BHARATI PAWASKAR
A recipient of State Art Award nine times, versatile Kalidas Satardekar enjoys the profession of teaching art to young students. If touched by art, children can do wonders as they grow in life. But art cannot be taught, feels Kalidas. “It’s an inborn quality. We, as teachers, only have to develop the skills inherent in children through different techniques,” he says. If a theme to draw is assigned to the 30 students in his class, 30 different ideas emerge. “It’s like having nose, eyes, ears are the same, but still we are not identical; each one of us looks different. Having the same tools but creating totally different artworks using them is art - each has special, individual touch.”
Now-a-days parents force their child to learn art, even though he or she may not be inclined towards it and this is what disturbs Kalidas who has won the State Art Award this year for the ninth time and whose artworks in multiple forms have been exhibited at Kala Academy till November 4.
Having mastery in multiple forms of art like painting, calligraphy, sculpture, graphics, designing, photography, films among others, Kalidas was inclined towards art since his childhood. He recalls, “As a child I used to draw well but my teachers didn’t even know that I was good at art, even after my school I continued to draw. Then someone guided me to take admission in Art College, as it is very important to get guidance at the crucial stage so that a right decision is taken on which career to choose.”
Creative and intelligent people can think beyond imagination. As social obligations Kalidas did short films on social causes. His themes were based on ‘wear a helmet’, ‘smoking is injurious to health’, ‘save trees’, ‘reduce the use of plastic’, ‘save the girl child’ etc which had a message for the society.
Kalidas who has mastery over Calligraphy (art of beautiful writing) briefs, “Earlier, this art was used to write only scripts. But now it is considered to be a new form of art. We use calligraphy to create beautiful pieces of art. I have conducted workshops in calligraphy for students and teachers, both Roman as well as Devnagari. I love to create art forms using freehand brush and pen strokes. It is said that you can read a person through his handwriting.”
The left side of the brain is responsible for controlling the right side of the body. It also performs tasks that have to do with logic, such as in science and mathematics. On the other hand, the right hemisphere coordinates the left side of the body, and performs tasks that have do with creativity and the arts. Kalidas is one of those lucky ones who have mastery over both the hemispheres of brain. Besides nine state art awards he has bagged numerous awards in photography, logo designing, short film making, landscapes and calligraphy. He keeps participating in various group shows at national and state level. Two of his recent shows were ‘Implicit Expression’ water colour painting exhibition and ‘Water n Colours’.
