Making the world better, one flower at a time

Would it be ok if I start my story by saying I don’t believe in passion? Why you may ask. I think passion somehow put ‘you’ in the centre. It comes in a form of self, yourself, becoming about you. There is an inherent ‘self-centeredness’ that comes when you say ‘this is my passion, I am passionate about this and that.’ It may not necessarily be wrong but that is not something I resonate with or aim for. I spent my twenties doing what I thought I was passionate about, even though secretly I never really connected with that word, even from young days. I became an architect. I studied, I worked, I talked, I drew and breathed everything architecture. But there was a hole, something missing. Then I came across purpose.

My thirties is a rollercoaster. I was moving jobs and had a bit of time in between and I knew architecture wasn’t the answer nor a new job. But I didn’t know what was. Then one day I had a thought. Do something meaningful it said. So I decided to start painting flowers on drink coasters and selling them, online, in two weeks. Why two weeks? Because an important date in my life was coming up and it wasn’t a pleasant one. So instead of marking that anniversary I decided to change it, so from then onwards it will be remembered as the date I started my business. This all sounds ridiculous to me now that I am saying it out loud. Was I an artist? no, was I painting regularly? no, have I ever painted coasters? no, did I know anything about selling? no, did I know how to start an online store? no, did I have a plan for a business? no, did I have any idea how to start a new business, stock up, paint, start selling in two weeks? no, did I even own coasters? no. But I did it. I started with a name, then a concept, a collection, found stocks, painted during day and researched at night about online platforms and opened up my very first business exactly in two weeks. But this was not to be an ordinary small business, it was to be a social business where part of the profits goes into charitable causes. All this years of living life on earth and that’s all I ever wanted to do, help the world, the people, the animals and till now I haven’t done anything. So I decided it is time and started painting flowers, my way of giving back to this beautiful world we live in hence making the world better one flower at a time. Only thing I knew for sure was that it came from deep within me. The flowers, the colours, the designs, the ideas and it grew in front of my eyes. I became better everyday.

Few weeks later came covid and lockdowns and everything paused for a good 10 months where I decided to take down the online store because it was too new and no one knew enough and I could’t afford to keep it running. We hibernated. Then as things slowly opened up I started doing art & craft markets and I had more products from coasters, wooden trays to cement pots. All hand painted by me with flowers in bold colours. I remember the moment of my very first sale from a stranger. It was exciting and I was grateful. Then few months later I decided it is time to bring back the online store and re-started it on the same day I originally started a year ago. Three months ago I officially started directing the profits to a cause, to educate underprivileged children and started sponsoring two girls from a rural community in Sri Lanka on their education. It is a commitment I take seriously. It’s only been 6 months and we are moving slowly. I knew nothing about doing business or marketing or advertising when I started and it’s been a challenge but I am learning, I am growing and I am grateful for everyone who is helping me learn. I still paint coasters but I also have branched out to painting home decor pieces, fine art prints and printing my artwork on fabric from table runners to cushions. Somedays it feels surreal, who is this person doing all this? I ask myself. How did these products come to be? It feels like I am watching someone else’s journey unravel from a bird’s eye view but most days I know it’s just me doing things on repeat, making decisions, taking action, making mistakes, learning as I go with a determination to keep on moving, keep on going. I am slowly but surely building an audience, a customer base that seem to like what I do, that follow and encourage me, get excited when I introduce a new product and somehow seem to believe in what I do and what this small business stand for.

Every so often I have people who exclaim when I say I do this full time or I am an architect turned artist that paint flowers or that we are a social business and they probably think I am crazy. I probably am. I often get asked if art is my passion, was this what I always wanted to do? Was being an artist my dream? And I say no. Art is not my passion, painting was never what I thought I would do and being an artist was never my dream. But after years of searching I found my purpose in life, something bigger than ME or my little bubble and a lot of things I have spent years doing or worrying about became trivial and ART became my way of fulfilling that purpose. I am ever so grateful. I have a huge dream and a long road ahead of me with a grand vision for life that revolves around building a social enterprise that help educate children, empower women, house the strays and fight poverty, to leave this world a little better. And this small business is just the beginning of my efforts in making the world better one flower at a time. Oh and we are called 'with love from m' and I am Mekala.