Art In Action Afternoon Despatch & Courier
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MUMBAI | MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2014
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Pics: Vishwanath Salian | ADC
The cozy and earthy boutique, Mélange, on Friday, hosted the effervescent Leroy Parker, an artist and former Professor of Art from Lafayette, California, as he unveiled his latest collection of hand-painted apparel called 'The Five Senses.' Claudelle Monis went around the boutique, doing her own evaluation of the spectacular art turning into wearable apparel and spoke to the man himself in a free-wheeling interview.
Sangita Sinh Kathiwada, owner of Melange, with a kurta painted by Leroy Parker.
Standing out proud BUSY AT WORK: Artist Leroy Parker painting on the saree worn by singer Manasi Scott, at Melange on Friday.
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lad in a pair of hand-painted jeans, shirt and jacket, artist Leroy Parker made for quite a picture, as he posed willingly and happily for photographers and spoke to journalists, keeping them in splits with his jokes and entertaining conversation. As promised, Parker got down on his knees, surrounded by tubes of
paint and his brushes, and painted the back of the kurta worn by lawyer, Jamshed Mistry. And if that wasn't enough, he picked up his guitar, and played and sang the famous song 'Summertime' for the cheering crowd. The showstopper for the evening, however, was singer Manasi Scott, who was clad in a beautiful saree
CREATING A MASTERPIECE: Leroy Parker hard at work on a motif, painted on the back of a kurta worn by lawyer Jamshed Mistry.
painted by Parker himself. This is Parker's first collection of apparel to be launched in India and comprises a mixture of apparel, including sarees, waistcoats, kurtas and shirts and is expected to range from between $1,000 and $6,000, depending on the complexity of the painting and the amount of work on the piece.
SHEER DELIGHT: Leroy Parker posing with his trusty instruments.
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f Leroy Parker crossed you on the street, you'd be bound to give him a second, third and maybe even a fourth look. After all, how often do you see a man in blue jeans having open mouths with tongues sticking out painted all over them? “This is just one of the motifs of my collection called 'The Five Senses', that deals not only with a person's ability to gain knowledge through his five senses, but also to understand how it all culminates in a deeper feeling,” says Parker. At a young age, Parker observed his older brother who loved to draw and paint, and would spend hours doodling. When he was done painting on paper, including the ones he made by cooking plants and pineapple tops, he started painting manhole covers and whatever else caught his fancy. Soon he took his passion for art to clothes. “It was the result of people laughing at the smears of paint on my clothes when I was done painting,” says Parker. “When I started transforming those spills and smears into art, people stopped laughing and started admiring my clothes,” he adds with a laugh. But painting is not about raking in the moolah for this former professor. It is all about worship. The concepts for Parker's masterpieces are not copies of anything he has encountered, but are products of his thoughts and the result of his morning meditation. That is why he does not paint on an easel, but spreads the surface he is working on, on the floor, kneels over it and paints as if he is worshipping it. Parker's work falls into the category of 'performance art' simply because he wants the wearer's personality to shine through the garment. “I leave a little bit of the garment unfinished. So, if the front is painted, the back will either be blank or will have the outline of motifs on it. That is because the wearer has to decided what he would like to have on the back, if he would like it left blank, or what colour he wants the motifs to be filled in with, thus allowing the piece to be truly personalised,” says Parker. If you think Parker's work ends once he's done painting a piece, you're mistaken. His process of painting is called 'AnticipatoryPreparatory,' which means that he paints in layers. Once he's done painting a piece or apparel, he tells the buyer that he will add another layer of meaning and design to it later. The apparel he works on, therefore, ends up in a riot of colours, with geometric shapes, nature and the human body being woven together into a whole.