for the sneaker that I designed with Comet. It is one of my favorite projects because I've always wanted to design sneakers and have my line of sneakers this was inspired by my old sketchbook and by old drawings and how I started all the drawing and sketching, so that way, I'm really happy that people took to the core of who Santanu Hazarika is and the core of my love for sneakers, and it's just that all the feelings and all the things were we as a team worked, so the new launch had paid off, and it left an impression not just on me but also on everyone who has been part of the whole creative journey.

Online scrutiny is very common. What is your Mantra for dealing with trolls or unpleasant thoughts around you?

It is very common, I have always been attacked by trolls and bullies on social media, A- for the way I look and B- because I belong from the north-east, there have been many instances where I have been called different racial slurs. They have said this and that in the comment section, but to be honest, for me, it's quite funny, and I always find it amusing to see how much people can hate success. They can hate art and hate self-expression, but I guess I never pay much attention to it. Sometimes I do take them head on and only because of the racist remarks that they make, that is something that I draw the line on, but other than that, I'm quite unfettered. Also, to be honest, I don't pay attention to these comments and trolls, they are basically like a wolf. If you keep feeding it with attention, it will keep growing and end up devouring who you are and what you're trying to do, so it's always advisable not to feed the wolf.

Photo Credit: Santanu Hazarika's Team