BENGALURU: Renowned artist, author, motivational speaker... Raghava KK is a man with many hats. The year might have kicked off on a rocky start for him, because of his divorce, but he was more than geared up for his upcoming venture in sculpting. The Bengalurean was all set to launch it this April but the plan now stands stalled due to the lockdown.  

“The COVID-19 breakout has hit the art market so bad. I have been working on this sculpting project for two years but it is not going as planned,” says Raghava, whose two studios in Bali are also shut due to the lockdown. Taking things in his stride, he calls this time a self-discovering process. “When was the last time we sat back and questioned life?,” says the alumnus of Bishop Cotton’s Boys High School, adding, “For artists, an existential crisis is like dinner table conversation. I am in touch with various artists in the world and we are all trying to deconstruct art to evolve it into something new.”

As he turned 40 this year, he predicts 2020 to be a life changing year. But the separation from his wife of 17 years has not been an easy one to deal with. “I got a divorce, which almost took away a part of me. I don’t think I would be ever able to recover from it. My ex-wife (Netra Srikanth) and I have four beautiful children and had built our dream home in the USA,” says Raghava, who moved to India two years ago after their separation, which became legal this year. The two now co-parent their kids in Bengaluru.

With so many things going around, Raghava, who was known for his initial style of using both his hands and legs to paint,  does not find it difficult to compartmentalise his work. But discipline helps. On a regular day, he spends most of his time on art. Also part of his routine is spending time with his older brother, Dr Karthik Kalyanaraman, an economist. “This year alone, I travelled to Bali, Spain, Columbia, Turkey, Dubai, Delhi and Jim Corbett for work. Before the lockdown started I quarantined myself in March to focus on my project,” says Raghava, who is currently on his sixth passport. Though he lived in the USA for almost 20 years, he still calls himself a Bengalurean by heart. “No one can change that,” he says.