What artists’ childhoods can tell us

livemint.com:

Meera Mukherjee: Breaking Moulds, there is a lovely anecdote about how the late sculptor’s tryst with art started. “It all began at the chaukhat of their home in Calcutta. Meera sat with her Maa to decorate the doorway with alponas while the rest of the house was bustling with the celebrations of Laxmi Pujo," writes author Vaishali Shroff in this book from Art1st Book’s Art Exploration series meant for kids aged eight-plus, illustrated beautifully by Shivam Choudhary.

To Mukherjee, her mother’s designs represented something fantastical— how simple rice paste took the form of exquisite shapes. And thus began her lifelong preoccupation with creating sculptures out of simple materials. It might be tough to imagine artists—modern or contemporary—as children.

Did you know that S.H. Raza struggled with concentration while growing up in the town of Barbaria, Madhya Pradesh? What were the memories from Ganesh Pyne’s childhood that inspired his exaggerated, often dark, lurking creatures later in life? Children might have heard of these artists and know of their legacies, but more often than not, they view these personalities from a distance. But if they knew of the roller-coaster ride of unfettered freedom, inspiration, exasperation, loss and grief that these artists went through as kids, they might be able to relate to them better.