At his fingertips

Arvind Sule uses his fingernails to carve unique works of art, says Anita Iyer

Sule makes portraits, designs, themes, memory drawings and cartoons by moving his pointed thumbnail on a piece of paper. This movement gives birth to beautiful designs. “I remember when I went to Kolkatta, I was amused seeing a man-pulled rickshaw with hefty people sitting on it. I carved that on a piece of paper as a remembrance. I love to portray what I see around - people playing garba, for instance. Also, nature inspires me to draw birds and animals like the tiger.”

Involved in this art form for around 50 years now, Arvind Sule has a collection of about 200 pictures till date. Recollecting the first time he experimented with this art, he states, “Decades back, while travelling to college, I saw a man in the bus carving designs on the ticket. Out of curiosity, I asked him about this art and he showed me the method. I just saw him do it once on the ticket and learnt it after practising many times”.

The art requires a great deal of dedication and patience. Arvind says: “Learning any form of art requires dedication and even carving on paper was difficult. I tried to engrave on newspapers initially and sometimes the paper would tear or the subject would be distorted”.

The most challenging part of his art form is he carves the subject directly on the paper without drawing any prior outline or sketch with a pencil. More surprising is the fact that he never had any formal training in painting or for that reason any form of art, yet the accuracy is maintained.

Arvind explains: “I am more interested in making portraits as it is more challenging owning to the fact that expressions are of paramount importance in such pieces and eyes, lips are to be engraved beautifully”. He has made portraits of Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, P.L. Deshpande, Babasaheb Purandare and the famous Common Man cartoon, among others. Arvind Sule also carves thoughts in words and calligraphy and finds it comparatively easy because it involves curves and moves which are already etched in our minds.

The artist had recently displayed his works at Haiku Art Gallery, Thane. At the exhibition he said, “There are many artists who do something unusual and unique and go unnoticed. My message would be to hold exhibitions if you know of any art form, as only then would it create awareness and other people might consider adapting it”.