Dividing time: Artist balances business, pleasure

By LAUREN LAROCCA | Associated Press

FREDERICK, MD. — As if the room is divided into the left and right hemispheres of the brain, Pritinder "Pepi" Khara's setup on Church Street doubles as a real estate office and home studio, with acrylic paint splattered on one side of the floor visibly showing the line between his skills in marketing and his affinity for art.

Within Khara himself, the distinction is nearly as clear. Creating art has been a passion of his since he was a boy, growing up in Mumbai, India. But he got a degree in marketing and started the company I Sell Houses Realty to earn a living as a real estate broker with about 50 employees under him.

"While I'm conducting real estate, I've always got an easel nearby," said Khara, who goes by Pepi.

When he's working at his computer and suddenly gets an idea, he simply walks to the other side of the room.

But there is a connection.

"These belong in people's houses," he said.

He's built up quite a few since he began painting with greater frequency over the past three years. All his works are for sale.

"There are a few that are very close to my heart, but if someone really wanted them ... I'll give them all away."

Khara remembers doodling when he was 10 years old to pass the time in boarding school.

His love for travel began as a boy, when his father worked for an international company. Since then, Khara's traveled to some 25 countries on his own. He left India when he was 18. He's lived in Frederick since 1990.

"I came here with nothing in my pocket," he said. "The only thing I had in my soul was creativity. ... It's transcended many oceans and many continents with me.

"I'm an immigrant," he said. "Most immigrants who come here are go, go, go. But I think it's important to balance."

He dabbled in film for a while, but it was too time-consuming.

"I got back to my roots," he said, standing in his hallway, among dozens of large paintings (about 4 feet by 4 feet). "This is what I do."

He tends to work in series, the first of which was dedicated to peacocks. He started the paintings to cope with a 21-year marriage that ended in divorce.

"Love, love lost, life, new beginnings, hope, beauty," Khara said, listing what comes to mind when he thinks of the bird, which is also the national bird of India.

"But I'm done with peacocks," he said. "I will never again paint peacocks."

Most of the pieces from that first series are hanging inside the Bombay Grill on Market Street, "so I don't have to deal with them every day," Khara joked.

His paintings are richly textured. He starts each piece by adding Pollock-like paint splatterings in black, before creating top layers in color. That same splattering is often seen in color, too, layered thick and shiny and vibrant, though he intersperses a lot of red, black and white.

"I tend to follow something that I can stay true to, so that it's reflective of my style. ... "I don't reference anything. I reference my own images in my mind."

He also tends to incorporate words and short phrases: "LOVE LIFE," and "One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody," and poetry by Hafiz.

In another series, he's painted major religious figures, mainly of Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. His most recent piece shows a tired Jesus in red and black, wearing a crown of thorns. He put it on display in the front window the day he finished it.

Buddha and Shiva are seen in other pieces in the series.

He's not into yoga, but he meditates.

"This (series) is about transition in my life," he said. "And plus, I live on Church Street. If spirituality doesn't come now ..."

This year, his 48th, is looking up. He just bought a Porsche, and after therapy (and painting), his life seems to be moving in the right direction. He's looking forward to next year, too -- specifically Nov. 11 (that's 11-11-11 -- the number for soul mates, he said). He created a painting about the day, with him standing and pointing to the strokes of each number one.

He began using wood panels instead of canvases recently so he could cut holes in the pieces, forming window-like cutouts, sometimes filled with hanging wire objects, such as butterflies and stick figures, dogs and crosses.

He's also created a series of gritty, grimy urban scenes. In these pieces, the trademark cutout squares sometimes serve as building windows. He's thinking of creating a historic Frederick series next.

"I need to have a creative release, or I will surely go crazy," he said. "It may not be worth money, but it's worth a whole lot more."

[via Washington Examiner, June 14, 2010]