During the day, India-born Mohan Sundaresan works around La Jolla, restoring and refinishing the interior of many fine houses. But when he comes home, after a short break, he goes out to his studio, located at 523 Genter St., and takes the same industrial building materials, like aluminum sheets, particle board, plexiglass, wood and paper, and transforms them with his true passion — art — until the wee hours of the night. One of Mohan’s specialties is grinding and polishing aluminum sheets by hand or with a Dremel rotary drill, creating swirling three-dimensional patterns and illusions, which are further touched up with automobile paint, a technique he learned from a five-year apprenticeship with Andreas Nottebohn in Marin County. Mohan also likes to paint abstract florals and geometric patterns on particle board, wood and poster board (which he wets and wrinkles), with acrylics. Mohan forgoes brushes, preferring to paint with his hands and fingers. “I paint like a pig playing in a pool of mud,” he said. “In India, we eat with our fingers. We basically do everything with our hands. So why not paint? It gives me more of a tactile connection with my medium.” Mohan draws the inspiration for his art from several sources, including his dachshund “Dizzie,” who he walks daily at the Cove. “Dizzie is my philosopher,” said Mohan. “He believes he is part of everything and everything is a part of him. Dizzie inspires me to realize my oneness. My father’s words are also important to me. He taught me that at some point you have to teach yourself. You have to grow and evolve on your own.” Music is also important to Mohan He listens to a number of artists whiles he paints: Beethoven, Rossini, Miles Davis, Neil Diamond, Paul Anka and Willie Nelson, to name a few. He said he is inspired by painters William Turner and Zao Wo-Ki. Mohan calls his artwork “invitation to openness.” His goal is to help people see beyond the norm, to see things from new and different vantage points, to see the patterns in nature, and to see how everything is interwoven. Mohan said his art work began as a hobby, then became a habit and a passion, and is today an obsession. “I can’t go a day without painting,” he said. “It is such a release. I used to travel all over the world, but now I travel when I paint.” Mohan was born in 1945 in Bangalore, India, which he calls “yhe pensioners paradise” because so many of the British civil servants and military who wanted to remain in India bought homes and retired here. Mohan was raised in a large colonial estate surrounded by mango trees. His parents, though from the Hindu Brahmin class, converted to Christianity by way of the Danish Mission. Mohan’s father was an aeronautical engineer who earned his degree as a young man at Tri State College in Indiana. When Mohan was 20 years old, his father insisted that he go to England to work. After five years doing various jobs in London, his cousin invited him to Vienna, Austria, and taught him the fashion design business, in which he worked for 28 years. It was in the United States where Mohan met his American wife, Anna, and in the late 1990s they moved to La Jolla. Steve Medoff is Mohan’s’ best friend and also his agent. Medoff befriended Mohan during a restoration of Medoff’s building on Prospect Street. Medoff, who is a semi-retired corporate broker, an art collector and an avid big-game fisherman, became fascinated by Mohan’s artwork and decided he wanted to help promote him. “I think Mohan is a fantastic artist and is La Jolla’s best-kept secret. I want to help people get to know him and his work. He is an important cultural treasure for our area.”