“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up,” Pablo Picasso once observed. I find the great man’s quote reverberating in my head every time I speak to Dr Milinda Salpitikorala.
“Growing up I would draw on any blank space. I can’t stand blank spaces. I have doodled on my house walls, sketched on blank pages in my father’s law books.
"My school desks probably carry my drawings to this day,” Dr. Salpitikorala says. It is obvious he loves his craft with a zeal that is almost childlike, the embodiment of Picasso’s insight into the artistic mind.
To most of the people who know and interact with him on a daily basis, Dr Milinda is the medical professional whose ever present cherubic smile greets them as they enter the emergency department at a well-known private hospital.
To those of us who are involved in some capacity with the Sri Lankan heavy metal scene, he is the artist of choice, Dr 666, whose canon of work includes band logos and fantastical stand alone art pieces that are unashamedly morbid – and undeniably Sri Lankan.
During his schooling years, Dr Milinda had earned a reputation as quite an artist. Class-mates and sometimes older boys would come to him and request for tattoos, drawn using marker pens. “The payment was done in Cream Sodas. How can a kid say no to Cream Sodas?” he asks.
As he grew older, he found himself drawing less and less. When he began his A Levels, art was no longer a part of his life.
“I stopped drawing creatively for a long period until I got hold of an art pad one day during my second year at medical school. This was after I had just learnt the anatomy of the human body in detail so I was armed with that insight.”
That creative explosion gave birth to his artistic alter-ego, Dr 666. Rather apt, he explains. “Most people read the 666 part of the pseudonym and mistakenly assume that it has Biblical connotations, specifically the devil’s number.
"The truth is actually less sinister: I was born on the sixth of June at six o’clock, 6-6-6. "I put the ‘Dr’ prefix and thought it sounded just right, something which captured the essence of my art and the dark imagery that typifies it.”
It wasn’t surprising then when he found an eager and encouraging audience for his art in the local heavy metal scene.
“I am a MetalHead through and through. Heavy metal is the music I draw, sketch and paint to, the soundtrack of my art. I’ve been involved in the local heavy metal scene since 2002,” he says.
His work since then has caused a stir among fellow metalheads.
The ‘Yakada Yaka’ that he designed for the website www.rock.lk has since become the de facto mascot for the local heavy metal scene. His most recent piece, An Ancient Love Story, sees a giant of a man and a naked damsel, sheltered by a seven-headed cobra.
The viewer is posed a question just who are these lovers? You will not find Dr Milinda answering the question, preferring that we arrive at our own conclusions.
That piece along with the rest of Milinda’s work will be on display soon. “I plan to have an exhibition of my work around the end of this year. "I’ll be showcasing a lot of my work. People think I only sketch, but I have a couple of oil paintings and even some sculptures I want to display,” he reveals.
And where does Milinda see himself artistically and in his day job in the near future? “I want to open my own studio, Studio 666, which will have merchandise featuring my designs. As far as my medical career is concerned, I am planning on earning my MD soon, hopefully in either Emergency Care or Nephrology, both areas that I am very interested in.”
To learn more about his work, and to stay updated on the happenings at Studio 666, go to http://www.
facebook.com/studio666. |
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