Asim moved around the streets of Islamabad and Karachi producing political murals. He had so much left to do.
I will never forget the first time I met Asim in person. Myself and Zein Basravi, Al Jazeera's producer in Pakistan, had been working long days in Karachi chasing down a story on Taliban financing.
Around 1am we arrived at Asim's house, in desperate need of some non-Taliban company.
He struck me as a skinny youth, living a little bit like the character Estelle from the Dickens novel Great Expectations.
This young man staying at his grandmothers house. His work littered the place, and he sat with his friends smoking and sharing good times.
He welcomed us with open arms.
Fiercely creative
I remember thinking that Asim had a wicked smile, and a fiercely creative mind, buzzing with ideas.
He loved to share them and at the end of the evening he promised to take me on a tour of Karachi's galleries.
The next morning he was true to his word and off we went in search of the true art of Pakistan.
Like all great art it was tucked away in unexpected places. Asim was the perfect guide.
At each stop he would be running through the gallery, pointing out his favourite works and encouraging Zein and myself to support Pakistani art by buying some.
In the end he was so infectious, I did.
Stuckist art movement
Asim's own work was something special. He was part of the Stuckist art movement, a loose collective of artists who had turned their backs on abstract art in favour of "real" painting.
Asim was a master at the art form.
One of his works will always stay with me. On a grey morning whilst walking along the beach on Karachi's seafront, he came across the carcass of a decomposing dog.
Asim was gripped by it. In the end he did a series of paintings, each one more haunting than the next. The dog paintings represent a window into this young man's vision of the world.
Asim had an eye for detail, details that often came out in his work.
On subsequent visits to his studio, I saw how he worked. It was chaos, but within that chaos he created powerful works.
Boredom of youth
One picture, of a petrol attendant, is at once threatening and sad. Another of boy sitting on sofa brings to mind steamy Pakistani nights and boredom of youth.
Asim caught everything in his painting, however ugly, but he kept within it a sense of hope and love. He was a perfectionist. Every inch of any one of his paintings is hard fought over.
He would often keep painting and painting until even his buyers were wondering when he would finish a work.
His style, and I am no art critic, reminded me of Francis Bacon.
He could be brutal in his work, not shying away from controversy.
Graphic novel
Asim's work was voyeuristic and sexual in some of its nature. At one gallery, over coffee, he proudly showed me a nude he had created.
A male full frontal. it was captured in frames and looked like an excerpt from a graphic novel.
Afterwards we talked of art and graphic novels. I asked him if he had read A Waltz with Bashir, the story of a an Israeli soldier coming to terms with the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
He'd heard of it, and had seen the film. He was very keen to read the novel. I picked up a copy for him on recent visit to London. It's a book I won't be able to give him now.
Great stealth
But Asim was out to do more than just shock; he wanted to use his art to inform. To that end, by night Asim turned into artist of great stealth, careering around the streets of Islamabad and Karachi painting political murals.
One in Islamabad was painted across a water tanker and simply stated Humanity First. Other works can still be seen around Karachi.
Asim and I stayed in contact over the phone and via Facebook over the last 12 months.
He always had such positive things too say and so much work left to do.
We talked of personal things as well as art.
Artistic vision
In one post I remember encouraging him to become more like Asim Butt, to follow his artistic vision wherever it led.
He laughed and asked me: "Who else would I be?"
I only met Asim a handful of times. but he struck me as true visionary, and during these tough times in Pakistan we are certainly lacking those.
Asim, I salute you and hope you rest in peace. Check out his Facebook page.
