This IIM-Bangalore MBA makes sculptures to create empathy towards animals

Ten years ago, Aravind Thippanaik’s life took a different trajectory. A management consultant, specialising in brand marketing and consumer insights, he felt the urge to tap his artistic side and became a sculptor.

“My first memory of being creative was playing with sand. When I was five, I got a Lego set and started building things. But while growing up, due to the pressure of academics, I lost touch with creativity. My interest in art was revived when I started travelling for work. I went to Europe and South East Asia and observed the sculptures. I would always visit art museums when I travelled,” says 47-year-old Aravind. 

One day in 2015, he went to drop his niece off at an art studio in Gurugram. It was a new studio. They asked him to wait and try something. He worked with clay. “I was a 38-year-old guy among 12-15-year-olds! But the interest in me was sparked. I started going to the studio on weekends. A senior artist advised me to pursue sculpting. That’s how my journey began,” he says.

The Goa-based artist studied mechanical engineering from BMS College in Bengaluru followed by MBA from IIM, Bangalore. 

He has 22 years of industry experience including working as a consumer expert at McKinsey & Company for their India practice. 

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Move to Goa

“Three years ago, my wife Maya and I moved to Goa. We wanted to escape the pollution as well as live in a prettier place close to nature. I connected with senior Goan artist Thomas Louis. He was very welcoming. I still use his studio. That’s when I started working more professionally. I started working freelance on the management front, so that I had more time for art. Now, I work on consulting three days of the week leaving four days to pursue sculpting,” says Aravind. 

He has not had any formal training in the arts but has been mentored by Thomas and other artists on how to work with the medium of his choice – ceramic.

His body of work under the banner ‘Clay Lab Goa’, is inspired by people and animals. Initially, the theme of mythology interested him. But now his focus is mostly on different types of animals – dogs, cats, alligators, wild boar, and, more recently, monkeys and apes. 

“My sculpting is essentially with clay and ceramic. I have tried mixing ceramic and wood and ceramic and metal to some extent,” he says. 

He describes the process involved in making a ceramic sculpture. First, the clay is shaped/moulded with the hand (some artists use a potter’s wheel occasionly). The clay sculpture is allowed to dry and then put into a furnace. The first round of firing is called ‘bisquing’. The clay becomes hard. ‘Glazing’ is the next step. The hardened clay sculpture is dipped in a liquid with chemicals to glaze it. It is then put again in the furnace at a higher temperature. The result is a ceramic sculpture with either glossy or matt finish. 

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Animal-friendly art 

Aravind is passionate about the natural world and hopes his work will bring about compassion, empathy and sensitivity towards animals. His art is focused on promoting an ethical and responsible approach to pets and wildlife. 

“I sometimes wonder if animals were humans and humans were animals, how would humans feel if animals came shopping for them!”

He wants to build awareness about not keeping pets chained. “That is a very 1970s idea that a dog should be chained and guard a house. Now, pets are part of the family.  We have a white Indie (part labrador, I think) named Snowy. I always say he found us and adopted us as we feel fortunate to have him in our life,” he says.  

Quirky work

Each sculpture is unique and at times quirky – meant to evoke a mood, memory or a reverie. Why Aravind’s work has often been described as quirky is because he dabbles with caricatures as well. He makes cartoon looking cats and dogs. Also, he mixes mediums. For instance, his ceramic cat may have metal hair. 

Before working on a sculpture, he sketches a bit. “Since my memory is more photographic, I expose myself to animals visually if they are my theme. I watch wildlife documentaries to get the faces and physical structure right. I find dogs and monkeys very expressive. They evoke emotions in the viewer. One of my sculptures, ‘Meditating monkey’, is my interpretation of the human mind that cannot sit still. 

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Aravind does not like working with deadlines. He accepts commissioned work very selectively, only if the client has time to wait. Initially, he participated in a few art shows and potter’s fests in Goa. But he found that he got more joy doing art without an agenda or deadline. 

“I have never made an attempt to make my art commercial. Sculpting does not pay the bills. My management consultancy work does. I am approaching my art in an anti-corporate way (with a laugh). I do not work with timelines. I do not do it for the money,” he says. 

‘Art should speak to the buyer’

Most of the sales are offline at a studio cum shop in Panjim owned by Thomas called ‘Thomas the Potter’. “My sales are very erratic. Online sales are negligible. People see my work online and if they are in Goa they come to the studio or shop to see the actual piece they had liked,” he says.

“I tell people that if a piece of art speaks to you, you should buy it,” says the artist. 

“Some months I am not creatively inspired. Then again, in one month I make 30 sculptures! I had picked up painting as a stress buster. Often an idea I have morphs into something else. Painting does not give me the liberty to change and go on a different path; sculpting does. I love working with clay,” he says.    

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He has made miniatures of cats and dogs that are three to four inches high. His largest sculpture is 18 inches high. 

Aravind is currently restricted by the size of the furnace. He plans to have a studio of his own in two years. 

The prices of the sculptures range from Rs 4,000 to Rs 22,000. His personal favourites are a set of pirate faces on wood, which has been bought by a resort in Goa, and the bust of man in blue which has come out much more expressive than he expected, he says.  

He generally works in the morning for three to four hours. Larger sculptures take eight hours over three days, while a small human face may take just 20 minutes to finish. 

Customised pieces 

“I do not get into corporate gifting as that involves making things in bulk, which I don’t do. I  have received requests for specific pieces. For instance, a customer wanted a sculpture made for a friend who has six dogs and five cats – all adopted. The woman in my sculpture wore a cape as I thought of her as a superwoman! Another customised piece is of two little boys holding a net. They were made for two brothers who had discovered an insect,” explains Aravind.  

His other interests include travel, birding and watching movies. “Goa is amazing for birds. We have large hornbills with bright yellow beaks. I have seen around 40 species of birds here.”

“I want to inspire people to think on the subject of showing compassion towards animals without sounding preachy. I want to use art to make an impact on human-animal interaction,” says the artist emphatically. 

(Aruna Raghuram is a freelance journalist based in Bengaluru. She writes about people, environmental matters, parenting, DEI issues, and social/development enterprises.)

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