Meet Noopur Choksi | Visual Designer & Illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Noopur Choksi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Noopur, why did you pursue a creative career?
I have always been a visual thinker. Picture books, graphic novels, and cartoons with their vivid stories, twisted worlds, and zany narratives caught my fancy from a very young age. I think I picked up art to channel my discomfort, imagination, and curiosity about the world into something more concrete and tangible.

As a kid, I remember creating my imaginary worlds, weaving stories around these realms down to the smallest details. I also recall being oddly particular about aesthetics from a very young age, I always had a vision for things and I believed in it strongly, I think I embraced my quirks pretty early on 🙂

Growing up, I looked at artists and musicians with a lot of awe, their independence and energy was magnetic. Something about the way they carried themselves and their unique perception of the world inspired me to nurture my creative self. The indulgence and introspection that came with it, drew me in. I was creatively charged, opinionated and a dreamer so art/design was a natural calling. I got lucky that my parents supported me with my choices!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a Visual Designer and Illustrator from India currently based in Baltimore, USA. I studied Graphic Design at the National Institute of Design (NID), India, and worked as a freelance Visual Designer for the past 6 years before pursuing my master’s in Illustration Practice at the Maryland Institute College of Art(MICA), Baltimore. After working various Design jobs and freelancing for over 6 years, I saved up enough money to afford grad school in the States and decided to take a leap of faith to nurture my creative practice further.

I think my interest in art was a by-product of my struggle to find a comfortable place for my imagination and to be able to engage with as many different things as possible. I engage with illustration as a process of dissection and discovery. I am interested in exploring how creative expression can create a space that allows us to face our vulnerabilities, fragility, and impermanence as liminal experiences that transpose us into a state of heightened cognizance. My work is a reflection of my experimentation with typography, narratives, and image-making; using visualization and storytelling to externalize the often intangible, emotional environments of my subjects.

I strive to explore and expand the limits of thinking visually and challenge perception through layering meanings within the work I create. I want to create artistic experiences that go beyond the conventional two- dimensional plane and converge various artistic disciplines like music/sound design, fashion, animation, spatial graphics, and installations.

A lot of my work chronicles themes of the perception of self, body image, sexuality, and narratives of feminine power. I am also heavily inspired by music, science, and the dynamic relationship between ourselves and the things within our environment. When it comes to imagery, I appreciate a simple idea that is visually powerful and full of intricate obscurity.

Through my work, I hope to propagate characters and narratives that confront the dualities imposed by societal norms and investigate the limiting ideologies that influence our understanding of gender roles and power by bringing focus to the grey areas that lie in between. I love making these grey areas look fabulously wonderful and full of vibrancy and color.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Being in grad school has been all-consuming, and I haven’t really explored Baltimore as much as I’d like to. However, I do have some go-to spots that I’d love to take friends and family to! First would be a tour of our studios at MICA, where I’ve spent most of my time over the past two years in Baltimore and developed a deep attachment and love for. Next would be the Walters Art Museum, Inner Harbor, and a walk around the quaint parks and gardens of Bolton Hill. I’d also take them to spend a day in Hampden, exploring all the eclectic shops and food places. As a vegetarian, I love the pesto pizza from Viccino’s, the Cachapas at On the Hill, baked goodies from Café Dear Leon, and bagels from Belvedere Bagelry!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to give a shoutout to all the incredible women I have had the honor of being around and learning from. My mother, my mentors, my cohort members, friends, each and every one of them are powerhouses in their own right and inspire me to do better. I also want to dedicate this shoutout to all my Drag Queen icons that remind me to embrace my true self and live fiercely and fabulously.

Website: https://www.noopurchoksi.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cookshop_ruin/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noopurchoksi/