The Power of Little - Uday Kumar
On a typical day in 2014, a young man was confused about what to gift his friend, he was looking to do something personal but couldn’t afford to spend a lot. That’s when he came across micro artistry, It was inexpensive and very unique and moreover, his gift stood out amongst everyone else’s and that’s when he continued doing more of it. This is the journey of Uday Kumar, The micro artist.
Micro pencil art is a genre of art where a section of the pencil is very carefully sculpted into an object or structure. Uday thought of this as a very unconventional art form and persisted to continue after multiple attempts. He consistently practiced for at least one hour every day and to date follows this rule he made for himself. With his job on the other hand he still took time to pursue this unique art form.
In 2019, When he got an opportunity to travel to showcase his art, his company rejected his leave request and that’s when he took a firm yet risky decision to quit his job and pursue micro-artistry full time. He decided to give himself one year to see where this would take him and now holding a world record and working on other important projects, he is proud and glad of the decisions he made.
When he applied for the world record he’d sent miniature pencil carving of 10 different sculptures which was supposed to be his entry but along with that, to show gratitude he decided to carve their name on a 0.7mm led and sent it over as a gift which in turn surprised the evaluators and decided to give him a world record for the same. This unexpected turn gave him a morale boost in the way he worked and delivered more than what was expected of him.
By pursuing an art form like Micro artistry he inhabited two big qualities in his life, patience and willpower and since this is not a very popular art form, he decided to start taking workshops and spread his learning to others as well!
Opening up about his future plans, he said one of his plans was to exhibit 100 of his sculptures but this came to a pause because of the pandemic.
He started ‘Art Artist’, a platform and a community where fellow artists come together, exhibit their art, host workshops and even learn from each other. Uday also wants to start a magazine for the same community, featuring stories of these artists, their Artforms, exhibition details and so much more, and this magazine is all set to go on floors very soon!
The launch of a co-working art studio is also in process, where he plans on starting an art school. This also comes under the banner of ‘Art Artist’.
He also believes that social media plays a very important role in an artist’s career. From being invited as a speaker on TEDx to be able to reach more audience and interact with them, he believes, it’s a blessing in disguise. He says It helps people connect and grow if used for the right reasons. Social media has a humongous reach, hence being consistent is very essential for one’s growth.
On advising amateur artists he says, showing up and being consistent is the most important and while at it, he also advised artists to never depend on certain stationery or any external factors to create art, external factors should never be a hiccup between the art and the artist.
You can reach out to Uday Kumar on his Instagram handle @udaymicroartist