Atendong Nokdir has been creating art since the age of 11. He is presently working as an art instructor at The Maple Tree School for the past 3 years.
Like many young artists, he originally started drawing and copying from comics, magazines, books etc. Looking back, he says, “When I was around 11 years old, the pencil medium was new to me so I gave it a try. I didn’t know what fine art was at that time.” He went on to graduate in B.F.A (Bachelor in Fine Arts) Painting, from the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He is a full-time artist ever since.
Encouraged and inspired by his elder brother to pursue art as a profession, Aten says, “After his initial guidance, I found fine art like a big umbrella with many different things like techniques, a medium where color was experiment and everything comes alive in one canvas or a paper and that got me more into the form of art and that’s where my passion also turned into a profession.”
Today, he creates stunning images using mediums like oil color, watercolor, and charcoal. He also experiments with scrap materials. Describing his style, Aten says that there are many artists in the world with different qualities with their distinct styles and executing their art work and expressing through paintings and sculptures, but to him, fine art is so intriguing that he doesn’t have a trademark style of work. “I do mostly contemporary art,” he explains.
Art, for him is the expression of creativity, skills and imagination which we faithfully copy from nature. He shares that his creativity also comes from his camera where he captures any interesting detailing or sights during his travels. I try to scribble and bring it alive on the paper. I also browse the internet to get ideas and inspiration.
As an art instructor educating children on the basic elements and attempting to instill a love for art, Aten feels that this generation children’s are very creative and has a potential to become great artists, saying, “It is very important for the children to be given opportunity and exposure to art so that they will learn a lot by experiencing”. He advises that the only thing is that they need to have patience and focus.
He also feels, when you hear the word ‘Art’ it doesn’t mean it’s only about drawing and painting. Music, dance, drama, singing, fashion designing, photography, graphic designing etc are all art. So with this art form in most of the school in Nagaland now, I see a great lot of young emerging artist from different art background and we could have a better Nagaland with the future generation not depending on government jobs only which is the present scenario.
He also feels that we need a thriving art scene in our society. But today in Nagaland very few people know the value of fine art. And to remedy this, he feels the government should organize an event exclusively for the young emerging artists to expose their talent once or twice a year. “I wish there is an art gallery for the public to go and see the artists in Nagaland,” he rues.