Mazhar Naveed clearly remembers early days of his childhood when he would look curiously at drawings, paintings and manuscripts by his maternal grandfather, who was a diploma-holder from Mayo School of Arts and a part of the faculty there in 1935.

Born in 1981 to a family of farmers in Mardowal, a small village of Narowal district, Mazhar was introduced to the discipline of drawing and calligraphy at a tender age.

“During summer vacation, we would visit our grandfather. He was passionately interested in improving our handwriting and used to give us laborious assignments and tough time,” he vividly recalls.

In 1985, his family moved to Lahore where he had his schooling at the Government Islamia High School, Sheranwala Gate.

“During high school, my parents sent me to a madressah. I ran away from there after a couple of weeks because of the suffocating environment,” he says.

In a competition with his elder brother and cousins, he kept on doing drawings and calligraphy until he joined the FC College, Lahore, and became the head of dramatic society.

“During a theatre competition at the Government College Lahore, I got a chance to interact with performers from the National College of Arts. It helped me make up my mind to become a professional artist,” he says.

Mazhar learnt the basics of drawing but had to move back to his hometown after the death of his father to look after the family matters. Later, he joined the fine arts department of the NCA in 2005. He got scholarship in the foundation course and was allowed to move to the architecture department.

After a couple of years, he stopped his academic education because of financial hardships and finally graduated in 2010.

After graduation, he worked as a visiting faculty member of the NCA for almost one year. Since then, he has been working as a freelance architect, interior designer and illustrator to make a living.

In 2011, he also joined the Lahore Museum to volunteer for the digital documentation. He along with another artist documented more than 500 artifacts of ‘pre- and proto-historic gallery.’

“Holding something in hand, observing it closely and documenting it are entirely different from reading something about artifacts in textbooks. In the process, I developed a sound understanding of evolution of design and forms in Mehargarh and Mohenjodaro.

“In addition to the technical understanding, I have developed a passion for archaeological history and a nationalist approach,” he says.

“Lahore museum has a beautiful collection of pottery. It ranges from a jar of size of two centimeters to four feet. Even the two-centimeter jar has a detailed treatment like the big one,” he says.

He developed a body of works, a series of digital images, in which he fused the images of archaeological artifacts with the contemporary socio-political concepts. They were displayed in a group show at the National Heritage Museum (formerly known as the Tollington Market) to mark the International Museum Day last month.

As a struggling young man, he is enthusiastic about grooming the aspiring under-privileged young artists. Currently, he is planning, with the help of a couple of his artist friends, including a budding young vocalist Maham Suhail and an emerging visual artist Uzma Bhatti, to set up a residency and studio for visual and performing arts in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2014