Psychiatrist rediscovers his love for painting and is set to exhibit in Mumbai and Luxembourg

Zirak Marker works on his art at his Saat Raasta home. Pic/Sameer Markande

Zirak Marker believes that if you have a passion for something, if you crave it, you will find your way back to it in times of need. No matter how long it takes. Just like the child and adolescent psychiatrist and psychotherapist found his way to painting, after 25 years during the pandemic. With a palette knife and acrylic paints, he has created a body of 53 paintings that have caught the attention of the Van Gogh Art gallery. It has invited him to show at the international art festival in September at Luxembourg. At the time of this piece being written, 33 had been sold. In his words, his is "art that suggests reality".

Falling Waters is showing at Kathiwada City House on April 22, and it's interesting that Marker has not had formal training in art. "It was never encouraged," he says, "in fact, it was actively discouraged."

And then COVID-19 spread like the plague, and everyone was reaching out for comfort. "My workload doubled," he says, "and learning moved online. So, I would watch YouTube tutorials to learn techniques from various artists and on different mediums."

He did not have a theme in mind but what emerged were paintings of the second element - water. We can't resist asking: As a psychologist, what does he think the subtext behind his works is? "I think it symbolises me," he laughs, "I am accommodating, non-judgemental, adjusting like water. And like water, I find my way around challenges. One of water's most beautiful forms is the waterfall, and it's the obstacles - the cliff, the rocks it hits - that make it breathtaking. I could have let unpleasant childhood experiences shape me differently; but that was the transformation that gave me my job… touching people's lives. I love what I do. Life is beautiful because of the pain."

Like all of us, Marker too had some dark times during the pandemic and this reflects in some of the canvases. "Funnily," he says, "the feedback I got for those was: they look peaceful. That's my profession: Giving back; Making someone else feel at peace." He adds that many even appreciated his earlier work in the series, the ones in which he felt he had not got hang of the technique. "But that's what is so wonderful about art," adds the Mahalaxmi-resident. "It's subjective and individualistic. Different colours, different strokes speak to different people."

Like all talented individuals, Marker suffered from imposter syndrome, and it took bolstering by friends and family to get him to put together this show. Post pandemic, work speeded up and gathered even more mass, but Marker continues to set aside, a few hours on the weekend to paint.

No one better than him to tell us what making art does, technically, to the mind and the body. "It lowers the heart rate, blood pressure, baseline metabolism, reduces the level of [stress hormone] cortisol in the body. So, you are less wired, less concerned about who is calling, less connected to a gadget. It's a dopamine rush."

His parting advice: Reconnect with what brings you comfort; something you are innately good at. And if you are a parent, instead of enrolling your child in 20 classes a week, identify a skill that your child has a calibre for, or simply enjoys.