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Balaji will be 30 soon. He is full of youthful dreams and his accomplishments are in quite less trodden - or even untrodden for that matter - path. Hailing from Dindigul and employed in TVS, Balaji is an artist and sculptor of another kind. He uses clay, feathers, waste cloth, cotton, chalk pieces (pieces of chalk pieces, to put it correctly!) short pencils, small branches of plants and all such odd items as his raw material to produce his work of art.
Balaji doesn’t have - he doesn’t use - any sophisticated tool or equipment for his artwork. Just old shaving blades and paper pins. That’s all. His nimble fingers create pieces of intricate carvings on such odd materials that would otherwise find their way to the dustbin. It was during his school days that Balaji accidentally found his talent for chalk carvings. He picked up piece of chalk thrown down by his teacher and worked on it aimlessly. His attempt resulted in something resembling Vinayaka and the idea suddenly caught on. Balaji tried once again. And another time. And a third time too. Perfection came to him as naturally as breathing. He soon tried his hands with whatever other odd thing he could lay his hands on and has been successful in turning every single one of them into a piece of fine craftsmanship. Balaji is euphoric in recalling his successes and also the wide acclaim that he has received.
The Rotary Club gave him the Best Artist award for the year 1999 and Chennai Kalai Panpaattu Maiyam recognised his talent with an award in year 2000. Balaji happily recalls the praise that was showered on him by the general public when
Balaji has not shown much interest in selling his creations. He has been doing this only for his own friends and relatives, on request. He plans to sell them, shortly.
‘My entry into this field was by sheer accident. I did not plan it. And I learnt and perfected the art all by myself. I did not have any teacher or role model. I consider this a gift from nature, and I have by constant practice and self-training, reached my present level of attainment,’ says Balaji ‘I do not have any guideline or scale for my sculptures. I just try to give form to the images of places, people and structures that remain deep in my heart. I look for more and more challenging of them to bring them out through my medium.’ Balaji is not a man of many words. His fingers speak for him. Art is his language and chalk and other ‘throwaways’ are his words. He doesn’t express himself in the language of other humans, much. Text in English by Hari Krishnan
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Copyright
2008, Chennai Interactive
Business Services (P) Ltd. |
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The urge to give expression to oneself in some form or other is something that catches on like fire and the person soon gets obsessed with that desire and goes all out - even if he has to spend from his pocket, instead of earning anything out of it - to express his inner urge through one medium or the other. Balaji, known as ‘ji’ among friends belong to that category of people whose minds are set on fire. 
A short piece of chalk transforms into a portion of the Big Temple of Thanjavur. Several others turn into women - standing, walking, reclining, planting, in all conceivable postures. Many have used chalk pieces to depict 2D figurines. But Balaji turns out 3D sculptures out of his chalk. He has sculpted more than 150 of them till now. Balaji sculpts on the tips of pencils too. He drills a hole on an eggshell and creates his paintings on the inside wall of the shell. He even scrapes figures over the shells. Sometimes when these expressions are not sufficient, his inner self drives him to shadow plays. 
he conducted exhibitions in Dindigul, Madurai and Mylapore and also in his own company, TVS. The print medium has published a number of articles on his talent. The spotlight fell on him from TV channels such as Vijay, Raj, and Sun and weeklies like Kumudam and Ananda Vikatan too. He will soon be the guest in Yugi Sethu’s ‘Naiyandi Durbar.’ 
These would make ideal gift items, novel, pleasing, arresting and comparatively inexpensive too.
