 |
||
 |
 |
||
 |
||
|
||
 |
||
|
||
 |
||
|
||
 |
||
|
||
 |
||
|
||
 |
||
|
||
 |
||
|
||
 |
||
 - Chief Patron |
|
During his school days at St Joseph's in Bangalore, Mario was a hit with his classmates. They egged him on to ‘draw' his teachers, and Mario happily obliged. Not all his subjects saw the joke, but Mario sailed through. He kept an unusual daily diary: Of sketches of people he came into contact with every day. These included, along with his friends and teachers, even crows and surprised-looking dogs! Mario did not train formally in art, but his natural talent saw him freelancing as a cartoonist and illustrator while he was an undergraduate in St Xavier's College, Bombay. His first break came when The Illustrated Weekly of India accepted a few of his cartoons. Then came heartbreak when The Times of India rejected his work the first time he approached it. However, the paper began to give him assignments a year later. In 1959, he went to Lisbon, and was awarded the Gulbentuan Scholarship. He worked in London for a couple of years, even washing dishes to tide over tough times. After this, came a stint in the US, working with Charles Shultz, of ‘Peanuts' fame. Then it was back to India, sketching for The Times and its sister publications. Mario, who has held exhibitions in several cities of the world, does not limit himself to cartooning. His sketches and drawings have graced the books of Dom Moraes, Kushwant Singh, Manohar Malgoankar and Ruskin Bond. He has also illustrated children's books for India Book House. His drawings on Bombay, Mysore and Bangalore, are well known. Ask him what is a must in a cartoonist, apart from the ability to draw, and Mario says it's a “solid background of books”. You “might be able to draw, but it is reading that gives you the background.” If there's one thing he doesn't like, it is politics. But he has learnt to deal with it stoically — it's a professional hazard! The Government of India has awarded Mario De Miranda, Padmabhushan in the year of 2002 |
|
When Mario Joao Carlos Rosario de Brito was just a little boy with a big name, he decided he had to draw. And he decided the walls of his house would do fine for a practice session. When his mother discovered his masterpiece, she put her foot down: He could draw, but definitely NOT on the walls, she said. So she gave him a blank book and told him to spare the walls. And Mario Miranda, the real big name was born.
