Cloud With A Silver Lining

Art is the yearning of a man to express himself, to exhibit elements of his personality to the world he lives in, sometimes through paintings, sometimes through writing poems or books, or even composing music. There are really a countless creative ways that a person can choose to express oneself artistically.

That is what the exquisitely talented Iraqi artist, Marwan Shakarchi has tried to do with the eccentric cartoonish image of a fluffy cloud that bears “x” marks for eyes, a symbol that is slowly gaining popularity in the art world and is starting to be viewed as synonymous with the artist himself.

Marwan Shakarchi with his 'cloud'

Shakarchi had his head in the clouds since childhood when he used to spend hours doodling different renditions of a cloud on the wall in his family home in London, where he was born and raised by his Iraqi parents. What Shakarchi did not know then was that the mere cloud sketches he drew, as a kid, would later transform into an expression of his artistic talent, a symbol that would highlight his work in the image-saturated world that we live in.

Marwan's trademark 'cloud' symbol 

So during the time he spent a summer in Los Angeles working as an intern in the studio of Shepard Fairey, an American contemporary street artist, graphic designer, and activist, better known for his artwork of Barack Obama’s “Hope” poster for his 2008 election campaign, Shakarchi tweaked the doodle of the cloud symbol further to achieve what is now being featured on stickers that he hands out to friends and acquaintances, and on postcards and key rings. Whenever he visits a new place he finds a surface to paint his cloud on, in a way leaving behind a fragment of his artistic expression.

Shakarchi's cloud on stickers

He is on a quest to universalize his cloud symbol and says, “I am interested in what you can achieve with a symbol by repetition”. And when asked about why he chose to use a cloud as a symbol of his artistic expression he said, “I think it is important that you look at your environment in an objective way instead of just accepting it – my cloud inspires you to question that. It is not directly selling you anything, it is not formally part of any system – it just exists to exist”. 

Shakarchi is otherwise also recognized by his moniker, ‘Myneandyours’, which in spite of sounding odd when introducing himself, has a purpose of making people think as to why he would choose this as his signature, and what is he trying to convey. It also reflects directly on his idea of art and how he desires to share his work with the world. He expresses, “The name started off just as ‘Myne’, because it was a personal project, something I was doing for my own release. I was creating the work for myself and it was a way to vent. But afterwards it became about my audience, so ‘yours’ is a message to them”.

One of many illustrations from Shakarchi's 'Myneandyours' collection

He only recently, which is a year back, decided to immigrate to Dubai in order to further explore his artistic streak and pursue a career in the field. Prior to his move, Shakarchi was working for his family business in London but that was not what he saw himself doing for the rest of his life. He had a flare for art and a burning passion to immerse in it solely and completely. So after moving to Dubai he took up a studio in Tashkeel where he decided to advance from the simple symbolism of tagging the cloud to giving it a denser conceptual turf. So he has currently dedicated himself to working on a fresh series of paintings that incorporate his cloud symbol with an additional female character featured as interacting with the cloud.

Shakarchi's new series of the female character interacting with the cloud

When asked about his inspiration behind this new female character he said, “Each painting is about the girl and her relationship with the cloud. Every girl that I paint is Reem.” Shakarchi has creatively integrated his art with the devotion he feels towards his wife, Reem, who has been the muse for developing the new female character, he says, “It is a comic that tells the story of our relationship, panel by panel. I want my work to have more purpose, not just random paintings of clouds”.

His new series that was displayed in Tashkeel’s group exhibition this summer has been able to magnetize the attention of a reasonably large audience who were discerning with their judgment of an image of a girl hugging the cloud, but nonetheless Shakarchi is on his way to emblazoning his brand even further as it is his way of evolving his art. His goal is to make people view the cloud as a symbol of hope and as motivation to strive towards achieving their dreams, like he did.

Marwan Shakarchi's artwork at Tashkeel

He expresses, “I think people should be concentrating on making the most of living in the moment. My signature, ‘Myneandyours’ and the cloud are supposed to help people find empowerment.”