Best Outstanding National Award Winner

G.Prabhakar born handicapped (a deaf mute) is a native of Mangalore. He is a creative and talented artist. He is the recipient of National Award for Best Outstanding Disabled Employee in 2006, the State Award for Best Employee by Tamil Nadu State Government in 2004 and the Vocational Excellence Award from the Rotary Club of Chennai Gemini. G.Prabhakar had graduated from Government School of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1961. He secured a First Class Diploma in both Applied Arts and Paintings and received a Gold Medal for the Best Outstanding student in the year 1958. He also is a graduate from Brooklyn Museum Art School, New York and has to his credit a Diploma from Moscow, USSR. He had attended the Art Club in New York Society for the Deaf under Dr.Rawley Silver in 1967.

Artist G.Prabhakar had conducted one man shows in Madras in 1963, New York in 1977, Hotel Chola Sherton in 1992 and six times at LKA Greams Road in 1983, 1994, 1999, 2000 2004 and in 2009. He had participated in the International Poster Competition for Peace and Humanity against Nuclear War in the year 1985 and in the Mahatma Gandhi Birthday Centenary Exhibition in the years 1988, 1990, 2003, 2004 and 2005. He also took part in the Hindustan Annual Cartoon Contest and secured the Second, Third and Consolation prizes in 1988, 1989, 1993, 1996, 1997 and in 1999.

G.Prabhakar has many awards to his credit. He was awarded first prize in Calligraphy contest in Bible Verse Indian Christian Art Association in the year 1988 and he secured second prize in a Poster Competition on Central Pollution Control in July 1991.

G.Prabhakar was awarded Special prize for the outstanding artist by Very Special Indian Art, New Delhi in 1995, 1997 and 1998. He was also awarded first prize in an International Poster Contest in the year 1997 and a certificate if Merit at the All India Poster Competition on AIDS Prevention in the year 1994. G.Prabhakar is the recipient of All India Iokmanya Tilak Art Exhibition held at Pune in the year 2005. He worked as a Professional Illustrator at M/s RK Swamy/ BBDO Advertising Ltd in Chennai from 1979 till 1999 and retired. G.Prabhakar told Chennai Plus that he works as a self employed co-ordinator for Visual Arts of the Deaf for cultures, art exhibitions and cultures fro the hearing impaired persona of all ages. G.Prabhakar resides at No-21/ 12, Dr. Nair Road, T.Nagar, Chennai-17. He can be contacted on 9840216942.

Spotlight on experimental design and tribal art

Creative range: Some of the works of differently-abled children on display at the WLC College in Chennai on Sunday.

CHENNAI: Vibrant collages, elegant pencil sketches and experimental dress designs produced by students of the St. Louis School for the Deaf, Adyar, and Clarke’s School for the Specially Abled Children, Mylapore, were on display at the WLC College in Alwarpet in Chennai on Sunday.

Collection

The exhibition marks a milestone indeed in the journey of two students towards putting together a meaningful design collection.

Titled ‘Thandavam’, Radhika Ganesh and Shwetha Raju, students of fashion designing, hope to bring out this set of apparel and accessories that would be inspired by all things Tamil in May.

They also would like to raise awareness of the abilities of the hearing and speech impaired by conducting workshops on design for special children, to help them benefit from their own knowledge.

Elements

On Saturday and Sunday, students from the two institutions played around with the elements of design, tribal art motifs and experimental designs.

Ms. Ganesh is eloquent with praise, “These children are very visually oriented and have a flair for art.”

The workshops would also give students a glimpse of a possible career option from Classes IX and above, Ms. Raju added.

At the college on Sunday evening, students with and without hearing aids were being instructed with signs from their teacher.

Paint-smudged fingers and excited faces hovered over brightly-coloured paintings.

“Since they cannot hear or talk, they are less likely to be distracted,” a student said, while two children behind her carried out an animated conversation in sign language.

The project has been sponsored by the college and space provided to conduct the event, on the premises.

“Creativity requires independence and we are glad to encourage it,” P. Kesavdass, WLC Centre Head, said.

A similar workshop was held previously for students of the St. Louis College for Deaf, Adyar.

Different Strokes

A couple of deft, firm strokes curve the prim line into generous, laughing lips. Two small specks of white paint were all that were needed to transform the black, lifeless orbs into a pair of twinkling, mischievous eyes. The whole illustration took just inside of five minutes. A loud whistle of appreciation escapes your lips. Yet, on looking up, you find that nothing, nothing at all, has registered in the anxious face which is watching you intently. It's only when you nod your head, gesture with your eyes and form a circle with your thumb and index finger that the mouth stretches into a slow, shy smile.

