GOAN TALENT

Rachael Dsouza is a budding freelance mural artist from Goa. Born and raised in the beautiful village of Moira, she has done her schooling at St Thomas Convent School in Aldona, later she joined St Xavier's Higher Secondary School Mapusa and pursued her Bachelor's degree in literature and graduated in 2019 as an English major.

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W h e n d e s c r i b i n g h e r c h i l d h o o d i n t e r e s t i n creativity, she explains you'd always see me scribbling, doodling, and making things. At that time, I had no clue that I'd be doing this for a living. My school had an amazing art teacher and I'm still in awe of her work and personality. I joined college with a very different career perspective as I wanted to teach,” says Racheal. Over the years in college, w h i l e p a r t i c i p a t i n g i n extracurricular activities and w i n n i n g c o m p e t i t i o n s , Rachael found her calling. “I even started selling a few small paintings then, and that gave my confidence a boost. I was the deco head for a national-level inter-college event called 'Wordsup ' . This was mostly when I realised 'oh damn, I'm good at this'. That's when I realised that my art is something more than just a hobby. My family and friends had my back and appreciated my work throughout. I took on mural paintings soon after that and I painted quite a few walls even before I graduated. I joined the Pyde Pyper Art Academy for weekly classes and here I learned a lot more about the art field and how things work. Not having an art degree did make me a bit nervous initially. However, I totally believe this is how my journey had to be and I love it.” Rachael tells us that unlike before, artists are now getting t h e r e c o g n i t i o n a n d appreciation that they most definitely deserve. “Over the years, social media has helped me immensely to get my work to people. It gave me a platform needed to showcase my art. I feel at my best when I'm painting. It's an escape I love and there is something very therapeutic about it. While I love doing all kinds of p a i n t i n g , m u r a l s h a v e a special place in my heart. All the hard work and effort are totally worth it when you see your stunning painting up on the wall,” she added. However, painting something on such a big scale is no small feat. There's a lot of planning and design work that goes into it. And that only comes with practice. It's physically quite hectic too - climbing up ladders and scaffolds to paint

is an added task. But signing your work at the end makes all that pain worth it. When she started painting, R a c h a e l d i d n ' t h a v e a particular goal in mind. And it took some time for her to get steady. “I was, in fact, very sceptical of how things would work out for me in my art career. Praying kept me rooted and hard work got me here. The only goal I think I had when I started was to have fun and do my best with it,” she added. Rachael believes that the moto “having no plan is a good plan” has always worked well for her. “I think it sort of opened up options for me along the way. While I'm proud of whatever I've achieved so far, I' m looking forward to taking my art outside the state a n d w o r k i n g w i t h n e w mediums. I'm particularly keen on setting up my art studio and I'm getting there slowly but surely. Grow and help grow. There is so much art around that one tends to doubt one's own work but as they rightly say - art is beautiful and so very unique, it's almost like a voice or a means to convey or just exist. If you have it in you to create, don't let anything get in your way. Practice putting in the work and showcase. We were created to create.”