From the highways of delhi to the streets of Guwahati, Artist Neelim Mahanta is leaving his mark everywhere!

Wall painting or Street art as is commonly known as  is visual art created in public locations, usually unsanctioned artwork executed outside of the context of traditional art venues. For the artist, the whole world is his canvas. Here at TNT we decided to talk to Neelim Mahanta who gives art an expression of visual transcendence and is optimistic towards making art accessible to all.

TNT:  Please tell us a bit about your growing up years, early life and education. 

I grew up in Assam's Lakhimpur(early childhood) then Guwahati and currently based out of New Delhi for some years. I did Architecture from Guwahati then went on to pursue art in a more detailed and academic perspective from College of Art, Delhi. But, as an individual i believe more in observing from daily experiences which the world itself teaches.

TNT- When you took up "street art" or "wall painting", was there any larger message which you wanted to put across to the soceity?

Strictly no,rather I try to share my knowledge on the nature of the visual world,sense of beauty and art of living… I let my colors speak and sing for all.

TNT- What do you think are the challenges concerning your specific art-work?

Challenges are innumerable, and all in different forms,as all artists are different to each other in terms of expression,thought process and everything else…so it's hard to point out . My challenge is to make art reachable to more people in the society as much as possible,and many still seem reluctant getting close to art works ,supposing art to be a very rigid and complicated.

TNT- People generally have a difficulty in bringing out meanings in "abstract art" forms, whether paintings or sculptors. Where do you think the problem lies?

A bit of effort is always needed for understanding anything in the world. Understanding gives a real pleasure,in the same time when we cant understand even a simple phenomenon but then by making it in some abstract form to simplify the process of understanding,we are constantly redefining the same idea adding our new knowledge about it.. abstraction is fundamental,abstraction is something we all do in any different ways in any degrees of intelligence…just the problem is communicating the abstract idea to the fellow being..more open the idea is more sensible to range of people…hence  abstraction is reality of our imagination..

TNT- Artists-Photographers-Filmmakers have are connected by a common thread. Your thoughts on it?

In this natural ecosystem, we all are anyway connected in one way or the other. We all function through a common blend of connection. We Complement,  we Collaborate, we Create .The common thread is understood only when the visual fundamentals are realized by all of us..When you say the say the word "artist" it circumscribes everything.

TNT- How can you think the challenges to artistic vision can be overcome? Do you have any plans of an independent art exhibition at major art centers like Paris?

I think our minds need to be visually trained at times to understand the artwork or any art form. This visual unlocking can come way through "At Appreciation" sessions similar to "Film Appreciations" which help people to understand the underlying messages in those art forms. The visual sense of our minds today are generally deprived because of our lack of access to artistic masterpieces and not having a platform to engage in such conversations. Sometimes, the lack of a 'common experience' i.e. understanding the mindset of the artist while creating the art work is also of relevance , as connection starts from there. I would definitely look forward to a day for my solo art exhibition. And why not have people come from Paris- instead of making a move there!

by- Payal Bhattacharjee for TNT- The Northeast Today News

The writer can be reached at  –bhattacharjeepayal3@gmail.com