Artist Profile: Hand Drawn Loops by Prasad Bhat
Artists have iconic styles that are distinctive in their artistry. Often time, an association is made immediately between the artist and the artwork.
REMIX! Club presents Hand Drawn Loops by Prasad Bhat.
With our second exclusive Originals! release, we would like to connect our NFT community with the work of Prasad Bhat, and allow him to share some of his thoughts on the collection drop itself; Hand Drawn Loops
The journey of Prasad in the art domain spans over 13 years. The concept behind each of his artworks is imbued with his life experiences, his culture, and a reflection of the creative chaos that originates from his mind. Known for his unique style of vector portraits and caricatures, the distinction of his work is identifiable and makes for a unique trait for his collectors.
Creativity is expounded through hardship. One of which I am never short of in my life — Prasad
The journey of art is one that pushes boundaries to bring about provocation of the mind; humor, contentious, divisive, impactful, memorable. These are traits that are brought forth in the work of Prasad, oftentimes, these are also challenges that he faces when he transposes his work in India.
There are a lot of stigmas for an artists, growing up in a part of the world where its citizens are expected to be doctors, software engineers, or engineers.
The story of Prasad is one that is driven through conflicts in expectations and culture. His creativity is expounded through hardship and resistance towards what is expected of the norm. Through this, he found solace in art — a platform that allows him to channel his creativity, perspective on life and how he deals with expectations and cultural divide.
The illustration that is produced by Prasad has caught the eyes of several publications. Indian Express, Deccan Herald, Deccan Chronicles, Student Magazine and Creative Gaga magazine are just some of the platforms which have recognized the work of Prasad. His unique and distinctive appeal has gotten recognition from the art community and growing fan-base.
NFT Journey
Prasad’s venture into NFT began in March 2021. Right through the boom of NFT in the wake of Beeple’s $69 million sales; He saw an opportunity and a marketplace that allowed him to cross borders and venture into the realms of blockchain and through provenance.
Trying his hands at Non-Fungible Tokens was a seamless transition. Using his trademark style of vector portraits, and drawing with his mouse, he crafts seamless transitions of human caricatures in his most preferred style; edgy, distinctive and humorous. The result?An exponential growing legion of loyal fans and also the attention of big corporations.
Prasad was commissioned by Disney to create the Evolution of Mickey Mouse on Mickey’s 90th anniversary.
His collectors have also continuously shown support of his work by recently displaying a portrait of Prasads drawing recently at the time square NYC billboard.
Through these exposures, REMIX! came to know about Prasad’s work and we were excited to commissio him to do a rendition of the popular BAYC NFTs in our initial BAYC REMIX! derivative Project. Prasad’s goal was to create an Ape derivative that was consistent with his culture, while preserving the same sharp style that is present in all his artwork.
The REMIX! team saw an opportunity to forge a brand new artwork collection with Prasad, Hand Drawn Loops, which will be an exclusive drop for our flagship brand umbrella, REMIX! Originals.
The REMIX! team got together with Prasad to get his thoughts on Hand Drawn Loops, some of the concept, and how it all came together
Hand Drawn Loops is extremely distinctive and it’s references seem to span over multiple decades. What are the inspiration for these 12 loops?
P: I took a lot of inspiration from the vintage black and white 1930’s cartoon. The old humorous animations and reoccurring loops. I really enjoyed the humor and concept that was put in place. 2018 was perhaps the year I actually started to conceptualize the idea of duality and loops. Using the 1930’s edgy humor drawings, and then infuse it with my own style. It took me close to 3 years to really get comfortable. These illustrations you see with Hand Drawn Loops are theculmination of just years of practice.
Were there any tools or software used for these Loops?
P: It is easier to get the final product with software (Windows Video Maker), but to make it seamless, and to retain the rawness to the traditional inspiration I’ve had, I find using that hand drawn method (with a mouse!), keeping it frame-by-frame works best to the final product that I envisage. I like to keep it old school !
How long does it take from the moment of inspiration, to the drawing itself?
P: Most of the time, the challenge is the idea. You see things around you, and you formulate duality. However, you still need to be able to get the transition and loop drawn seamlessly. It has to be smooth, and it has to make sense. Once the concept and idea is done, it’ll take about 1–2 days to get it exact.
These are all great pieces that have multiple interpretations, and cultural meaning for the audience. Can we talk about one loop that you personally enjoy?
P: It’s hard to pick one. These are all so unique and you can’t really pick one. I do like the Jeff Bezos transition into the space rocket, in between he looks phallic. It’s hypnotic. It’s unique.
Are there any particular challenges, or just thought processes that you want to share with the audience, as they try to connect with you as an artist?
P: I love to push boundaries and explore the clash of cultures. Pop Culture is an easy way to connect with audience, but also it’s not exactly the easiest thing to do here in India. I have gotten into troubles before, received threats from authorities for pushing the limits of my art and trying to use it as a platform to share my creativity. That is why I love NFTs because right now, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it has a lot of meme culture. It encourages humor and the NFT community loves it. There are a lot of cultural barriers in India and the challenge is finding nuance in being politically correct, but also expressing humor. It’s very challenging because humor, art has a lot of backlash in India, and it gets a lot of attention. I feel responsible to reflect the truth in a lot of my work, and that means being free to express liberally and challenge the norm.
Thanks for that. It’s not easy when some of these topics and cultural references are shrugged off in some places of the world, but get you in trouble. Can you talk a little bit about these 12 loops?
P: So at the end of the day, I want my holders to be able to draw their own parallels and duality. There are a lot of conceptual cultural thoughts that went into these, and whilst these are just my interpretation, there are different ways that we can go with this.
There’s a Salvador Dali duality piece with his iconic moustache, and melting clock. It’s the duality of Dali and his most famous work the melting clock
Kim Jong Un turning into the Dalai Lama — Showing the spectrum of human, from so much hate to peaceful. The huge contrast
Satoshi turning to pepe — This was another great cultural piece. The rise of memes was popularized with bitcoin, and “Dorian” Nakamoto has been the infamous face of Satoshi.
There are so many more in there, that I’d like the community to be able to draw parallels and their own interpretations of duality. My job as an artist is just to challenge and put it out there. We enjoy having our collectors find interpretations of our work.
Do you have any plans for your the collectors of your Hand Drawn Loops?
P: Absolutely. This doesn’t end just here. I have so many plans in the pipeline for our community. I want to be able to connect with them, and get their involvement in creating the next loops.
Some ideas such as asking the community for their best interpretation of a duality loop, and the winner gets a print are some of the ideas i have in mind.
There’s so many ideas I would like to share and build on with the collectors. They will be the one to drive some of the next few loops, and I might also airdrop a new loop to collectors of all 12 loops. It doesn’t just end here.
Excellent. We look forward to be able to continue this journey with you. Thank you for sharing some of your thoughts and inspiration with our community. We are all looking forward to this release.
P: Thank you. I look forward to connecting with the community and the collectors. I have plans to continually reward my holders, and would love to be able to share with them my plans and continue growing my artwork.
Connect with Prasad Bhat
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PrasadPBhat
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prasadbhatart
REMIX! Discord : https://discord.com/invite/apedao
REMIX! Twitter: https://twitter.com/ApeDaoRemix
