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O’Digi Store Uses Odisha’s Traditional Art To Beautifully Transform Your Home!





O’Digi Store Uses Odisha’s Traditional Art To Beautifully Transform Your Home!

Shagoon Satpathy, owner of O’ Digi- Décor StoreY cannot agree more.  A lifestyle consultant, an amazing cook (his cookery show is currently being aired on a popular local channel) and a fashionista, Shagoon has been making an attempt to popularise Odisha’s traditional art in home décor by giving it a contemporary look. And, that’s the reason O’Digi has many products, from lamps and mugs to cushion covers and tables and chairs to canvas shoes, that flaunt ‘pattachitra’ with style and elegance.

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“You have to be creative and in love with art to come up with designs like these,” says Shagoon as he shows us some of his creations that he has used for his own sweet home.

Nearly three and a half years back, Shagoon had bought a square table and four armless chairs made up of ‘chakunda wood’ (the wood comes comparatively cheap but is strong in quality). However, he had no plans to use them just like that! And, so he decided to enhance the beauty of the chairs. He first painted them black and then did beautiful ‘pattachitra’ designs on them, which completely changed the look of the entire set.

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But isn’t pattachitra art work very expensive? “Yes, it is,” agrees Shagoon as he tells us how he has been trying to popularise the art form among his tourist friends since everyone cannot afford it. “Tourists love such designs because for them, pattachitra in décor is a completely new concept,” he explains.

Showing another of his creation, two coffee mugs, which also have beautiful pattachitra work on it, Shagoon tells us, “Coffee mugs can be something unique to showcase when decorated with ‘pattachitra’. As you can see, these two together exhibit continuity. In one of the mugs, I have made Goddesses Laxmi lying on a lotus and on the other, Lord Brahma on a peacock. Together, they look picturesque. The prints on the mugs are sublimating and cannot be washed away.”

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Pic Courtesy: Shagoon Satpathy

Pattachitra apart, Shagoon is also into digital art form. “I have collected some amazingly beautiful photographs of our sculptures and statues from the museum and tried to incorporate them in cushion covers and other things. They are again a big hit among my tourist friends.”

That’s not all! He also does his bit to make art out of waste. “I have used old sarees and stitched them together to make a ‘kantha’ and later reused them as cushions and even mattresses,” explains Shagoon.

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In fact, he has a boxful of ideas when it comes to making creative use of old garments or other things we generally plan to discard. “It’s always difficult to do away with your favourite t-shirt even when it has become very old or is no longer in a condition to be worn. In such situations, what I do is cut the neck and sleeves of the shirt, use cotton and other stuff to stitch it from all sides and use it as a cushion. At least, I get to sleep over my favourite t-shirt!” he adds with a smile.

He goes on, “In fact, I generally think twice before discarding anything.  For example, if there is a centre table and one leg is broken, I won’t throw it. I will rather like to break one more leg of the table and attach two more legs of the same length but different designs to the table to give it a new look. To enhance its beauty, I could even place a rough piece of wood on the table!” he explains.

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“There are numerous such things that you can find at my place where I have completely transformed ready-to-be-discarded things and given them a new life.  There is this old cupboard which I painted and made drawers to be used in my kitchen. I have also converted old Horlicks bottles and pickle bottles into drink glasses like a whisky glass or a beer mug! The Dabur honey bottles, I use them for shots while partying with friends. Then I have transformed a tractor emulsion paint bucket into a dustbin. They can also be made into stools. Just make beautiful paintings on the bucket and it can be an artistic stool for your living room,” he says.

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In fact, the creative young man is now thinking of how to convert an old car into a bar! “It is very much possible. You need to adjust the seat inside the car with a small table in the centre and convert the engine into a refrigerator. The bottom line is all unwanted materials can become useful, if you can add a bit of creativity to it. Of course, you need to have patience for that. Personally, I feel we should not just keep buying new stuff for our house. Rather we should work with the old ones to give them a new and rejuvenated look,” he explains.

So, what does art mean to him, we ask? And he takes no time to reply that art is all about expressing oneself and that’s what he does when he sits to create something unique.

He sums it up with an example. “There was this old trunk of mine with which I had an emotional attachment. So, when I decided to give it a new look, I started painting it and making designs on it that I could relate with. In fact, I feel anyone can do that. You don’t have to be a good artist; all you need is paint and a brush and do it the way you like it.”

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As we look at his artistic trunk which he also uses as a small table as and when required, we believe in what he says. “You just have to be creative to be an artist.”

Author: Namita kaisth

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