“I had painted and printed so much of my artwork that at one point my mum was just like, ‘either give it away or sell it’,” recalls Shravani Matodkar, who lives on Goa's Chorao Island.
Taking her mother's suggestion into consideration, she teamed up with her friend Joshua Rodrigues and the Pakho Shop emerged out of its cocoon soon after.
As for the unique name, Pakho is the Konkani word for ‘butterfly,’ and the Pakho Shop sells tiny keychains, fridge magnets, tote bags, art prints, cards and other trinkets and art made out of clay, fabric and paper.
“Illustrating was my escape,” says Shravani, who along with Joshua, has set up shop at the Summer Fete at the Art Gallery, Maquinez Palace, in Panjim.
Joshua arranges and rearranges the quirky fridge magnets as she flashes a big smile and explains, “I am an architecture student. Sometimes, when my mind was too overwhelmed I would start drawing anything that came to my mind. Some days, it was as simple as a big red asymmetrical flower and other days it was phrases or sights that inspired me before I put them down on paper,”
While some of the paintings are drawn on paper before going digital, Shravani takes others directly to Procreate, where she illustrates digitally.
As for Joshua, apart from being a huge support system to Shravani, he is also a musician and the ‘guy behind the laptop’ that takes care of all the backend work.
“The writing, accounts, video editing, designing, photography and that one friend that we all need to tell us that it’s going to be okay even when things are looking irreversibly bad,” that’s Joshua for you, nods Shravani.
In butterfly terms, Joshua is the second wing that Shravani would not be able to take off without.
Her style and design speak for themselves as she pours her heart out through her art which she describes as, “personal, minimalistic, colourful, cute, authentic, from the heart of Chorao and always connected to special memories, places and living beings”.
With 351 followers on Instagram, but 491 posts that have been shared as of today, it speaks for itself that at the end of the day, for Shravani and Joshua, real happiness lies in putting art out into the world irrespective of how many people are watching.
Like Albert Einstein said, “Art is standing with one hand extended into the universe and one hand extended into the world and letting ourselves be a conduit for passing energy,”
DETAILS
Catch the Pakho Shop at the Art Gallery, Maquinez Palace, ESG Complex on May 18 and 19 from 11 am to 7 pm
Or visit their Instagram page @pakho.shop