Jhinuk Sarkar
About me:
I am an Illustrator and Arts Educator.
I was born in Leicester as the second generation of Indian parents from Kolkata, India.
I studied Graphic Design and Illustration at Norwich School of Art & Design.
Graduating from Central St Martins in 2005 with an MA in Communication Design, I continued my work in a freelance capacity as an Illustrator whilst working in various creative roles as a producer and workshop leader.
Working closely with disabled artists over the last five years has led me to my current role at Turf Projects as Head of Community and Accessibility.
My inspiration for producing images comes from an interest in relationships and this originates from the sense of belonging, my own cross-cultural upbringing and documenting cultural social differences in subtle ways.
Ephemera and places that evoke memories and feelings are also a starting point of ideas for my illustrations. Humour can also feed a way into my work in various forms. Colour, texture and hand-drawn text play large aspects in my image making. I am especially inspired by typography and the organic elements of biology. More recently I have become interested in portraying the sensory awareness we individualise in our work through Synaesthesia and using my experience of working with disabled artists and developing knowledge of Disability Arts feeds into this. Diversity and representation are the underpinning of ideas in a lot of my work, though I enjoy the challenge to illustrate complicated and sensitive subjects and equally illuminate the simplicity of a brief with a strong, but singular concept.
About my work:
Illustration and Art
I work with a variety of media from drawing and painting, to collage and computer manipulation. My illustrations are visually colourful and sometimes dark in content and humour where commissions allow it. My work is flexible to mould into other art platforms and creative areas.
Creative Projects
I have had the opportunity to work on community arts-based projects through various arts organisations using different platforms for art. This helped me to lead in workshops aimed at sparking creative interest in different participant groups. Some topics concerned regeneration and the local environment within a visual context. I believe my work and attitude as an artist can feed easily into both commercial and community based commissions, as well as my ability to work collaboratively with artists using different media to produce their work.
I worked with a variety of education teams including House of Illustration, Francis Crick Institute, British Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts, National Gallery, Museum of London, Hackney Museum, Nuneaton Museum and the Cadbury Research Library in Birmingham.