I am Obaid ur Rahman, a student of Architecture, a 3d /Anamorphic Chalk Artist and a muralist based in Karachi, Pakistan. I have been involved with arts for as long as I can remember, but to tell you the truth my roof top made me an artist, during the break from art school in 2014 I started drawing murals with coal on the walls of my building’s roof, drawing random compositions, copying works of graffiti artists and drawing portraits of a friend and it is during this time I accidently drew a crack in the ground and later went on to find out that the kind of art form is called 3d /Anamorphic art. I went on to study anamorphism by reading books and articles online on the topic and later I had help from a renowned 3d Street artist, Tracy Lee Stum. Tracy since then has served as a mentor and helped me almost on all stages of my journey into 3d /Anamorphic art so far and for which I am ever grateful.
I kept on following my curiosity and challenged myself to try and experiment with different kinds of compositions ranging from simple cartoon characters to pool drawings to much complex compositions with more than one object in a single drawing and by grace of Allah I have been successful to some extent. I switched from coal to chalk pastel and pavements became my canvas.
In December 2014, I had an opportunity to create my first and probably Pakistan’s first 3D Chalk Drawing in Public when Dolmen City Mall, Karachi allowed me to install and create a drawing in their premises. The drawing was very well received by the public and it motivated me to carry on with my passion that I have developed for 3d /Anamorphic Art. I have since then created artworks for public events like Youth Art & Literary Exhibition, I AM KARACHI Day and I also became the first artist from Pakistan whose work got featured on Global Street Art.
I cannot thank my parents enough for being extremely supportive throughout and all my friends and family, who have always supported me, shared my works and encouraged me to carry on.
My journey continues and now I am experimenting with different styles, scale and mediums in search of a style that I can call my own. I hope to take my art to other cities as well and introduce 3d pavement art here in Pakistan as a proper art form.
There are a few really exciting projects coming up ranging from residential to commercial to some public projects. I am also planning to travel around Pakistan and take my art to different cities engaging with different people and contexts, so for now people of Lahore and Islamabad should watch out for some really cool and interesting 3d /Anamorphic artworks in coming months as you may find me chalking on a street near you.
