Opening Lines

Opening Lines usually focuses on well-established artists, unearthing their origin stories. But it is equally important for us to include lesser known figures and up-and-comers. With that in mind, we’d like to introduce you to Raghava KK (if you aren’t familiar with him already). Raghava is a prolific artist who started drawing cartoons professionally more than a decade ago, and more recently, has started to produce paintings, sculptures and performance art.

Earlier this month, Raghava described his many inspiring evolutions as an artist at TED. When he was in 2nd grade, Raghava was reprimanded for drawing a nude picture by Michelangelo. This scarred him enough to keep him from drawing until late in high school. He started again, this time specializing in caricatures. At 16, he convinced his parents to let him drop out of school to pursue a career as a cartoonist, working at birthday parties, weddings and a hodgpodge of other events. He had remarkable ambition that led to some early success, but then he had a serious setback after publishing a controversial cartoon of Bin Laden shortly after September 11. But as we’ve seen with other artists, this obstacle actually led him to new and greater artistic success.