We recently had the chance to connect with Shailee Thakkar and have shared our conversation below.
Shailee, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
I play this game called Killer Sudoku. I play it daily, and I have my regular ways to solve it. A few weeks ago, however, I figured out a new math trick to get me a step closer to solving the expert level puzzles. It was so obvious, but I had solely relied on logic until that point and I was just glad I taught myself a new method. It was a truly random and funny moment I had with myself while I was on the bus. I even double checked my work and when it worked again, I was so excited that I texted my husband to tell him even though I couldn’t show him what I meant over the phone. I am an artist, but puzzles are a part of my daily routine and I come from a family of puzzlers so that was a fun bonus moment for me.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hello! I am Shailee. I am a 2nd year Graduate Student at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in the Fine Arts 2D program focusing on concept art. I am originally from India and lived in Austin, Texas until last year when I relocated to Boston for my studies. I am a project-based and a process driven artist, and it took me quite a long time to get comfortable saying that.
Most of my work revolves around the processes of order and chaos. My natural tendency is to organize and categorize. But, with accumulation over time, those systems fall apart, leading to chaos. This happens with my projects too. I work with themes of control; control over self and others, actions, words, and movement by systems of power, anywhere from family to something big like the government. I am interested in challenging these accepted truths and bringing light to the ironies of the power dynamics between systems of power and individuals.
I am a collector of sorts. I collect photos, sounds, receipts, museum tickets, and lots of art supplies. I don’t always know what the project is going to be when I start. Sometimes, I just start with a set of rules. Over time, however, I end up with enough source material to bring the project to fruition. The projects are very rarely about a painting or a drawing, but about the process that those objects go through. Giving up on the idea of permanence has given me a lot of freedom to explore projects that are obscure and unorthodox. It’s tricky to explain at times, but I am glad my work is going in this direction and I am excited by the endless possibilities.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
I don’t think it was a particular moment, but an accumulation of moments in the first few months after I moved to the U.S. I was 12 years old when I moved here with my family. I spoke English, but had a pretty thick Indian accent and I was starting a new school in the middle of the school year in 8th grade. It’s not a great time to join for anyone. I had never attended schools with lockers and couldn’t figure out how to open mine for a long time. At least I was good at school work so I had that going for me, but I still struggled to adjust. Once, we had a question about quarters in a basketball game. I had never seen or played basketball and wasn’t familiar with the rules of the game. When I asked the teacher how long each quarter was, she said I should already know that and she refused to tell me. Looking back, it seems obvious now, but back then, it wasn’t. There were a lot of frustrating moments like that for me. I also expected that I might make friends with some other Indian students at school, but that also didn’t pan out. I found kindness from other students and teachers, who saw my work ethic and didn’t judge me for my accent. Now, people tell me that I don’t have an Indian accent at all, and I don’t, but that’s because I lost it pretty quickly. Out of self-preservation or just naturally over time, I am not sure.
After a few challenging months of realizing I was here to stay, I realized a few things. Family is sometimes unkind, friendships can often come from expected places, and you have to admit and unlearn things on a constant basis.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Many times. Like I said, I moved to Boston for school. I was in a new city attending an art school for the first time and I was starting over knowing practically no one in the city except one friend from high school. Boston is very accepting, but it’s a hard city to break into. People are extremely open, but slow to let you in, so I felt really lonely at times. I also felt like I didn’t quite belong and didn’t have a clear vision for my work, so I thought about leaving my program to go back home a few times in the first semester. But, I realized that I had this out-of-place feeling back at home too, so I really just needed to push through. A few months before starting my program, I had attended a karaoke event with my former coworkers and friends, and my boss gave me a lot of encouragement. He had believed in me and written my recommendation letters for school, so his words meant a lot to me. My TAG team is still constantly encouraging me from far away and I am really thankful to them. I realized I had quite a few people supporting me from home, so I should keep going. I often talked to my studio-mate and other students in the graduate program who listened to me, encouraged me, answered my questions, and became my friends. Their encouragement was really helpful in improving my work and giving me the confidence to stick around. I think the faculty at school are really wonderful too. They are ready to do studio visits and aren’t stingy with their advice and artist suggestions, which is really good for growth. I am just really glad I stayed.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
That’s easy- my art. When I was a teacher, the phrase ‘lifelong learner’ was always brought up. I plan on using this phrase for my artwork. I have been making art since I was young, but now, I am making art on a regular basis and in a different capacity than before. I am really happy doing work that challenges me, frustrates me, forces me to pay attention to my surroundings, and demands action from me.
A lot of my projects are quite time consuming and tedious. There is always a component of accumulation involved. I do a lot of collecting, organizing, reorganizing, and pondering over it, and that takes time. I just finished the first recording of a sound piece that I started back in May of 2023. Luckily, I’m not afraid of hard work and I’m not afraid of the time. Some projects are just slow to emerge and that’s ok. There were always objective answers in the field of science or math when I was teaching in school, but art just isn’t one of those fields. There are one or two projects that I’ve started and I just need to think about them conceptually before I really decide where they’re going. I’ve been carrying a 14x17in. tracing paper sketchpad turned sketchbook with me everywhere I go for the last year and half now. The book is slightly too big to fit in my backpack and is really awkward to carry in the bus or the train, but it goes with me everywhere. It also isn’t meant to be a sketchbook, so the pages often come loose and the book requires constant mending. It’s a project that I’ve started, but I have no idea where it’s going. That unknown also forces me to say ‘I don’t know yet, but I’m excited to figure it out.’ It’s fun to solve the puzzles within my own work.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. When do you feel most at peace?
I like being productive. Work excites me when I am challenged and my strengths are utilized. When I am working on a project in my studio, that is peaceful to me. I get distracted really easily, so a task on hand where I know what is happening for long stretches of time is usually best for me. I’ll usually put on my go-to playlist and get to work. Before I was in art school, I would work late at night after my spouse and dogs had gone to sleep. Now, I have a lot of morning classes and work so that schedule has changed a little bit, but the flow state I achieve is the same. Luckily, I have a huge studio with a lot of tables and I am really productive there. The studio is my second home in Boston and I do a lot of experimentation in my studio. I’ve also covered my studio tables with paper, so I always have a surface to take notes on, something I use quite often. Sometimes, I have to force myself to take a break and go for a quick walk, but those are the most productive days. It’s quite fun!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shaileethakkar.com
- Instagram: _shaileethakkar
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shailee-thakkar/
Image Credits
Behnaz Monzavi
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