Chalkaudene wali baat!

To most of us chalk is just a 4-5 inch piece of dust to scribble on black or green boards. But it is more than just that to a person with artistic approach. You must have come across art pieces carved in clay and Plaster of Paris. This young chap carves masterpieces out of fragile chalks. Anurag Reddy is a micro artist, carving out figurines out of chalks. Anurag is a Hyderabadi and resides at Kukatpally. Having recently graduated from Loyola Academy, the young lad is trying to make himself a career as a micro artist.

Anurag started carving chalks from his school days. Starting from class seven, Anurag was shaping chalks and eventually exhibited them in school fairs.

“I was interested in the arts right from childhood. I used to make sketches and caricatures. In class 10, I exhibited my works at a Mandal level fair, in which 50 schools had participated. My work was appreciated and I received a memento,” revealed Anurag.

After that, however, his art wasn’t recognised or appreciated. Disappointed, Anurag stopped carving. But the artist in him hadn’t died yet and the encouragement from his friends and parents kept the artist in him alive.

The social media played a key role in his success by exposing his art to new audiences.

“While in the second year at college, my parents, lecturers and friends encouraged me to start sculpting chalks again. The first micro art that I did after many years was carving out the name of my college on chalk. I started posting pictures of subsequent works on Facebook and it gave me art a platform. People started recognising my art. From then on I was encouraged and appreciated by a lot of people in and outside my college,” he says.

Speaking about his inspiration, he says, “While pursuing degree, I started reading a lot of books. I always had a book in my bag. The one book which changed my perspective on life was Robin Sharma’s ‘Who Will Cry When You Die’. The author is my inspiration; he is someone I owe a lot to.”

On being asked what he aspires to become, he says, “I am not interested in becoming like a particular artist, but yes, I want to rise high and make a name for myself in the art world.”

“These days chalk art is hardly seen. The problem is that though people are interested, there aren’t enough platforms to cater to their needs and provide recognition, especially in India. This isn’t the case with micro artists only; it is the problem for artists on a whole,” Anurag explains.

Anurag now takes orders from people and gets paid from Rs 500 to Rs 3,000 for each piece of his. While some pieces take 2-3 hours to be shaped, others take days. It is commendable how Anurag carves out pieces out of fragile chalk pieces. He is elated that a piece of chalk is earning him thousands. To make sure that the pieces he carved do not break, he encloses them in glass boxes. Till date, Anurag has carved more than 50 art pieces out of chalks.