I call Asha the ‘Dog’s Dog’ painter. His Danger Dogs are realistic and masculine. He always paints on a blue background, sometimes using a baked-on blue metal, other times he paints the background blue.
My fourth trip to Nepal for the Danger Dog Project, I called ahead to let him know I’d be coming by to give him some work. Someone answered and said that he had moved to Saudi Arabia for a 3-year contract. Needless to say, I was hugely disappointed, but went to the studio anyway and ordered 4 signboards. When I went to pick up, I realized that Asha was the business owner and the portraits had been done by Nara!
I quickly ordered a dozen more!
After the earthquake in April, 2015, I went by to order some signs from the always fabulous Asha. Mr. Maharjan, who runs Nara’s studio, told me his 150-year-old home had been flattened by the quake. They did manage to get his elderly mother out before it went down, but now his family is living in tents. One of my customers generously offered to donate $150 US to him, which surely helped. The Danger Dog customers are the best. I will look forward to ordering many signs from Nara’s studio on all of my subsequent trips to Nepal.
Asha Studio is hard to find. Asha studio is in the Jyatha District near Thamel. I found him on my first trip. I sent a local who had lived in Kathmandu almost 30 years to find him — with good directions and pictures of his street — and she couldn’t.
