Toronto-based artist Maria Qamar started doodling during meetings while working as a copywriter. After posting her comic style illustrations of South Asian women on Instagram under the name Hatecopy, he gained a following and garnered international attention. In March, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Toronto announced its debut NFT collaboration with Qamare. Here she says CB how he made a career in art possible.
I have wanted being an artist from the age of three. Drawing was always the way I liked to communicate my ideas. I started to take it more seriously when I was enrolled in an art class as a kid and I met this girl she was really good at drawing the genius of Aladdin. I got weirdly competitive about it: I wanted to be better than her at drawing the genie, so I went through a phase where I drew the character over and over again. My brother and I also really liked doing comics together growing up. I think all children are artists to some degree, and then it fades into adulthood. But I kept doing it.
Despite my passion for art, my parents, who are scientists, encouraged me and my brother to study medicine. They wanted me to become a pharmacist, so in high school, they helped me get a job by following one near where we lived in Mississauga, Ontario. I lasted two weeks before they fired me. I was sorting through the pills when I cut my fingers with scissors and bled everywhere, even on the medicine. (However, my brother ended up becoming a doctor.)
As for my career, in high school, I wanted to be an art director. It was my idea of a compromise, because it was creative but apparently commercial enough for my family’s taste. But when I pitched it to my parents, they weren’t impressed because it still had “art” in the title. They wanted him to choose a career where he was financially secure, and their idea of an artist was someone who is successful. after they die. I settled on copywriting, because it was the closest I could get to something creative while convincing my parents that I had a real job.
I got my first copywriting job in Toronto when I was 20, working on TV and radio scripts as well as billboards. I really wanted to get all my creativity out there, but I quickly realized that there were at least 30 people reviewing my ideas before anything was approved. During that time, I would doodle during meetings: I would make it look like I was taking notes, but I was actually drawing the person in front of me, or myself with scribbled eyes. Sometimes I posted these drawings on my Instagram, under the username @hatecopy, which I chose because I didn’t want my co-workers to find me. My office was right next to George Brown College so I would work until 7 pm and then take an illustration class until 9 pm I saved up money to buy a Surface Pro tablet so I could draw on screen and instantly load my illustrations into Photoshop . After that, I found myself drawing at work all the time, or watching YouTube videos of cute dogs, until I got fired in 2015.
He had enough money saved to float for three months. I used my free time to draw and post my illustrations on Instagram. At first, I just doodled women, but over time I developed a comic-like style where the protagonists were always South Asian women like me. The first comic I drew that really resonated with my friends and family was of a woman in the style of a Roy Lichtenstein painting, who said, “I burned my rotis.” My friend texted me saying, “Dude, this is hilarious.” But after a few days of waking up at 3:00 pm, I realized that I really needed to get a “real” job. I started browsing LinkedIn for hours every day, applying for positions that didn’t even make sense to my background, like the head of a fashion company in Germany. I was racing against the clock until the money ran out.
Rather than find a full-time job, I began accepting writing contracts with agencies while continuing to draw. My followers on Instagram grew and I began to attract international attention for my work: I was profiled by the BBC Y indian fashion. In March 2016, I appeared on the cover of ELLE Canada magazine for my art with Wondagurl and Lilly Singh. My employer said to me, “Are you on the cover of a magazine? What are you doing here? Go get that.
At that moment, I realized that I could use my skills to build my own brand. I started posting my artwork regularly on Instagram and took advantage of every opportunity, like showing my work in coffee shops, that came my way. Many people approached me asking if they could buy copies of my work. I was still drawing in a sketchbook, so I decided to turn my sketches into paintings, take a photo of them, take the photos to a print shop, and make posters for everyone who wanted one. There was so much demand that I made a website on Squarespace and started charging around $35 to $40 per banner. I sold a lot at the beginning, which I didn’t expect.
I went to zine fairs and art markets with a stack of posters to sell. Then I got an offer to curate an exhibition at Soho House in Toronto. The fact that people were interested in my work really gave me self-confidence to continue doing art as a job. All my life I was told that art was not a valid career path, so it was very difficult for me to gain the confidence that I could succeed in this.
In 2016, I received an email from someone who worked on the TV series, the mindy project, asking for some of my prints to hang in Mindy’s apartment on the show. At first I thought it was spam, but I googled the person’s name, found their LinkedIn, and it turned out to be legit. When I replied to the email, the person had already placed an order on my site. I ended up sending them a bunch of free stuff anyway.
After a few years of finding success as an independent artist, I was approached by a talent management agency after an interview I had done with CBC on The National. Getting representation allowed me to focus on making art while someone else took care of business and e-commerce, allowing me to make art a sustainable career.
Earlier this year, my solo show, Dhamakedar, superstar! opened at the Toronto Museum of Contemporary Art, or MOCA. I painted several images of a woman who is obsessed with a pop star. one of the pictures, In Pyaar with a superstar!, also became a limited edition NFT. I never imagined that I would have my own exhibition at MOCA. I thought it would only end up in a museum after I died. But even though my career is going well and I definitely earn more than as a copywriter, I still have this voice in the back of my mind telling me to get a “real” job.