Published in “Rising Nepal, Friday Supplement”, 18 August 2017
-Sampurna Lata Tuladhar
Sumana Bajracharya has been drawing something all the time from her very early age. As she grew older, her enthusiasm for drawing also grew.
She wanted to do something different in drawing among her friend and family circle. She loves to spend her time in exploring and learning from other drawing artists.
During her exploration in youtube one day, she paused when she saw 3D (3-Dimensional) art. The art which has dimension of depth, width as well as height is called 3D art. She was only 11 year old when she started copying 3D arts from the youtube into her drawing book.
The first ever 3D art she drew was in October 2016 and she was impressed with the copied drawing. It was a 3D art of a pillar. She tried to draw 3D pictures of flying objects a few days later and was successful. Among her art pieces, she loves the 3D drawing of a simple concrete pagoda the most.
She started to post her arts on her facebook page and her classmates teased her for posting others’ arts using her own name. She took it as a praise as her friends didn’t believe them as her art, that means, they were beautifully drawn. She gifted her 3D art as a birthday gift to her friend and they were surprised with Sumana’s skill. She received many encouraging comments on her facebook. Her friends suggested her to make a 3D art on street.
She waited for the right occasion and on New Year’s Day of Nepal Sambat 1137 (31 st October 2016), she finally performed her 3D art at “Dash Awataar Dabali” at Basantapur, Kathmandu. Sumana used to draw with pencil but she had to go for other materials to draw on the street. She and her father, Nirmal Bajracharya, chose white flour, ash and salt powder for street 3D presentation. Sumana who was only 12 years old, started converting her 4”x4” 3D art from her paper to 4’x4’ area art on the street. Very excited and happy, she started her work from early morning on New Year day. Passersby started taking pictures of herwork and were surprised with the unique art when they saw the depth and height from different angles. Many national and international viewers had the picture of this art in their mobile as a memory. She was praised through ‘online news’ (visionsansar.com) and received encouragements for her art.
Ms. Pratigya Deo, Sumana’s class teacher at Grade 6, says, “Sumana has been the best student in my whole class. She is not only best in art work but also best in her study with A+ grade and is very well behaved child.” She adds,” We have seen her 3D art works which are so beautiful that we have pasted them on our notice board. I’m very sure of her bright future in this field if she continues her practice.”
Sumana has secured 3rd place for her art at her school’s extra curriculum activities. It is unbelievable that she has learnt this much through online on her own without any proper instructor.
She has planned to do more outdoor 3D art work in and outside the Kathmandu Valley but due to earthquake, the ongoing works to lay the pipes of the Melamchi and road expansion projects, she could not find a proper place for her exhibition.
Besides 3D, her 2D drawings are published in many newspapers as well. This 13-year-old girl is now a student of Grade 7 at Little Angels School. She is praised and suggested for further improvement by her school art teacher Mr. Roshan Pradhan. Her mother Sangita Bajracharya, sister Nasana Bajracharya and father Nirmal Bajracharya have always been her inspiration and supporters. She is planning to do more outdoor presentation using mono and multicolor materials.
Sumana’s aim is to be a very good artist and represent Nepal through her art at the international level. She says, “I want to join an art class for 3D and learn more and more.” For now, her only resort is the internet, youtube in particular.