PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Nainital
Uttarakhand’s traditional folk art known as Aipan is no longer confined to the doorsteps and courtyards of homes thanks to the new identity given to it by some mission-charged Aipan artists. One of them is Pooja Padiyar, a resident of Bhimtal in Nainital district. She worked with this rich mountain art for the past eight years and her designs and products are now reaching various parts of the country and even abroad.
Along with Aipan, she is now enlivening Uttarakhand’s folk culture and religious traditions through mural artwork. These days, she is painting images of Kumaon’s presiding deities, Nanda and Sunanda, using the Aipan style and traditional hill motifs. Her paintings showcase a combination of traditional colours and intricate Aipan designs.
Narrating her journey in this particular realm of art, she said that it had started when she was in sixth grade. “I began learning the art during my school days and by the time I reached 12th grade, I began participating in numerous Aipan competitions. While participating in them, I realised that while many folk arts across the country, including Madhubani, were gaining widespread recognition, Uttarakhand’s Aipan art remained far from getting the platform it deserved. This thought inspired me to do something different for this art,” she explained.
Over the past eight years, she has not just let Aipan remain a hobby but has instead made a living from them. Her Aipan products are now available nationwide, making the art enthusiasts her customers and they are even catching the fancy of those settled abroad. Through social media, she is promoting her work to new markets. Her Instagram page is a major medium for promoting Aipan art and her products.
“The youth are becoming increasingly interested in Aipan. This is an inspiring trend. If made market-friendly with modern design, it might become a thriving source of employment and business,” she noted.
Along with Aipan, Pooja also works in the field of wall paintings. She has painted the walls at major temples and various locations across Uttarakhand. She has also exhibited her artwork in G20 projects, government and non-government projects. Besides, she has painted the walls in the Governor House.
Amidst preparations for the Nanda-Sunanda Festival, she is engaged in churning attractive wall paintings of Goddesses Nanda-Sunanda, in Bhowali and Nainital. The art connoisseurs say that her paintings reflect religious sentiments as well as Kumaon’s folk culture and traditional art.
Pooja exhorts the youth to embrace Uttarakhand’s folk arts as a career by connecting it with modern technology, social media and the market. “They are loaded with immense employment opportunities. As far as Aipan art is concerned, its promotion while recharging it with new thinking and new experiments could not only bring the mountain culture to the world but also become a robust means of self-reliance for the youth,” she asserted.
