Gireesh Vengara: painting

STROKES THAT SPEAK The passion to express his emotions and voice his opinions through a handful of brush strokes was seen in the child that Gireesh once was. Later, Gireesh developed a great interest in creating cartoons. The innate ability of creating a political satire out of a few well placed lines and curves which was hidden till then, flourished as Gireesh’s first cartoon was published in Malayala Manorama Weekly in December 1984. The first political weekly that bore his powerful cartoons was Kesari. Over the years, his cartoons and caricatures appeared in malayala Manorama, Kesari, Mangalam, Trial, Paakanaar, Chintana, and such popular magazines. In 1988, the Brushman School of Fine Arts together with the Kerala Cartoon Academy awarded him the “Best Cartoonist” for that year.

Other major accolades that found him were the Kerala Cartoon Academy Award in caricature for 1989 as well as 1990, the Kerala Press Academy Award for cartoons in 1989, the ‘Hasyavedi’, Kozhikode award for cartoons and the Public relations Department award for cartoons in connection with the Tourism Week Celebration of 1989.