Sitting in a typically tiny middle class house in the suburbs of Madras, in front of a cluttered, well scrubbed table which must be put to a million other uses by the family when not serving as a perfectly functional drawing board, with a chipped porcelain tile as his palette, he looks like any other struggling young artist. Sita Ramachariyalu, who signs himself as Sita Ram. It's his hands of course that you notice first. Long, slender and tapering which, as the cliche goes, are archetypal artist's hands. They perform, besides, yet another important function: they speak. As must his eyes — penetrating and luminous and not suprisingly the most striking feature in the thin face capped by a shock of curls. Sita Ram, you see, is both deaf and dumb. From birth. Perhaps you are already familiar with his paintings without really being aware of it. You must have, at some time or the other, flipped through a copy of Chandamama, India's oldest children's magazine. Juggle your memory a bit do you remember being amused at the spectacle of Akbar losing his regal composure and breaking into a hearty, plebeian laugh at the antics of the wily Birbal. Or may be it was one of those quaint short stories featuring animals which held your attention —the supercilious donkey, its nose (oh yes!) in the air, haughtily walking past the other animals. All these pictures have one thing in common — they bear the stamp of Sita Ram's excellence.

What makes Sita Ram so special? After all, there must be hundreds of other deaf and dumb artists who are as exceptionally gifted. Art, to Sita Ram, is not.merely a vehicle to convey his inner emotions, a platform to make a statement. It is a job like any other. Coming from an ordinary middle-class back ground, he has to work for a living. And as a magazine illustrator, he has to capture pictorially, as it were, the essence of the story.How does he do it? He takes home the manuscript along with the instructions of what he has to paint. Either his mother or his father reads the story and explains what exactly he is required to draw. The next day in the office, working on the guidelines provided by his parents, he completes his sketches.

There is a striking quality about all his works. The technique is bold and firm, and the lines are fluid and graceful. What really distinguishes him from other painters of his genre is his complete mastery over the brush. Even for the thinnest of outlines he never uses a pen. Only the brush, using it much like a sorcerer would a wand, conjuring pure magic. Says an artist with over twenty-five years experience, "Even after all these years, I cannot wield the brush so deftly. I've never seen him use a pen, even to define his outlines." Perceptive and alert to the inconspicuous mannerisms which so distinguish a person, he has the gift of unerringly catching the right expression to complement the mood of the story. Says a regular reader of Chandamama of yet another facet of his genius, "I adore his pictures of animals. Flawlessly proportionate even when they are cartoonish, and ...oh...so — cute!" Perfectly true. His pictures are just as they ought to be for children's books. Anthropomorphic, attributing humanised feelings to animals — a stupidly grinning donkey baring all its teeth, a disdainful pony, a cowering, cowardly puppy, a happy-go-lucky cuddly bear.Yet it cannot be all that easy. There are times when the illustration is not perfect. It requires period costumes or another nationality. Says a colleague, "He makes clucking noises, as if annoyed with himself and smites his fist on his forehead." Of course he doesn't take much time to rectify his mistakes.

For all his precocity and prodigious talent, he is curiously uninformed. Even about the contemporary art scene. He has never heard of any art movement, and 'isms' to him are but fancy incomprehensible words. In fact, he has studied only upto Std.V. It is amazing that without any formal education or training he has developed his own techniques.

Born in thetown of Rajamundry in Andhra Pradesh, nearly twenty-five years ago, Sita Ram is the youngest of four children. While his elder brother is perfectly normal, Sita Ram and his two sisters were born deaf and dumb. Since the town didn't have an institution for the deaf and dumb, all three of them were forced to attend a normal school. It was, however, impossible to study beyond Std. V. It was providential that Sita Ram's grandfather took him under his wing. Named after him, it was perhaps decreed that he would inherit his talent and follow his footsteps. A diploma holder from the JJ School of Arts, Bombay, Sita Ramachariyalu Sr. returned to his native town to take over as the principal of the Damerla Rama Rao Memorial Arts School and Gallery, Rajamundry. Recognising the innate talent in his grandson as early as he was only three, he began training him. Teaching him all that one could tell a mere child about lines, light, shade and colour. Unfortunately even this education was cut short by the untimely death of his grandfather. Before he entered his teens and before his grandfather could impart the wisdom of his vast experience and explain the legacy of the great painters. Under the tutelage of his grandfather's students, he acquired a diploma of sorts.

For a few years he did whatever odd job that came his way — painting educational aids and charts for the classroom walls. A cousin on a visit form Madras, astounded by his talent and appalled that he was wasting it illustrating records for lazy university students, decided to take him in hand. Sita Ram found himself in Madras and in the offices of Chandamama.

Many doors opened, yes, but only to be shut quickly even before he put a foot inside. For a gauche, diffident boy from a hick town, one who was deaf and dumb as well, the teeming metropolis was bewildering. And for the first time in his life he was painfully aware of the consequences of his lack of education. On joining the association of the deaf and dumb, he realised that most of his counterparts were school finalists and that some could even talk! (contrary to popular belief the deaf are not really dumb. It's only because they cannot hear and therefore do not know what sound really is, they do not exercise their vocal chords. Through training they can talk). His father regrets didn't have that he the foresight to shift to a bigger city when they were young. After coming to Madras, they explored all avenues, but Sita Ram and his sisters were found too old to attend school. The training, a long difficult process, begins as early as in the second year of a child.

