Child, adolescent and family psychiatrist Dr Zirak Marker says that painting adds purpose to his life and helps him find peace. "It helps me to become the best version of myself, and allows for silent introspection… It makes me forget about the pain in this world… It helps to rebuild me,” he wrote in a brochure on his one-day exhibition of paintings at Kathiwada City House on April 21, 2024. Titled "Freedom,” the show featured acrylics on canvas in muted shades of browns, grays and dull blues, most portraying water bodies and landscapes. When Parsiana queried him as to why the show was only for a day, Marker responded, "No time, with work.” The doctor, who took to painting during the lockdown months had previously exhibited his works at the same venue last year (see "Forever flowing,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, May 7-20, 2023).
Clockwise from top: Dr Zirak Marker; his paintings "that help forget pain”
As the medicine man states in his current brochure, "Through my own journey of self-discovery, I finally discovered that my meaning and purpose to life was touching people’s lives.”
Marker told the Hindustan Times of April 21 that he does not regard himself as an artist. "For him, painting has always been a coping mechanism, a deep reservoir of silence and introspection, a space he can go to when the cases of trauma, confusion, pain and loss that are brought to him on a daily basis by anxious parents or caregivers, become too much to bear,” stated the newspaper.
With over 20 years of experience, Marker serves as medical director of The Aditya Birla Integrated School, and senior psychiatrist and adviser to Mpower, an initiative to champion and promote mental health.