“Each person’s life is like a mandala – a vast, limitless circle. We stand in the center of our own circle, and everything we see,hear and think forms the mandala of our life.”, a quote by Pema Chodron, well applicable to Sruthi’s life and love for Mandala.
Sruthi Krishna,symbolise this symmetrical form of art equally jaw-droppingly in her life. Sruthi, not only expresses through performance but also by staying true to her vision. Born and brought up in Coimbatore, Sruthi pursued B.Com from PSG college of Arts and Science and has achieved her Masters degree in Finance and Accounting from the London School of Economics.
Never the part of the pink world during her childhood, Sruthi carried herself like a tomboy. An athlete more than an academic, Sruthi spent the majority of her time cherishing the outdoors. Sruthi represented her state in the National level as a shuffle player and had the opportunity to compete with Saina Nehwal, and till date considers that as one of her proudest moments.
Upon concerns shown by parents later, Sruthi voluntarily quit her sports life during the pursuit of her higher studies. With her mother being an artist, you would expect her to be inclined towards art, but she was nowhere close to it.
One fine evening, sitting unoccupied, Sruthi was discussing art with her mother. Intrigued by Mandalas and their similarity towards her life, Sruthi promptly thought of having an Instagram dedicated towards featuring Mandala art.
ruthi being new to Instagram struggled for a good username. Through Google, an easy way out for all of us, she came across the perfect name for her page, Zenart. Sruthi has never felt uneasy accepting that she used Google for the username, which greatly symbolises her transparent and self-accepting nature.
Interestingly she has had quite a journey, from 35k followers to 100k and still counting.
Blessed with the time she got during lockdown, Sruthi impacted big going back to her Mandala featuring contest. Starting her journey with contests around three years ago, ceasing them after a year turning it into an exclusive featuring page.
Unlike usual beginnings, Sruthi never had a thought-out plan for the page; it was just her simple idea from a very informal context of her interest for symmetry that blended well with her knowledge of art, courtesy artistic mother.
Her intent to remain organized can be determined by her work ethic. Not an artist herself, but definitely, Sruthi has a sharp eye for symmetries, the basic rule of producing a good Mandala. Although, she welcomes Mandala creations, handmade and digital, complicated and simple, only if they follow the symmetry well.
Sruthi has multiple reasons to account for why her content and page stand out from the crowd.
Firstly, 80% of her works are featured freely; the rest are charged with nominal rates. Secondly, Sruthi’s intent to remain unbiased, unlike many of the featured pages that recurrently feature only significant artists. Her page allows a chance at attention and appreciation for all the artists associated with it.
She’s also known to handle a Mandala contest that specified the participation of artists with not more than 1k followers, all for their growth. Her selfless zeal might be small in numbers, but its impact stands huge for the artists who consider themselves small and even bad with Instagram’s new demoralizing algorithm.
Her love for symmetry means all forms of balance stand authentic to this day. Her go-to mantra is, “if you like something, do it with genuine affection for your real emotions.”
However, consistency in work should always be preached and practiced rigorously, something even Sruthi emphasizes in her life for personal growth, too. In today’s times, the love for Mandala creation is gathering all forms of support with brand approaches, including those involved in customization or garment production with Mandala prints.
Her recent project, where she came up with her partner’s idea, launched 51 workshops for all possible art forms featuring 51 artists with 2500 tickets available at a nominal fee of rupee 1. They were able to sell out all of the tickets with a blast.
Looking back now, Sruthi has grown significantly, both professionally and personally, and she could not be happier about herself. Sruthi suggests that although likes and followers come essential for many artists’ success, one should never attach themselves personally to the social media approvals and hence consider their unending love for art as their reward and progress.
