Bringing out the doodle bug

 Minal Naomi

By Sarah Hannan

Born to a family of artists and writers, Minal Naomi was exposed to a world of vivid imagination and true accounts of day-to-day life from a tender age. During a recent visit to her home, Minal enthusiastically flipping through her journal said: “These are doodles I used to draw when I went out of Colombo with Raisa” [her sister].

While she was at school she learned dancing as her aesthetic subject, but one day her dancing teacher had seen one of her sketches. He had identified that Minal was good at art but did not encourage her to join an art class. “My mother asked him whether to send me for art classes. His response was ‘No! Don’t send her for art classes, let her figure out her own style.’ I continued to learn dancing and then I stopped drawing for a long time.”

With the study routines becoming a little more hectic, Minal decided to drop art as a subject. She had to follow eight subjects for her Ordinary Level examinations and time did not permit for her venturing into any sort of creative work. “I somewhat regret dropping art as a subject and in a way the education culture in our school did not allow us to decide on the subjects we preferred,” Minal recollects. 

As any youngster out of college, Minal too had to pick a field of study that would give her an opportunity to enter the corporate world. She decided to read for her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management and when she returned to Sri Lanka she joined the inbound tour operating team of a top blue-chip corporate in Sri Lanka. During this time, she found time to re-enter her world of art. “In my free time I would sit at my desk and start doodling once again and believe that the artist in me was reactivated.”

Back on track

While Minal worked there, she was again deciding to follow her artistic instincts. At the same time she wanted to be a creative writer and she had told her manager about her interests. “My manager then suggested that I do write-ups for the hotels in the groups, but soon enough I was getting tired of all the travelling and writing I had to do.”

She had then consulted her father for advice. “I told my father I was not happy with the work I was involved with and he suggested that I switch fields.” With his encouragement, Minal decided to enrol at Academy of Design for an Interior Designing Program.

She had to quit work because the Program for Interior Designing was a fulltime course. “I am extremely lucky to have my parents support to switch my field of study and start all over again. Not many young adults get a chance to do so and I understand it is financially taxing as well.”

She lovingly related how Raisa inspires her when she hits a creative block: “Sometime I ask her to come and help me with art concepts. It is a conceptual crisis and she is always there to guide me through. Now when I look back I think to myself that this is what I should have been doing from the beginning.”

With her creative path being paved in a positive direction, Minal is now on a roll and has also participated at the Colombo Design Market.

For more of her creative work, visit: http://minalnaomi.wordpress.com or find her on Facebook: Minal Naomi.

Colombo Design Market stall

Drawstring bags

​