What makes you feel at home? A collaborative artwork from TEDxHEC.

My goal was to juxtapose the participants’ responses – things like family, warmth, food, and feelings of acceptance – with the stark reality of many First Nations children throughout history and today, especially those who were forced into Canadian residential schools up until the mid-1990’s.

The 2-minute video shows the journey of the artwork from blank canvas to colourful painting.
Special thanks to Helene Vallieres-Goulet, Tristan Billet and the entire TEDxHEC team for letting me present on stage twice. This is an artwork that I’m very proud of; I think it allows different access points for viewers who can appreciate the social message, the technical or skillful aspect of the work, and the thought-provoking presentation of “home” in the context of First Nations peoples and Canadian immigrants.

After creating 24 pieces in 24 hours to celebrate his 24th birthday, Virani is taking things one step further, challenging himself to create 100 works of art in only 7 days. Big paintings, small drawings, quirky illustrations, colourful collages, and even fabricated photographs – anything is possible in this 7-day art challenge. The final pieces, barely dry from the day before, will be at the official vernissage that coincides with Virani’s 25th birthday – Friday, January 15th at 6pm at Galerie Mile-End (5345 Park Avenue).

Artist Aquil Virani creates collaborative painting at Ronald McDonald House Charity fundraiser.

I was invited to Mississauga, Ontario by The Idea Hunter (a leader in the Canadian events industry) to create a live artwork. We asked participants about what concepts they associated with “home” and asked them to write them out on stickie notes. These responses were integrated onto the canvas along with painted hand prints. The painting was then sold via blind auction to the highest bidder.

I made a couples painting for elephants… sort of.

Lucas asked me to create a birthday gift for Katie that included personal details and inside jokes.

I’m fairly happy with how the styles work together in the artwork and I’m happy to report that things went well with the gift-giving. I also think I might want to start an “animals in love” series or something. Only time will tell.

This is the model created for the Colorgraphics Lacquer launch! I learned that when you have a beautiful visual that tells your story for you, you feature it as much as possible.

It’s a new semi-permanent hair color product that can be used directly out of the tube without any developer or activator. It’s kind of like paint, but for hair.

I was in charge of creating print ads, merchandising items and sales promotion material for the launch. Getting to work with a beautiful image like that was definitely an experience worth repeating.

Artist Aquil Virani creates spontaneous artwork.

This is an improvised painting where I forced myself to produce whatever came to mind. I learned that if you trust yourself and keep things simple, things will work out.

The phrase “Yes and…” is a common lesson in the improv community. To “yes and” (verb) someone’s idea, you must accept it and add to it. If it has been said, it is now true. If it is painted, it’s now on the canvas.

There’s another thing we learn as improvisers. In a scene, everything you need will be established within the first 30 seconds. The rest can build from that. After recently seeing the play “Tick…Tick…Boom,” I had a few concepts in my head so I used those as inspiration and continued using those initial thoughts.

Artist Aquil Virani creates live painting at TEDxMcGill in Montreal.

This event was a perfect opportunity for me to engage in some collaborative painting. You can see below exactly what happened through someone else’s eyes.

Alex Tran wrote in a reflective blog post:

“In the end though, the person who was most inspiring and memorable for me wasn’t a speaker but rather a visual artist: Aquil Virani. He started the day off handing small pieces of paper to all guests, asking them to draw or write anything. He then collected all the papers and started his live painting, blending pieces together from everyone, while still managing to do it in a consistent style. In just a few hours, I could already see the fantastic piece of art shaping up. He also included slides and quotes from the TED speakers. Really cool.”

Artist Aquil Virani creates live painting at CSFX16 conference in Toronto in collaboration with NBA All-Star Weekend and the T1 Agency.

This 4-by-6-foot collaborative painting was created on “Creativity Day” at the T1 Agency’s CSFX16 marketing conference in Toronto, hosted by the NBA All-Star Weekend.

I asked participants about the last creative thing they did and integrated each of their written responses into the basketball-themed artwork. Speakers, delegates and event staff took different approaches to the prompt, mentioning a myriad of creative activities from “fruitful brainstorming sessions” to “improvised storytelling with the kids.”

Graham Lee, the Chief Creative Officer at T1, hosted the event.

It was such a well-run conference; they even had fancy CSFX16-branded note-taking paper.

Who is that smiley guy?

Artist Aquil Virani integrates student participation into live painting at Southridge Secondary.

This community-based project, which I donated to the school upon completion, was a nice way for me to give back to the school in a creative way.

After three weeks of intricate painting, I finished the collaborative artwork. It involved a contribution from every single Southridge student from kindergarten to graduation. That’s around 700 doodles from the high school I graduated from in Surrey, BC.

It was interesting to see that the younger students were much more enthusiastic about drawing. The older students met the project with mixed feelings, sometimes reluctant to participate. I was fortunate enough to unveil the painting at the final awards ceremony at the end of the 2009-2010 school year. It now hangs in the school for all to enjoy.

This is a painting about happiness.

It celebrates laughter and is meant to cheer people up.

Laughter is universal. It’s a beautiful, therapeutic activity that is both intercultural and cross-linguistic. In this piece, the dreadlocks are coloured with the palettes of different national flags which all stem from the same human scalp. Laughter is a phenomenon that unites us all.

The artwork appeared in a recent calendar for the SEDE Office at McGill University. (SEDE stands for Social Equity and Diversity Education.)