An eight-year-old boy was walking the streets in Bandra, aimlessly, 19 years ago. He bumped into a group of energetic young children, his age. Their preoccupation caught the boy's attention - for life. The children were the painting team of the National Society for Clean Cities India (NACCI). The boy - Shaikh Mohammed Yasin - joined them immediately.Today, two decades later, Yasin is holding his first solo exhibition at the Jehangir Art Gallery.This transition however didn't happen easily. Yasin has had his own share of hardships. But his is not a sob story. The very obstacles lining his way, paved the way to an uncommon medium, of which Yasin is a master today - mixed media. Yasin uses everything from oils, ink, poster colours, magazine print, newspapers to rangoli in his paintings. His first solo exhibition therefore is called `Remix'. "Just as old songs are being mixed with new beats these days," says he. "Mixed media gives my paintings a three-dimensional effect and is easy on the pocket too -it requires a little of all materials."This candid confession of near penury comes from a painter who hasn't forgotten his humble origins. And that is why he attributes his success to S B Polaji, a veteran in the world of colours, who used to teach children at the NACCI free. Yasin had his first lessons with the brush with him. Polaji was also instrumental in getting him admitted to the Raheja School of Art for a course in Fine Arts, in 1985. But financial pressures forced Yasin to drop out of the four-year course, at the end of two years. "The expenditure for the course amounted to Rs 200 per day," he says. It didn't take him much time to realise that depending on his family resources to continue with the course for another two years was a chimera. Yasin then resorted to earning and learning - at the same time.And again, an impediment opened an avenue for him. He took up the Art Teacher's Diploma (ATD) at the J J School of Art, in 1988. And landed a job in St Anthony's High School, Santa Cruz. Bothjobs have an equal footing as far as the painter in Yasin is concerned. So far as the former goes, he has followed in the footsteps of his mentor - Polaji. Yasin teaches his students free of charge after school hours. "No child should be deprived of an opportunity to become an artist. I wasn't denied one," he says. Yasin also utilises this time to experiment. And his students are always a part of this. "I ask them to draw with their fingers," he says.Another striking aspect of his paintings is that even if brown and rust dominate his first painting, the other is quite sunny, dotted with happy faces and yet another misty blue - unlike most other painters, he does not stick to one particular colour scheme. "That's because I want to do something different. In my exhibitions I do what I want to," says he.And as he tears magazines for more remixing, he talks about his dream of building an "Arts' faculty for children" and a film he would like to make as a tribute to artists like Van Gogh "who lived for artand died for art".At the Jehangir Art Gallery from May 21 to May 27, 1998. Time: 11.00 am to 7.00 pm.
