Interview with Akshay Mahajan the Inkventor: check out his Tarantula zines!
Amy Schleser, Small Science Collective volunteer:
Thanks so much Akshay for agreeing to be interviewed! I'm very excited that you let us post your tarantula zines in our Zine Library so that anyone can print them for free! As you know, I’m a big fan of your work, which includes zines, nature journaling, illustrations for museum signs and conservation organizations, and more! You use a wide variety of mediums which is also so cool: digital art, ink and marker, watercolor painting, white and toned paper.
Please tell us a little about yourself and how you got into making zines.
Akshay Mahajan:
I work as a hardware engineer most of the week, which means my days are usually packed with attempting to make sense of the unknown unknowns, churning plausible solutions, and then trying to diagram my thoughts in front of my team. Dabbling in scientific illustrations for me is no different. The unique structure and mechanism of nature science starts a series of cognitive contraptions, which then become fun to connect when I dump it all out on my canvas.
There is just so much going on in nature, that I am unconsciously stimulated to capture as much information as I can through the means of text, arrows, diagrams, color keys, memory associations, or even just fun cartoons—I love cartoons! You (Amy Schleser) actually first introduced me to the concept of zines a few years ago.
One of the biggest sell for me was that zines can be self published by anyone with a standard inkjet printer and so my ideas could reach more people if they were made free for public use.
Amy Schleser:
I've seen how you apply your analytic and diagrammatic thinking in your artwork, mixed with your immense creativity...it's fascinating. My personal favorite element of yours: diagrams galore!
Can you tell me about your zines, especially about your tarantula zines.
Akshay Mahajan:
This love for cartoons and comics and my recent love for bugs ended up in a happy marriage which gave birth to "The Adventures Of Cora" zine comic series. It felt enticing to make little tiny zine booklets on the life of "Cora", a beautiful Mexican red knee tarantula owned by a dear entomologist friend Dr. Stephanie Dole.
Below: An illustration of Cora inside one of "The Adventures of
Cora" zines, visible when you unfold the zine and flip it over.
Akshay Mahajan: Coming from a world of " I hate bugs " to now being completely head over heels for "Cora", I am grateful to Dr. Stephanie and her mentorship. Through Cora, I learnt the importance of bugs in our ecosystem and that the fear and hate against them was but a negative bias he developed through misrepresented bug-villians in movies and cartoons in my early years. Once I saw these fascinating creatures through a lens of curiosity, a LOT changed.
Curiosity slowly chipped away at my fear, and then slowly gave way to admiration and love ... and what we love, we wan't to protect.
Since then, I have been making comic panels and zines to help change the "creepy" bug-image through science education and, zines were the perfect format to share "The Adventures of Cora" with the world.
Below: Akshay's first time meeting and
holding Cora at Dr. Stephanie Dole's house.
Below: The front covers of each edition of the "The Adventures of Cora" series
Amy Schleser:
I want to see more!! Where can people follow you? Are you a part of any upcoming events?
Akshay Mahajan:
[For The Adventures of Cora zines specifically you can follow: taoc.by.inkventor
For more of my digital illustrations, follow nature.doodles.by.inkventor
For my nature journaling pages (works on paper... ink, gouche, etc.) follow nj.by.inkventor
For my macro insect photography, follow tiny.worlds.by.inkventor
For a project about harlequin beetles, you can follow: harlequin.project.by.inkventor.
As far as events, I’ll be teaching a class about moths at the 2024 Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conference this September 22nd.]
Amy Schleser:
Wow you are experimenting with so many forms of art! I can’t wait to see what you come up with next. Thanks so much Akshay. I’m honored to know you and create art with you in the non-virtual world too.
I'll be attending your class on moths at Wild Wonder where, as far as I know, you'll be debuting new moth zine! Here's the class description for anyone else interested in attending:
Moths: A Love Story with Akshay Mahajan
Akshay is obsessively in love with moths. He also loves journaling and digital illustration. This class will be a tutorial on not just how to draw these beautiful Lepidopteras, but also how to read their shape, size, patterns, colors, angles and their eccentric invertebrate fashion sense. Akshay has scrubbed multiple field guides, articles, and in collaboration with Meghan Ashley Peterman (curator of Hallberg Butterfly Gardens, Sebastopol, California), built a "how-to-look-at-moths" zine for nature journalers that he will share in class. This will help transform the way you look at Moths!
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Want to nail the pronunciation of Akshay Mahajan's name? Try "AHK-shay Mah-HA-jon"