A Doctor's Inspiring Journey In Arts

By Anita Murugan KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 26 (Bernama) -- "When you enjoy what you do, nothing could ever stop you from getting your work done. You feel satisfied and happy when the outcome is fruitful enough". These are the inspiring words from Dr Bharathi Supramaniam or fondly known as Dr B among her friends, a doctor by profession yet highly adroit in arts. This 33 year old doctor who can speak up to five languages including Russian and Hindi is passionate about quill art and handicraft. Besides quilling, Dr B makes a number of handmade arts such as travel wallets, passport covers, photo books, hairclips and earrings. PASSION IN ARTS Sharing her interest with Bernama, Dr B explained her interest in arts initially started as a hobby when she was a young girl. However, she gave less importance to arts at first because she was born into a family of doctors. “I loved arts all the while but as I grew up, I had fire in my belly to become a doctor and that made me to choose medical studies. Even when I was at Moscow to pursue my medical studies, I used to perform well mainly in anatomy subjects because it is linked to drawings. “I started paper quilling and making handicrafts as a hobby three years ago after the birth of my son and when I started to create different artworks. “I like to create new things that I’ve never seen before. I love to redefine arts, that’s why I came up with new ideas in arts. When people showed keen interest in my artwork, I decided to sell them,” said Dr B who has taken a break from the medical line to take care of her child and pursue her interest in arts. THE JOURNEY OF QUILLING Quilling is an art that involves the use of coloured strips of paper that are rolled, shaped, and glued together to create decorative designs. “I discovered the quilling art in Internet and decided to learn it somehow, so I started to search for the tutorial videos in Youtube and I started doing my own quilling art. This is how I learnt the quilling art, I never went for any particular classes for quilling,” Dr B explained. “There are many doing quilling in Malaysia but I wanted to be unique and do something different. Rather than just making ordinary shapes in quill arts, I wanted to do something unique. Dr B’s interest took her to another level where she decided to do Tamil letters and words, and the depiction of Hindu gods like Lord Ganesha and Lord Shiva using the quilling technique. “I can see a huge difference in my quilling works compared with three years ago and it has improved very much. I always tell myself to keep improving my work and this is why many people like my artwork. As the colour combination is very important in producing a good piece of quill art, Dr B spend almost seven months to study herself about the colour coordination. Dr B added that she challenged herself to quil one alphabet every day and within 26 days she managed to do 26 alphabets. Each letter took about eight hours to complete. Today Dr B’s quill art are not only sought by Malaysians, but also by people as far as United Kingdom, Italy and Mauritius. Her quill art can be viewed at her Facebook page; Handmade By B. MALAYSIA’S RESPONSE TO ARTS AND FUTURE PLANS For Dr B, arts is someting very relaxing and interesting pastime. However, she laments that many Malaysians neither know nor appreciate arts. “There are quite a number Malaysians interested in my work but I personally think that their perception towards arts is limited. They seem to know less about arts and every time I have to explain clearly about the quilling art and other handicrafts. When asked if she has plans to open up an art shop or gallery in the future, Dr B said she did not harbour such idea as she felt that not many Malaysians appreciated arts. “Although I have been paid for my artworks, but to me, what is more gratifying is the opportunity to share my art with others,” she said. GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY After three years of working with arts and handicraft, Dr B admits she is now better known for her artwork than a doctor. Her works has taken her to a different level in life and now she is also teaching those keen to learn quill arts and handicraft. “Ever since I mastered the art, I have been teaching the underprivileged kids and school students to give back to the community,” she said. “Before, I did a charity workshop for SJK (T) Jalan Meru students who had finished UPSR and about 86 of them participated. I conducted this workshop without any payments because I always wanted to teach children. “I have never formally learned art, it was my deep interest in it that pushed me to hone whatever talent I had. So I will like to use this talent to contribute to the society,” she added. She hopes to do many other workshops for children as well as for the others to help them appreciate the arts she has learnt. "I would also like to develop young talent and guide them so that more young people in Malaysia would be encouraged to explore and learn arts," she said. -- BERNAMA