Today, determined as he is to acquire some kind of education, a teacher comes to teach him English. Though the teacher himself is satisfied with the steady progress he is making, Sita Ram is impatient and dissatisfied. To him his best is not simply good enough. He sees himself as a burden to his parents who must accompany him wherever he goes, if only to act the interpreter. And even for the simplest of jobs he requires guidance from his parents. He shakes his head mournfully as if to say, "Tell me, which twenty-five-year old has a father carrying his portfolio around and playing the nursemaid." Says his father woefully," His lack of education has even stunted his artistic potential. It's his immaturity which prevents him from being a greater painter. He has had no exposure to the artistic world. His imagination has suffered." It's only now after visiting a few book shops in the city that Ram has seen good art books.But they are so prohibitively expensive that he can do nothing more than glance through them and place them back on the shelves.

Shy and introverted, he keeps to himself. Both at home and at work. Perhaps he is afraid of being teased, such experiences being not too uncommon. Says his mother, "He is obsessed with his future. And convinced that he is a burden to us. The whole day he either paints or studies English."

It is only in the company of his deaf and dumb friends that you see a different Sita Ram. Happy, cheerful and totally at ease with himself. Where he is really himself. An avid cricketer, he is a handy bowler in his team. A movie buff, he is an ardent fan of the Bachchan. Among the stars of the Southern ti nsel-vil le, there is, he believes, none to touch Rajnikanth for action-packed masalas. But for emotional dramas he would go for Kamal Haasan any day. And not suprisingly, he revels in cartoons, above all. Marvelling at the exquisite animations of Walt Disney and others and learning something new from them each time.

The sea which is just a stone's throw from his house often beckons him. And, no, it's not the immense artistic possibilities of the foamy waves striking the sandy shores which draw him like a magnet. The vast expanse of the inky, fathomless ocean sets the mood for contemplation. Standing at the edge of the sea, with the waves lapping at his feet, he dreams of the day he will become truly independent, the day he will carry his portfolio, without his father having to play the nursemaid. That and become as good a painter as his grandfather.

Disabled find a platform

There are a few artists who literally cannot speak or hear, but their art work can do.

The hearing and speech impaired persons has displayed their works of art at an exhibition Mr. V. Seetharamacharyulu with his sister Mrs. Rama Mani batik work exhibited at the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Madras Association of the Deaf held at Little Flower Convent Higher Secondary School for the hearing impaired. V.Seetharamacharyulu is born with hearing and speech impaired. Enthusiam and motivation inculcated by his grandfather, he started painting. So, he continues to freelance for the famous children's magazines Chandamama, Dinamalar etc. He takes the painting works at his own world. His medium of expression is the art work. He waits for art work from the media/magazines thereby making self reliant. His contact address V.Seetharamacharyulu, L452, TNHB, 4th Main Road, Thiruvalluvar Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Pin: 600041. Phone: +91-(0)44-24451102.

Art for art's

The disabled find a platform to express themselves

S Rama Mani with her brother V Seetaramachanjulu with their Batik work exhibited at the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Madras Association of the Deaf held at Little Flower Convent Higher Secondary School for the Hearing Impaired in the city on Sunday

ART can speak, so can relationships. There are a few artists who literally cannot speak or hear, but art hasunited them. The hearing and speech impaired persons had displayed their works of art at an exhibition organised by the Madras Association of The Deaf in Chennai on Sunday.

They are not just artists, but entrepreneurs promoting their products along with their friends or siblings. For instance, Sekar, Raju and Sreenivasan who have been friends for more than 25 years now. All of them are hearing and speech impaired, but what has forged their friendship is their interest for Batik painting. They had met at a Batik class organised years ago for the disabled.

Sekar said (in sign language),"One thing was common. All of us wanted to do something and Batik brought us on the same platform." Though, all of them found different jobs, they continued their work in Batik prints.

Initially, there were problems to get started. According to Sekar, it was necessary to market the products and coinmunication was vital. Business started off with few thousands as investment in a small room.

"Hard work is important and that brought us customers. We were expressive in bur own way," said Sekar.

It was no different for the sisters-brother trio who were selling their paintings and dolls. S Rama Mani, Ranganayaki and their brother Seetaramachanjulu, were born hearing-andspeech impaired. Inspired by their grandfather, Ranganayaki and Seetaramachanjulu started painting, while Rama Mani made dolls.

Seetaramachanjulu was initially an illustrator for a famous children's magazine till he found a government job. "Even now I continue to freelance for the magazine. All of us want to work together. This is our own world and we have no regrets about our disability," he expressed.

There were also some individuals who were trying to be different even in their old age. Joseph John (72) is retired and wants to paint and exhibit his work. Like him, Prabhakar (65) said the world of painting was silent yet expressive like them.

Though different in many ways, all they wanted was a medium to express themselves and they discovered art.